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White House Says Biden Sticking by $1,400 COVID Relief Checks; Democrats Take 1st Steps to Remove Conspiracy Rep. from Committees; Some Republicans Want Cheney to Apologize for Impeachment Vote; Father Dies of COVID & Hospital Confirms He Contracted U.K. Strain; Capitol Rioter Asks Judge to Let Her Visit Mexico for Vacation. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired February 03, 2021 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[14:30:00]
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Of course, that comes amid the questions what the top line is going to look like.
And he said earlier he did not agree with that $600 billion Republican proposal. He wants it to be a lot closer to the $1.9 trillion, that top line he has proposed.
The other question, though, is what the checks will look like. He's proposed $1,400 in stimulus. But he did express openness to maybe targeting them further than what they are right now.
That's not just a complaint from Republicans. You've heard that from some centrist Democrats as well. And they cannot afford to lose any Democratic votes here.
Jen Psaki said the number will stay at $1,400 but they may structure who will be eligible for the full amount and what it's going to look like.
Though, she didn't define what he sees as middle class and exactly who exactly the president believes should qualify for these checks, if he is going to compromise on that area.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: One example she gave, Gloria, was a kindergarten teacher I think making $60,000 a year.
I saw on social media a lot of people blowing up about that saying, you know, which kindergarten is making $60,000 a year?
Actually, looked at. The median in the country is about $4,000 less than that. We can be sure, there are many, many, many kindergarten teachers making more in the $30,000s and $40,000s.
But Psaki, what she said wouldn't qualify. What do you make of that?
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: I talked to a senior White House adviser about this yesterday. I think they're open to saying, we don't want to give money away to people who shouldn't get it, who are doing just fine during the pandemic?
They want to find a way, as Republicans, and as Kaitlan mentioned, moderate Democrats, want to find a way to make sure the money gets in the right hands.
To make sure the money for small businesses, for example -- mentioned that as well -- they can work with Republicans on that. Making sure that small businesses get the money that they need.
What they're not going to compromise on is the overall size of their package.
And you know, this goes back to the day when Biden was vice president and he had to shepherd Barack Obama's stimulus bill through the Congress.
He got, finally got three Republicans to vote for it, and what did it get them? No Republicans on Obamacare.
So they feel like they have the public support right now. And she's mentioned 74 percent of people in the country support it. Mentions that number every day.
There's -- they're going over heads of Congress saying you supported it. I promise this to you. We're going to work with Republicans around the edges in targeting it. But we are not going to stop going after what we promised you we would do.
KEILAR: Did you get a sense, Kaitlan, where that number would be for who's going to get this check? That $60,000 number, would that be folks earning up to that? I mean, is there clarity for you on that?
COLLINS: I think that the thing they expressed concern about was, if it's a couple, and they qualify together, they both make $100,000 together, how would that affect them getting a check? If one's a teacher, one a nurse. That kind of example.
This is something getting a lot of support. They want these to be further targeted, because, according to numbers we've seen for the last stimulus checks, a lot did not spend those. They saved those. It didn't actually go into the economy.
That's been a big question facing the White House. I assume they'll work it out with Democrats and Republicans on the Hill, given the moderate Democrats who voiced concern about it.
The question of bipartisan support for the bill seems more and more unlikely.
Even you heard from Senator Mitt Romney earlier saying, if it stays the way it is now, he does not predict a single Republican will go for this. He said, if it changes and modifications are made, potentially.
If you look at the Republican proposal, from moderate Republicans, and what's in this Biden proposal, they're pretty far apart. That's going to be a big question of what that actually looks like. But the White House maintains they are going to potentially get Republican support, even as Democrats are moving ahead to pass this with no Republican support.
KEILAR: All right. Thank you so much to both of you. Kaitlan, Gloria, really appreciate it.
BORGER: Sure.
KEILAR: House Democrats are about to try something unprecedented in Congress, which is removing a member of the opposing party from a committee.
Democrats will begin this process tomorrow. It's attempting to oust Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene from the Education and Budget Committees.
The House floor vote on Taylor Greene could happen as soon as Thursday.
Her list of offenses, before she entered office, it runs rather long, and includes endorsing the execution of top Democrats.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): Kevin McCarthy should handle this problem because Marjorie Taylor Greene is totally out of control.
It seems to me that the best thing that could happen at this moment is for Kevin McCarthy to make clear that she should not be on the Education and Labor Committees.
[14:35:01]
If he doesn't make that decision, I think, as the speaker and Steny Hoyer indicated, we'll be prepared to move forward. But let's cross that bridge when we get to it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: House Republicans are just hours away from a key meeting of all House GOP members that could shape, really, not just the shape of their conference but the future of their party.
In addition to Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republicans will also determine the fate of Liz Cheney of Wyoming.
They'll vote on whether to oust the congresswoman from her leadership role as conference chair, the third-ranking Republican position in the House, because she voted to impeach former President Trump in a second impeachment.
Joining me now talk about this, CNN political commentator, S.E. Cupp.
S.E., Democrats reached this decision after they could not come to agreement with House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy. Certainly, there be many Republicans out there who are wondering why
Kevin McCarthy didn't figure out a way to dispense with this, take some action against Taylor Greene and not have all of this aired like this on the House floor?
S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR & CNN HOST, "S.E. CUPPER UNFILTERED": Well, listen, I don't think you've seen a lot of courage over the course of the past four, five years as these very inflection moments have arisen.
When the Republican Party has been given the opportunity say, this is not who we are, whether it was Charlottesville or kids in cages, Ukraine, and as recently as the big lie in the insurrection.
Republicans chose door number two, which is to double down, or ignore it, sort of let it ride out. And in this case, you're seeing the same lack of courage.
It seems like Kevin McCarthy and House Republicans would much rather Democrats do the dirty work, do the hard thing, and kind of let Republicans off the hook.
They're just too scared of the fringe, you know, minority in their base, and their reaction to any sort of condemnation or criticism of Marjorie Taylor Greene.
KEILAR: Speaking of when it comes to Liz Cheney, there's some -- according to CNN reporting, there are some Republicans who want Liz Cheney to apologize for her impeachment vote. That seems unlikely.
CUPP: Well, yes. I mean, so her original sin -- when compared to Marjorie Taylor Greene's, her original sin is, is voting to impeach the president. Something that lots of Republican voters are -- are OK with.
A lot of Republicans are sort of losing interest in support for former President Trump. And that's actually her job as a Congresswoman, to make those sorts of calls and have that, you know, kind of accountability.
You know, this really does represent the rift and the existential crisis now in the Republican Party. Is Liz Cheney the enemy or is Marjorie Taylor Greene the enemy?
I think you don't have to go that far back to look at other times where this wasn't such a problem for Republicans.
In 2012, a name that haunts me to this day, Todd Akin. I'm sure you remember Todd Akin talking about things like legitimate rape while Mitt Romney was trying to run for president.
Republicans told him to resign, you know, and leave an election that was really important for Republicans.
That kind of courage, that kind of principled fortitude just isn't seen that much anymore. KEILAR: No. That was a blast from the past, though, remembering him.
S.E. Cupp --
(CROSSTALK)
KEILAR: Can't believe it was only that long ago.
S.E. Cupp, great to see you. Thanks for being with us.
CUPP: Thank you.
KEILAR: Still ahead, one of the first people in the U.S. to be diagnosed with the U.K. variant of the coronavirus has passed away. His wife is going to join me to share their heartbreaking story.
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[14:42:23]
KEILAR: Nearly 450,000 Americans have died because of the coronavirus. Every one of those numbers represents a family who has suffered an unimaginable loss.
Today, we're introducing you to one of them.
In Birmingham, Alabama, Alfonzia Jackson noticed mild symptoms around Christmas. The 35-year-old father of two was admitted to the hospital on January 22nd and doctors confirmed he contracted the COVID variant first detected in the U.K., the U.K. variant.
We reached out to his wife, Ashley, yesterday as A.J. was fighting for his life after a series of complications, and in between then and now, he passed away.
But his widow, Ashley Jackson, is joining us now.
She still wanted to make sure that we knew his story.
Ashley, you have been on my heart today, and I think that you will be on the hearts of our viewers as well as they listen to this story.
And I want to talk to you about what you've been through here in recent days, but before we do that I want to talk about A.J. And I want you to tell us about his life.
ASHLEY JACKSON, HUSBAND DIED FROM U.K. VARIANT OF COVID-19: Well, his daughters of his life. Mainly, if you hear him talk about anything else, it's always his two girls. They're his mini twins.
And all he did was work. You know? He worked hard at his job and come home to his children and play dress up and polish their nails.
KEILAR: The videos that you shared on Facebook are beautiful of him dancing with his girls, of him doing their hair, of him being such a good sport and letting them do his hair. Which you point out at one point they would have burned him if it
wasn't just a toy tool but he was such a good sport about it.
Tell us -- you know, I'm sure he was fighting like hell to try to be with his daughters.
JACKSON: Yes.
KEILAR: Tell us about what he went through here in the last month or so.
JACKSON: Well, basically, as I said, he started having COVID symptoms, but all the tests were negative. Made me concerned because he started to decline.
When we got to the hospital on that Friday and we thought it was COVID, turned out it was heart failure. Then on to liver failure and eventually having to be on the respirator and have the machine placed in him to support his heart and lungs.
Pretty much every day was like a roller coaster. You know? One day went great. The next day went really bad.
[14:45:03]
So my daughters themselves knew something was wrong. Daddy didn't come home the first few days and didn't know how -- well, they knew what was going on and know about the virus as well. But they just didn't know it had affected their dad that bad.
KEILAR: So he actually was suffering clotting, right? Was that sort of what appeared to be the, the sort of origin of the problem?
JACKSON: Yes. You know, from the heart functioning not correctly, he did -- a big clot did form in his left ventricle, compromising his heart from pumping correctly to support the rest of his organs.
KEILAR: We understand, as you take us through this process where he had gotten the rapid test, right, as he entered the hospital. Two of them, right, came back negative.
And it wasn't actually until after he suffered heart failure and then sort of like a cascading effect to his kidneys that he received a positive COVID test.
When did you learn --
JACKSON: Yes.
KEILAR: When did you learn it was this U.K. variant?
JACKSON: They told me the following Wednesday, which was very scary, because I don't have, we don't have pretty much information about that.
My first thought was: How, when did he get that? Where? And also: How many others have that same variant that are unaware.
KEILAR: Yes. Look, I do want to be clear, because, at this point, experts, there's a lot they don't know about this. They haven't been able to confirm that this particular variant is more deadly than other strains.
Certainly A.J., you know, he did not respond well to this strain at all, and this caused him a cascading series of problems.
What -- you know, do you feel -- did you feel throughout this process that you had any sort of clear idea, or that doctors had a clear idea, of what he was facing?
JACKSON: No. Like I said, when we first got there, it was -- heart failure, and then surgery and things like that, and to try to control that blood clot.
Here we got the COVID strain, and now with the lack of information, it was, we don't know. I don't think they knew everything they could.
They tried to reach out to other hospitals that handled those cases but basically it didn't help them.
KEILAR: You just lost your husband last night. How -- how have your daughters been holding up? They're pretty little.
JACKSON: My oldest, she knows about death. You know, I lost my father back in 2018. My mom -- when I told her, she asked to see her dad and video call her dad. It was very hard.
I had to tell her. Daddy became an angel just like granny and she immediately hit the floor and just started crying. It was just so bad.
KEILAR: No one can blame her for that. This is a tremendous loss.
You -- I know that your husband was places on a ventilator. But when you did have a chance to talk to him, you know, were you able to discuss anything about the future? What did you guys talk about?
JACKSON: Well, the last conversation I had with him was the day before they put -- the same day they put the ventilator on him.
Earlier in the day, when he was able to form words, like, you know, all I can think about is you, my kids, my mom. He was able to talk to a couple friends and family. His sister, his dad, his mom. Best friend. Co-workers. Real good friends.
That was the last conversations with him, but once he got on the ventilator, all he could do was squeeze my hand with a yes or a no.
KEILAR: He was so, so young, Ashley, just 35 years old. I'm sure that -- you're just starting to wrap your head around what all of this means.
What do you want to know us about A.J.? Can you tell us what you're going to miss the most? JACKSON: What I'm going to miss the most is the ultimate girl dad.
Like I said, I didn't have to do anything. They were his shadow. I could do whatever I wanted, shower. And now that he's gone, they've been right here and it's just, you miss him.
And they don't understand why isn't daddy home? Or why didn't daddy get better? How come the nurses and doctors couldn't get him better? Just being able to not see their daddy, probably the most difficult.
[14:50:19]
KEILAR: Yes. These are some beautiful moments just to see your kids with your husband. He was clearly a very special man, Ashley.
You know, I do want to mention because I know that I'm going to get a lot of inquiries from viewers that they are going to ask how they can help. I know you're going to touch their hearts.
Is there -- is there anything -- is there anything to be done? Do you have a GoFundMe?
JACKSON: Yes, I do have a GoFundMe linked to my Facebook page to help with our medical expenses.
Because, like I said, my insurance didn't kick in until Monday and we've been in the hospital for over eight days. And all we can worry about or think about was how am I going to pay for this, Ashley.
Every time they scan a badge, this is $200, $300. And the main focus was getting him home and getting him better and we can figure out the rest.
My friends and family urged me to do that to help pay the medical expenses. Life still goes on.
So I didn't have that link -- I do have that link on my Facebook page.
KEILAR: Ashley, thank you for having the strength to talk with us today and share with us about -- about your husband, as you are, you know, trying to kind of walk through his legacy here with your girls.
Thank you so much for being with us, Ashley.
JACKSON: Thank you.
KEILAR: We'll be right back.
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KEILAR: A Texas woman accused of participating in the capitol riot is asking a court to let her leave the country.
Jenny Cudd was charged with two misdemeanors, knowingly entering a restricted building and disorderly conduct on capitol grounds for her actions on January 6th. And her lawyer says she plans to plead not guilty to those charges. But take a look at the Facebook video that she posted that day.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JENNY CUDD, CHARGED WITH TWO MISDEMEANORS FOR PARTICIPATION IN CAPITOL RIGHT: We didn't knock down any statues. We didn't vandalize anything.
But we did -- we did -- as I say that, we did break down the Nancy Pelosi's office door. And somebody stole her gavel and -- and took a picture sitting in the chair flipping off the camera. And that was on FOX News.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[14:55:00]
KEILAR: Now Cudd, who owns a flower shop, wants to go on what she is calling a work-related bonding retreat in Mexico.
So let's talk about this with CNN legal analyst and civil rights attorney, Areva Martin.
Areva, like, what the heck here? Because I know people are looking at especially what she said on her Facebook page. And they said this is someone who invaded the capitol, you know, in a group of people trying to overthrow the government.
Then why are they being allowed out of jail? And certainly, why would a request like this perhaps be considered?
AREVA MARTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: You know, Brianna, this is outrageous. And anyone that believes in the rule of law should be appalled, not only by her comments, her post on Facebook, but her brazen attitude.
She's laughing and chuckling and is saying we did knock down the door of Nancy Pelosi's office.
This isn't someone that crashed their neighbor's party. This is someone that broke into the nation's capitol, breached our capitol while the votes were being certified for our presidential election.
The fact that these individuals like her, these insurrectionists are being charged with misdemeanors and being let out of jail and now having the unmitigated gall to want to go on vacation is upsetting and frustrating.
And I don't see why there are not more individuals being charged with things tied to insurrection, more serious charges that could, you know, lead to them being detained for longer periods of time and facing more serious consequences.
We've got to end this entitlement mentality, the mentality that allowed her to go into the capitol, to post about it on Facebook, and now to ask a judge to allow her to go on vacation.
That has to stop, and it needs to stop now.
KEILAR: Yes. It is very bizarre, very tone-deaf request.
Areva Martin, thank you so much for being with us.
Right now, a House rules committee is discussing whether to strip Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments. And we're waiting to see if she speaks up in her own defense.
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