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Update on Coronavirus Responses Across the World; Source: McCarthy's Decision to Allow Democrats to Decide Fate of GOP's Greene Is Potentially Career-Ending Mistake"; White House Press Briefing as Clock Ticks on COVID Relief Bill. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired February 03, 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]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And a new study shows how younger adults are responsible for most of the spread in this pandemic.
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KEILAR: Several new coronavirus developments today as some teachers unions resist returning to in-person instruction before teachers are vaccinated.
The head of the CDC said this during the White House coronavirus briefing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: There is increasing data to suggest that schools can safely reopen and that that safe re-opening does not suggest that teachers need to be vaccinated in order to reopen safely.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Also during that briefing, the White House COVID-19 coordinator called on Congress to pass additional funding to ensure schools have the resources necessary to support re-opening.
And new today, tragic new projections. By the end of this month, the CDC predicts the number of deaths in the U.S. related to COVID-19 will be between 496,000 and 534,000.
For more headlines on coronavirus, let's check in now with our correspondents around the world.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Scott McLean in London where scientists are not only finding new cases of the South African variant. They are also finding a specific mutation in other strains of the
virus that lab research suggests could make the virus more vaccine resistant.
[13:34:59]
There's also new research on the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine that supports the British government's controversial decision to space vaccine doses out by 12 weeks rather than the usual six.
The research shows that one dose of the vaccine is still 76 percent effective even after three months.
That same study suggests that the vaccine not only prevents people from getting sick but also prevents them from transmitting the virus to others.
JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: I'm Jacqueline Howard in Atlanta. A new study says that there's one age group tied to most of the spread of COVID-19 here in the United States as of October. That's younger adults ages 20 to 49.
Here's what the study found. The new study says that younger adults accounted for 72.2 percent of coronavirus infections after schools reopened in October.
Meanwhile, less than 5 percent originated from children 9 and younger. Less than 10 percent from teens ages 10 to 19.
This new study is published in the journal, "Science."
SELINA WANG, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Selina Wang in Tokyo. Tokyo Olympic organizers unveiled their playbook for how to hold their games in the middle of a pandemic. Participants are encouraged to get vaccinated, but it won't be mandatory.
Organizers are relying on other precautions to reduce transmission risks. It includes rules like wearing masks as much as possible, social distancing, and supporting athletes by clapping, not singing or chanting.
Athletes and officials arriving have to download a government contact tracing app and be tested before and after arrival. This is as doubt grows around whether Japan can successfully hold the Olympics.
The country is dealing with the worst wave of COVID since the pandemic began.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: Thank you to all of our correspondents for those stories.
And let's stand by now to hear from the White House after President Biden tells Democrats the GOP COVID relief proposal is, quote, "not in the cards." Our hopes for a bipartisan path forward dwindling here. Plus, a husband and father in Alabama, a young husband and father,
testing negative multiple times before being diagnosed with the U.K. COVID variant. He died yesterday. And his wife is going to join us coming up.
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[13:42:14]
KEILAR: As we await the White House briefing, there's new reporting from our Gloria Borger about the standoff inside of the Republican Party over the fates of Congresswoman Liz Cheney, who supported Donald Trump's second impeachment, and Marjorie Taylor Greene, who refuses to apologize over her lies and conspiracy theory support.
And Gloria's with us now to talk about this.
Gloria, tell us about your reporting. What have you heard?
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: I was speaking with a source who's familiar with discussions that are going on among very big Republican donors.
And this source says that McCarthy's decision to stand back and effectively allow the Democrats to bring a vote on her fate to the floor is what this source called "potentially a career-ending mistake."
He said the donor base of his super PAC will collapse now. The Republican funders, who he points out are very conservative but not conspiracy-minded, wanted McCarthy to handle this and to handle this quickly.
And he also points out that he's angering Republicans who really didn't want to have this huge public vote on this.
That they would rather their leader had acted like a leader, stripped her of her committee assignments and not let this play out for a very long time.
KEILAR: And our Manu Raju, Gloria, is also reporting that some Republicans actually want Liz Cheney to apologize for her impeachment vote.
BORGER: Well, I don't think you're going to hear Liz Cheney apologize.
The source that I spoke to, this same Republican, says, look, there's a case to be made that she might have given a heads up to people inside the leadership or inside the Republican conference. There was no heads up on this.
But you're not going to hear Liz Cheney apologize. It was a vote of conscience. The leadership did not whip this vote. Meaning they didn't ask people to get in line one way or another.
She voted her conscience. There's no way she's going to apologize for what she considers to be a vote of conscience.
KEILAR: You know, I do not think we will be hearing that she said that to House Republicans.
BORGER: Yes.
KEILAR: Gloria, great reporting. Thanks for sharing it with us.
BORGER: Sure.
KEILAR: We're going to have Gloria stand by because soon we are going to take the White House briefing live as soon as it begins. We're expecting an update on efforts to pass this much-needed COVID relief bill. So stand by for that.
[13:44:42]
Plus, the FBI raided the homes of two men who held a pro-Trump rally near the capitol the day before the riot. What are investigators looking for?
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JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I just have a couple of items for you all at the top. I was a little worried about getting that mask off with the earrings. Successful, good start.
Today, President Biden joined the House Democratic caucus meeting by phone to discuss the American rescue plan.
The president made clear that the American rescue plan was designed to meet the stakes of the public health and economic crisis.
And the president caucus agreed that a final package must address the crises working families, including housing, food insecurity and opening schools.
President Biden said the cost of inaction and doing too little is greater than the cost of doing too much.
The president also had the opportunity to meet in the Oval Office just a few minutes ago with Leader Schumer and the Democratic chairs of the Senate committees with jurisdiction over the American rescue plan, as part of his ongoing engagement with lawmakers from both sides of the aisle.
During the meeting, they had a productive conversation on the status of legislative proceedings on the package.
They were in agreement over the need to move swiftly to ensure that we get $1,400 direct payments to middle and working-class Americans as quickly as possible.
That we need to take steps to get immediate relief to the Americans who are struggling with food insecurity or facing eviction.
And that we need to provide more resources to get shots into arms faster.
The president and the Senators were also in agreement over the need to go big and to meet the challenges we face with a response that will get the job done in beating this virus and in protecting our economy from long-term damage.
During the conversation, the president and Democratic leaders also agreed to continue working to find areas of bipartisan agreement in an effort to integrate ideas and make the process as bipartisan as possible.
There have been lots of questions from some of you and others about the differences between the president's plan, the Democratic plan, and the plan that has been proposed by 10 Republican Senators. So I wanted to outline some of those specifics here for you.
The president's plan would fulfill his pledge to finish getting $2,000 checks to hard-hit Americans and ensure that, for example, a kindergarten teacher making $60,000 a year isn't left without additional support.
Their plan wouldn't provide that teacher with direct relief.
The president's plan would give Americans who are out of work through no-fault of their own a $400 weekly supplement and the certainty that it would last through the worst of the pandemic.
Their plan would give unemployed Americans less money and therefore less certainty.
The president's plan would keep hundreds of thousands of teachers, cops, firefighters, paramedics, and other public servants on the job.
Their plan offers no money to state and local governments to keep people on the front lines of this fight employed.
The president's plan would also assist the millions of families who are behind on their rent and facing potential eviction.
Their plan wouldn't offer any support to these families.
The president's plan would provide targeted, immediate relief to families with children and essential workers through an emergency expansion of the child tax credit and the EITC.
Their plan would deny relief to 15 million lower-income essential workers.
The president's plan together would reduce the number of kids living in poverty by five million this year and cut child poverty in half.
Their plan would likely leave millions of additional kids out.
Just as importantly, the president's plan would make sure we have every resource we need to defeat this virus and get life back to normal. Including $130 billion to help ensure our kids can go back to school safely, $20 billion to mount a nationwide vaccination campaign, $50 billion for more or better testing, and critical funding to improve our ability to track and defeat emerging COVID-19 strains.
I know that was a lot, but it's a lot of interest in this issue.
Go ahead, Josh.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Thanks so much, Jen.
Two questions. President Biden told House Democrats today that he considered the $1,400 direct payment a promise that he can't break.
At the same time, a new analysis from the Penn Wharton budget model suggests that 73 percent of those payments would go into savings instead of being spent in ways that could boost growth.
I'm wondering what's more important, to keep the promise or to ensure that the package does all it can to maximize growth?
PSAKI: First, on the Penn Wharton analysis, we've seen that analysis, and I talked to our economic team about it, and, frankly, feel it's way out of step with a majority of studies on this plan, including independent analysis from Moody's, JPMorgan Chase and the Brookings Institution.
[13:50:00]
And the analysis concludes that our economy is near capacity, which would be news to the millions of Americans out of work or facing reduced hours and reduced paychecks. So this starting place means their model is way off.
Our view is, we're going to listen to governors. Listen to a broad range of economists. Listen to health experts on what is needed with the American people, what they need at this point in time.
And when one in seven American families don't have enough food to eat, it's clear there's a great deal of need for assistance.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Secondly, the president is set to speak to the State Department tomorrow. How does he expect to change the tone with regard to refugees, China and Russia relative to his predecessor?
PSAKI: Well, first, I would say that the president's visit tomorrow, which we rescheduled because of snow, is largely focused on his desire to thank the men and women who are foreign service officers, civil servants, who are the heart and soul of that institution and, frankly, our government.
And I worked there for two and a half years. It's an incredible place. And many of them have had a challenging couple of years.
But he will also, of course, talk broadly about foreign policy. How could he not, if there? This will not be a lay down of his vision for every issue and every
foreign policy issue. He will have plenty of time to do that.
I want to just kind of expectations set on what to expect for tomorrow.
But you're also asking about the difference between his approach on Russia and China.
You know, I think, on Russia, his call to President Putin is a couple weeks ago -- two weeks ago -- it's clear evidence of exactly that. When he called President Putin he did not hold back.
He made clear that while there are areas where we can work together, say New START, in the interest of security of the United States.
He has concerns about a number of areas of their reported interference, whether in elections, in the hacking of the United States, SolarWinds hacking, I should say, reports of bounties on American troops.
There's an ongoing review that's happening, which he also stated in that conversation.
So his engagement even directly with President Putin tells you a bit after the difference alone.
On China, the president's view and the administration's view is that we need to work with our allies.
We need to work with our partners to align how we're going to approach our relationship with China. And we need to approach that relationship from a position of strength.
There are obviously key components of that relationship. They're economics, strategic. But we are going to work closely with our allies.
He's having those engagements now. We've done a lot of call read outs, of course. And also with partners on the Hill, Democrats and Republicans on the best path forward.
Go ahead.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Thanks, Jen.
The Republican plan matches you up on the national vaccine top line and also testing top line. You ticked through significant differences between the proposals.
And I ask this daily at this point, but where is --
PSAKI: You're doing a good job.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Where is the space for bipartisan agreement? When the differences are that significant across major components of what the president wants?
PSAKI: Well, you know, an area where there's agreement to work together on is funding for small business. That's something, of course, Democrats and Republicans want to do.
Our view is that this bill itself is bipartisan, and 74 percent of the public support it, Republican, Democrat, Independents, across the country.
There's agreement that it's important to work with many Republicans and Democrats who fall on different parts of the political spectrum to put their ideas forward and consider them.
That's part of the conversation and part of the process now happening on the Hill.
We will see. We will see what proposals that improve the bill, that make it better, and there's certainly an openness to that.
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Several Republican Senators have said publicly that they believe the president is in a different place than his staff on this issue in particular. He's more willing to deal, perhaps, than his staff.
Is there daylight between the president and his staff on one point of -- (INAUDIBLE)?
PSAKI: Absolutely not. I've seen those reports. Many are ludicrous. I've sat in a lot of meetings with the president of the United States in the last few weeks, and even before them.
There is no one who will tell him what to do or hold him back from his commitment to delivering relief to the American people.
And I point you to the fact he talked about the importance of going big on a package back to the campaign. He talked about the importance of meeting this moment back to the campaign.
So that is certainly his commitment and exactly what he's working to deliver on.
MATTINGLY: One quick one on vaccines. You talked about last week I believe the Defense Production Act. You said all options were on the table, you guys working through -- it's been launched in just a couple of areas.
On vaccine supply, is the Defense Production Act being utilized on that front? And if not, is there a timeline remaining on the table now to bolster these issues you identified at a problem right now?
[13:55:10]
PSAKI: Absolutely. It's on the table.
The reason the president invoked the Defense Production Act was because he wanted to have a range of options for any moment where there was a reduction in in supply on, on -- on, you know, materials, on PPE, on syringes. And at the appropriate time, we can certainly use it for that.
But right now, our focus is on working with Pfizer and Moderna. We have confidence in their ability to produce the number of vaccines that the government has ordered.
On the timeline that we have committed to, and so -- that means we would have enough vaccines here to be able to vaccinate every American by the summer.
So our focus is really more on evaluating our team, evaluating where there are needs for supplies and materials that would help deliver the vaccines into arms of Americans.
Go ahead.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You saw the president say earlier, he's still confident he can get some Republican support. Mitt Romney was asked about that a little while ago. He said not going for the $1.9 trillion number, that's not going to happen.
He was then asked, well, can you give a specific example of something that demonstrates the differences. He didn't mention it. He says the $350 billion or so for states and localities?
Is that something that is considered negotiable by the White House?
PSAKI: Well, I'd be interested, because I didn't see that, and I guess I'm asking you a question. What Senator Romney said whether they would propose any funding for state and local?
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: He said the most recent report says the average states has only 1/10 of the revenue and so should be adjusted.
PSAKI: They are not proposing any. I would suggest, given that they also supported $160 billion or $180 billion in a package that moved forward under the Trump administration, that's a place we would certainly welcome an offer from their end on what state and local funding needs support.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: One other on economic relief related to the pandemic. There was a full-page ad in "The New York Times" put there by certainly prominent women, calling on the Biden administration to implement what they call a Marshall Plan for Moms in the first 100 days.
Has the president seen the ad? And does he support the idea of monthly payment to mothers for -- during the pandemic?
PSAKI: Well, as a mom myself, I can confirm for you that the conversations I have most frequently with friends on Zoom calls is about the impact of the pandemic on working moms across the country.
And what the president has certainly -- concerned about, as we all are, is the fact this is a disproportionate impact on communities of color, on women of color, who are -- many of them working on jobs as frontline workers and playing vital roles in industries across the country.
It's an issue that Secretary Yellen, his economic team, are focused on and will be looking for ways to help with these.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Second, the president said yesterday he hasn't had a chance to contact the families of the FBI agents killed in south Florida. Has he been able to do that yet?
PSAKI: We will follow-up with you after the briefing. I did not have a chance to ask about that before coming out today.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And earlier today, Canada designated the Proud Boys as a terrorist organization, putting them alongside al Qaeda, ISIS and al Shabaab. Does the U.S. plan to do the same?
PSAKI: I had seen that before we came out and asked our team to make sure we are had a little guidance on that for all of you.
Of course, we have a review under way. A domestic terrorist extremist review underway by our national security team to take a look at violence and this type of concerning group activity across the country.
We'll wait for that group to conclude before making any determinations.
Yes?
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: It's ongoing review. And when it's concluded, we'll have more to say about our view.
Go ahead.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Thank you, Jen.
The top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee is asking you to apologize for some of the comments you made in the briefing room yesterday about the Space Force. Will you apologize?
PSAKI: I did send a tweet last night. Maybe you're not on Twitter or maybe they're not on Twitter.
With that said, we invite members of Space Force here to provide an update to all of you on all the important work they're doing. And we look forward to seeing continued updates from there, from their team.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Big picture here. I mean, does the Space Force have the full support of the Biden administration? Or is the president at some point perhaps going to try to get rid of it or in some way diminish it?
PSAKI: They absolutely have the full support of the Biden administration. And we are not revisiting the decision to establish the Space Force.
[13:59:00]
The desire for the Department of Defense to focus greater attention and resources on the growing security challenges in space has long been a bipartisan issue and formed by numerous independent commissions.
