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Where Was Anti-"Looney Lie" McConnell During Trump Era?; Dolly Parton Joins Small Club Who Rejected Medal of Freedom; White House Press Briefing. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired February 02, 2021 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

DR. RICHARD BESSER, FORMER ACTING DIRECTOR, CDC: But if everyone has been vaccinated, you know, I think that will allow people to visit loved ones in long-term care facility facilities, which is a great thing.

Some of those things will be really good for peoples state of mind.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: I know. That's what we all miss.

Dr. Besser, thank you very much.

BESSER: Yes.

KEILAR: Thank you for being with us.

BESSER: It's a pleasure.

KEILAR: Senator Mitch McConnell is just now publicly condemning controversial GOP Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. We're going to talk about that.

Plus, Trump blamed unfounded claims of election fraud on his loss but a report by his top campaign aides paints a damming and very different picture of what led to his defeat.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: On Monday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell issued a rare rebuke of a Republican member of the House over her behavior.

McConnell -- though not by name, but it was clear who he was talking about -- slammed Georgia Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. He said her, "Loony lies and conspiracy theories are a cancer for the Republican Party in our country."

McConnell is getting some pats on the back for taking a stand against these dangerous conspiracy theories that have been pushed by Greene and others, but there are questions about why it took this long.

Oliver Darcy is CNN's senior media correspondent.

Oliver, thanks for coming on to talk about this because you wrote a piece in CNN's "RELIABLE SOURCES" newsletter and you talk about how McConnell is right to bash Greene for her deranged conspiracy theories. He doesn't do it by name but it's clear what he's saying.

[13:35:03]

But you wonder where McConnell has been.

OLIVER DARCY, CNN SENIOR MEDIA REPORTER: That's exactly right, Brianna.

Look, it's great that McConnell found the courage to speak out against some of the wackiness that has come to define the Republican Party in modern times.

But you have to wonder: Where has he been? Where was he when Donald Trump turned the Republican Party into a home of conspiracists, into the home of liars, into the home of people who peddle disinformation for profit and power?

McConnell seemed fine standing on the sideline silent as he confirmed judges. Now that, to use his own analogy, this cancer on the GOP has progressed to a stage-four level, we're seeing him speak out.

But this would have been more effective had he done so early, had he nipped this in the bud before it metastasized inside the GOP.

KEILAR: And we should note, Oliver, that Marjorie Taylor Greene is still going off on the criticism against her on social media.

DARCY: Definitely. The Republican Party has yet to really rein her in. We have not heard McCarthy react strongly yet. I guess he's going to wait until he meets with her later in the week some time and assess then.

But this is something that is a real problem for the Republican Party. It's become defined by these conspiracy, you know, theories that the former president was pushing and now some of its members are pushing.

One other point to McConnell, he seemed OK with members of the press over the past several years being the ones who had to speak out against this disinformation.

He seemed fine with his own colleagues attacking the press when, you know, you or I or others, would say, you know, that's a conspiracy theory, that's not true what the White House is saying, you know, this is not true.

He seemed fine with his colleagues in the Senate saying, you know, CNN is fake news, "New York Times" is fake news.

Now that the president is out of power, now that this has really started to hurt the Republican Party politically, he's starting to speak out. KEILAR: Oliver, thank you so much for joining us to chat about this.

We do appreciate it.

Soon, we will hear from the White House ahead of President Biden taking executive action against immigration, much of which will reverse Trump-era policies. We'll bring that to you live.

And Trump's impeachment defense is coming into view with lawyers arguing that Trump's speech before the January 6th riots is protected by the First Amendment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:42:17]

KEILAR: Country music legend, Dolly Parton, is known for her prolific song writing and making great hits. But it's not only her chart- topping songs that attracted the attention of presidents.

The hitmaker is also being recognized for her philanthropic deeds, like her literacy program for children and for donating $1 million to help with the research and development of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.

As Dolly Parton is now revealing, President Donald Trump wanted to honor her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is the nation's highest civilian honor.

But Parton said, for personal reasons, she had to turn him down not once but twice.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOLLY PARTON, SINGER/SONGWRITER: I couldn't accept it because my husband was ill. Then they asked me again and I wouldn't travel because of the COVID.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: It turns out that President Joe Biden has also reached out to her. Will she finally accept the honor?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PARTON: Now I feel like if I take it I'll be doing politics, so I am not sure. I don't work for those awards. It would be nice but I'm not sure, you know, that I deserve it. But that's a compliment for people to think that I might deserve it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Comedian Stephen Colbert pressed former President Obama back in November about why he didn't give that to Parton when he was in her office.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT": How does Dolly Parton not have a Presidential Medal of Freedom?

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: That's a mistake. I'm shocked.

COLBERT: Yes. Looking back on your eight years, do you realize that was a mistake you made?

OBAMA: Actually, that was a screw up. I'm surprised. I think I assumed she already got one, and that was incorrect.

COLBERT: I assumed, too.

OBAMA: But she deserves one. I'll call Biden.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Just to note, Obama did honor Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, James Taylor, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Gloria Estefan and Barbara Streisand.

Worth noting here, Parton is not alone in turning down awards by presidents for all kinds of various reasons. There are examples.

Just a few weeks ago, New England Patriots head coach, Bill Belichick, also refused to accept the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Trump. He was set to receive it but Belichick, who has won a record six Super Bowls, decided against it after the January 6th insurrection on the U.S. capitol.

He said, "Above all, I'm an American citizen with great reverence for our nation's values, freedom and democracy."

And former first lady, Jacqueline Kennedy, also turned down the award back in 1963. President Lyndon B. Johnson wanted to include her when he posthumously honored JFK.

As one professor noted to the "New York Times," Mrs. Kennedy likely wanted to make sure that JFK was the focal point of the honor.

And back in 1946, Moe Berg declined to accept what was then known simply as the Medal of Freedom from President Truman. Berg was a former Major League Baseball player who once spied on the Nazis during World War II.

[13:45:04]

A filmmaker who made a documentary about him told the "New York Times," quote, "He did not spy and risk his life every day for his country for a medal. He did it so Nazism could be defeated."

Soon, we'll hear from the White House ahead of President Biden taking executive action on immigration.

Also, new details on the fate of the coronavirus relief package. Democrats are moving ahead without Republicans. We'll bring that to you live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaking emotionally in an Instagram live session where she described the terror of her experience during the capitol raid on January 6th.

She described in a lot of detail, how she feared for her life as she hid in a bathroom -- actually, we'll pause for a moment. The White House briefing is beginning.

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We have a few updates for you all at the top this morning.

First today, the president is signing three executive orders to rebuild and strengthen our immigration system. These actions are centered on the basic premise that our country is safer, stronger, and more prosperous with a fair, safe and orderly immigration system.

Today's actions do a number of things. The first executive order creates a task force chaired by the secretary of Homeland Security to reunify families, which will work across government to find parents and children separated by the prior administration.

The second executive order develops a strategy to address the root causes of migration across our borders and creates a humane asylum system, including direction DHS to end the Migrant Protection Protocols Program, which had led to a humanitarian crisis in northern Mexico.

And the third executive order promotes immigrant integration and inclusion and ensures our legal immigration system operates fairly and efficiently by instructing agencies to review the public charge rule and related policies.

[13:50:08]

As many of you also may have also been on the briefing call earlier today, or those who were not, we just announced, our COVID coordinator, I should say, that, starting February 11th, the federal government will deliver to select pharmacies across the country additional vaccines coming online next week.

This will provide more sites for people to get vaccinated in their communities and is an important component to delivering vaccines equitably.

More than 90 percent of Americans live within five miles of a pharmacy. I don't know, but my mom calls me all the time to figure out how they call the CVS to find out when they can get their vaccine.

This is a limited launch of the program but supply will ultimately go up to 40,000 pharmacies nationwide.

Second, we continue to work to ensure states, tribes and territories have the resources they need to turn vaccines into vaccinations. President Biden has already directed FEMA to fully reimburse states

for the cost of National Guard personnel and other emergency costs.

And today, we go further by fully reimbursing states for the purchases they provided back to the beginning of the pandemic in January 2020.

That means states will be fully repaid for things like masks, gloves, mobilization of the National Guard. And they can use the additional resources for vaccination efforts and emergency supplies moving forward.

This reimbursement effort is estimated to total $3 billion to $5 billion and is only a share of the resources states need to fight this pandemic, which as we talked about a bit before, includes testing, genomic sequencing and mass vaccination centers.

Last, we announced we would increase weekly allocations to the states for the next three weeks by an additional 5 percent, following last week's 16 percent increase.

So we've increased supply by more than 20 percent since the president took office two weeks ago. These actions speak to the daily work we're doing to mount the federal coordinated pandemic response Americans need and deserve, I should say.

As you also know last night, the president had a meeting with 10 Republican Senators. He's meeting right now with the Senate Democratic caucus over video to further discuss the American rescue plan. And we'll have a readout on that later this afternoon that we will send out.

He, last night, during the meeting, he welcomed the opportunity to have a constructive exchange of ideas over how we can improve the American rescue plan.

He pledged that he would bring people together when he ran for president. And last night was an example of doing exactly that.

A new poll yesterday by Yahoo! and ugov shows this plan already garnered bipartisan support among the American people.

He also reiterated -- or we would like to reiterate I should say the urgency of acting quickly on the package.

You all asked yesterday about the CBO reports, new analysis that came out by the CBO, that report showed also that, without action, our economy won't reach pre-pandemic levels until 2025.

That's too long, so our goal with moving this package forward is making it faster.

I have a couple of additional readouts or follow ups, I should say, from some questions that have been asked in here over the last several days.

Somebody asked earlier, I think it was last week, about Puerto Rico. Today, there's an update I have.

The administration is releasing $1.3 billion in aid allocated by Congress to be deployed to protect against future climate disasters.

In partnership with the Puerto Rico Department of Housing, the administration is working to remove onerous restrictions put in place by the last administration by nearly $5 billion in additional funds.

Someone also asked yesterday about how President Biden keeps in touch. There's a number of ways. But he receives correspondence letters in his briefing book every night, as past presidents have done.

He also regular connects with Americans on the phone. We put out some videos of that. And we will continue to do that moving forward.

Also, he attends his -- he has a routine, I should say, of attending public mass every weekend, something he did as president-elect and something he will do, clearly respecting COVID protocols moving forward.

There was also a question sorry, a couple of follow-ups here, about the president's engagement with the capitol police officer who lost -- Ed, I think you asked this question perhaps -- about the capitol police officer, Officer Sicknick, who lost his life in the events of January 6th.

As many of you know, the president spoke with members of his family shortly after his passing to express his condolences and sympathies to their tragic loss.

[13:55:01]

I don't have anything to update in terms of his schedule tomorrow. But I expect to have more of an update on that in the next 24 hours certainly.

Finally -- I think finally -- I know this is a lot at the top -- we can confirm that the president will visit the State Department now on Thursday.

That was originally planned earlier this week -- we had to move things around because of snow -- where he will thank the men and women of the national security workforce for their service to our country and deliver remarks about reclaiming America's role in the world.

Sorry, I did actually have one more item.

As you all have seen reports this morning of the FBI confirmation that two FBI agents are deceased and wounded in a shooting in Florida.

The two wounded agents were transported to hospital are in stable condition, as some, I think, have reported.

President Biden was briefed this morning by Homeland Security adviser, Liz Sherwood-Randall. This is obviously a terrible tragedy.

I expect you will hear more from the president later this afternoon when he speaks to all of you.

I know that was a lot. With that, let's kick us off.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Wonderful. Thank you, Jen.

Two questions. Congressional Democrats are moving forward with COVID relief with legislation set to hit the House Budget Committee by February 16th.

What kind of timeline does that create for you with regard to talks with Republicans?

PSAKI: As many of you who have covered Capitol Hill know, there's a process. The budget reconciliation process is a lengthy one.

And because as I suspected people would want to talk about the meeting last night today, I just wanted to take the opportunity to talk a little bit about that process and where we see there being opportunity.

So, first, as you know, once the budget -- maybe as you know, but a lot of people watching do not know -- that once a budget resolution is passed, the House and Senate negotiators will work to develop a reconciliation bill that can pass through the House and Senate.

At several points in this process, as we look to the weeks ahead, Republicans can engage and see their ideas adopted. At any point in the process, a bipartisan bill can pass on the floor.

So just creating the option for reconciliation with a budget resolution does not foreclose other legislative options. This is when a bill becomes a law moment of the briefing today.

Second, Republican ideas can be adopted during the reconciliation negotiations and is likely several bipartisan ideas may be, or we're certainly hopeful of that.

Third, Republicans have the ability to offer amendments during the budget resolution and construction phase of the process and later during the reconciliation phase. And in that way can ensure their ideas are heard.

I did all of that because I think it's important -- there's been a misunderstanding how this process works. I think some of you, the final vote was this week. You all know that's not the case. There's some time.

That's why the president is engaging, why he did with Republicans last night, Democrats today, and why he's conveyed he would like to continue doing that in the days ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Secondly, a Moscow court sentence Alexei Navalny to prison for two and a half years for being in violation of his probation for going to Germany and being poisoned.

Does the White House plan any additional steps in response? PSAKI: Josh, you may not have seen this because I think it just came

out. But Secretary of State Tony Blinken put out a statement in response to the sentencing.

I will just -- let me reiterate some of the pieces from here. We're deeply concerned by Russian authority efforts -- decision, I should say -- to sentence opposition figure, Alexei Navalny.

Like every Russian citizen, Mr. Navalny is entitled to the rights provided in the Russian constitution. And Russia has international obligations to respect the quality before the law and the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.

We reiterate our call for the Russian government to immediately, unconditionally release Mr. Navalny, as well as the hundreds of other Russian citizens wrongfully detained in recent weeks for exercising their rights.

I will say in regard to your specific question, there was an ongoing review. We announced early last week, a number of the -- you know, reported or concerning actions, I should say, by the Russian government, which includes the treatment of Alexei Navalny.

It includes the full assessment of the SolarWind hack. It includes a review of the reports around bounties on troops. It also includes reports of -- an assessment of engagement in the 2020 election.

That's an ongoing review by the national security team. When they conclude that, that will launch whatever policy process to determine what steps we will take from here.

Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: On the relief bill, Democrats are considering moving ahead with this process. You are still hopeful you can get bipartisan support but you also made it clear you're not going to slim down this bill significantly.

[14:00:08]

Where right now is the greatest potential for compromise to achieve that bipartisan?