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White House COVID Response Team Holds Briefing; Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) Speaks Out after House Removes Her from Committees; Economy Adds 49,000 Jobs in January, Unemployment Rate Falls to 6.3 Percent. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired February 05, 2021 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you think they have been to your policy recommendations?

And my second question was, are you looking for or have you seen any evidence of the impact of President Biden's mask orders?

ANDY SLAVITT, SENIOR ADVISER TO WHITE HOUSE COVID-19 RESPONSE TEAM: So, Dr. Fauci, I would never dream of taking a question that was intended for you.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Thank you, Andy.

Yes, the interaction with the president is frequent. I mean, we've only been at this now for just a couple of weeks. And I've already had two, I think three interactions with the president in a direct briefing situation, either virtually or twice at the White House, once in the state dining room, and once in the Oval Office just last week.

So he is very, very much involved literally on a daily basis, obviously because you have Jeff Zients briefing him continually. But, personally, as a member of the team, together with Dr. Walensky and others on the team, we have seen him at least once a week and maybe a little bit more.

SLAVITT: Yes. And I think that is -- that was this week, I think, that you're referring to as well, not last week. It is still Friday, believe it or not.

And on that note, I think was there another -- I'm sorry, was there another part to your question that we didn't answer?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I was asking -- can you hear me still?

SLAVITT: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, sorry. Yes, I was asking if you have or looking and/or have you seen any evidence of the effects of President Biden's mask orders?

SLAVITT: So I'm going to ask Rochelle if -- Dr. Walensky, if you've seen any data that has emerged on increases in mask use recently?

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR (voice over): Thank you for that question. I think it is probably too early to reflect on what is happening with the mask order now, because it will be -- we have a lot of things that have happened sort of at the same time.

First, it is the case that cases are coming down. And I do think that mask orders helping and protect people and having those the cases coming down.

But what is also happening is that we are coming off of the case bump from the holidays and so a lot of things are happening at once. We are going to be watching a mass data very carefully.

As I mentioned earlier, the MMWR that will be coming out today did demonstrate in ten states that when mask orders were in place, that after three weeks, hospital growth rates went down. So I think it is probably still a bit too early to tell but I'm encouraged with the decrease in case rates right now.

SLAVITT: Thank you, Dr. Walensky.

Okay. Well, thank you all for attending this briefing and our other briefings this week. We think it was a productive week here. The team is working incredibly hard and we are very cognizant of the fact that the public is eager to get their vaccinations and eager move beyond in pandemic. And I want to thank everybody in the government's side and the private sector who has been demonstrating the team work we need to get this done and move past it.

So thank you and we'll talk to you again next week.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. We've been listening to the latest update from the White House coronavirus response team, Andy Slavitt there wrapping it up.

Let me bring in Dr. Leana Wen, CNN Medical Analyst and former Baltimore City Health Commissioner, to work through some of this. There was a lot of information that came out, Dr. Wen, in this briefing. What is your big takeaway from today?

DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: There were three main things, Kate. The one around vaccines, that the Biden administration is going to be activating the Defense Production Act to address the bottlenecks that they've seen when it comes to equipment, to specific raw materials that the manufactures are facing, I think that is fantastic. That will allow us to scale up production for supplies, which is certainly a limiting factor.

The second thing around increasing testing, also through activating the DPA, will also be really important especially in scaling up rapid point of care home testing. I think, again, that that is fantastic. They're saying they'll get an additional 60 million tests by the end of the summer.

60 million though sounds like a lot but if the goal is for ideally everyone to be tested a couple of times a week or once a week, 60 million is not going to go along way. And so I am curious to see what their goals end up being.

The third thing that I thought was very interesting was the question by CNN's Sara Murray for the CDC director about whether the CDC's official position is that vaccinations are not required before teachers get back to work for in-person schooling. And I noticed that the CDC director did not directly answer this question and instead said that they're actively working on guidance.

I there are a lot of schools, a lot of parents, a lot of teachers that are eagerly awaiting that CDC guidance.

BOLDUAN: I did want to ask you about that, because this came from just to kind of set the scene for folks. At Wednesday's coronavirus briefing from the response team, Dr. Walensky said, when asked about it, she said that she did not think -- she said the data is starting to suggest that schools can safely reopen and that can reopen and that vaccines are not a prerequisite for teachers getting back in the classroom.

[11:35:16]

After that happened, and this is why there has been a need for clarification, after that happened, the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, was asked about it, and let me play for everyone what Jen Psaki said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president, let me be crystal clear, wants schools to open. He wants them to stay open. And that is -- and he wants to do that safely. And he wants health and medical experts to be the guides for how we should do exactly that.

So we're just not -- Dr. Walensky spoke to this in her personal capacity. Obviously, she's the head of the CDC, but we're going to wait for the final guidance to come out so we can use that as a guide for schools around the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: And Psaki is saying that Dr. Walensky was speaking in her personal capacity when answering that question on Wednesday. And as you noted, when Walensky was asked about it today, she essentially just said that the official guidance from the CDC is being worked on and will be forthcoming.

What do you think is coming here? This is not an area where confusion and vaguery is helpful at all.

WEN: No. And I think that schools and parents and teachers and staff have been waiting for this type of guidance for months now. And, of course, we know that schools should be reopened if it is possible because students do benefit from in-person learning, but we also know based on studies that schools could reopen if community transmission is low and if mitigation measures are put into place. That is not true for many places around the country.

And so I think it is understandable that teachers are very worried and saying, if you want us to come back, then the least that society can do is to give us vaccinations first. And I hope that that is a position that the Biden administration really clarifies for a particular level of community transmission, what do you need? Maybe if the level is very low, if masking, ventilation, de-densifying are all occurring, maybe you don't need vaccinations as a prerequisite under those circumstances.

But under other circumstances, especially with the threat of variants on the horizon, when we've seen in other countries with variants that they've actually had to close down schools that have been open all along and so I think that clarification from the CDC is going to be really important.

BOLDUAN: But we also -- the nuance and caveat that you offer there is also something that states and school superintendents across the country can understand. And that is the bit that I think is so frustrating and confounding, quite frankly, is why -- why that kind of guidance, albeit, it is going to be nuanced and it's not going to apply across the board to every state and every school district, why that can't be provided right now from the CDC. Again, that will be forthcoming.

I thought it was really interesting also how they talked about the supply chain issues. You mentioned a couple of them. And one of the supply chain issues that they're actively taking on is the supply of PPE and how the country is so dependent on overseas supplies of things like surgical gloves, that that is one thing that they're using the Defense Production Act to address.

It is remarkable, Dr. Wen, because this is something you and I and everybody have been talking about from the very beginning. What did you think when you heard that they're going to helping to build plants to make the material for surgical gloves in order to produce a billion nitrile gloves by the end of the year?

WEN: I thought, finally, we are anticipating for what is ahead instead of just reacting to the problem that we're facing right now. I mean, you and I have been talking for many months about the travesty of having our doctors and nurses on the frontlines not have basic PPE. And to prevent that from happening in the future, I think this is really a good thing that they're looking at the issue of supply chain and how could we reduce the reliance on overseas manufactures and make sure that we have the supplies here, again, to reduce this kind of hunger games that happened in the last year of having states having to bid against one another, hospitals having squirrel (ph) away supplies to prevent the federal government from confiscating their supplies, that really should not be happening.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Just some of the headlines coming from this briefing, and as we know, we'll have another briefing and another update from the White House response team on Monday, that we can go through again.

Thank you so much, Dr. Wen. Coming up for us still, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, she is speaking out now for the first time since the House votes to strip her of her committee assignments. We're going to bring you what she said and what she's telling reporters.

We're also standing by to hear from President Biden talking about the U.S. economy and the impact that he says his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package will have on trying to get the economy back moving at all.

[11:40:00]

We're going to bring that to you when it begins.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: All right. Moments from now, we're standing by for President Biden. He will be delivering remarks on the state of the U.S. economy. When he begins, we will bring that you, rest assured.

But also, moments ago, freshman Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene spoke to reporters. This is the first time that she's really taken questions since being stripped of her committee assignments in light of the dangerous, bigoted and conspiracy-fueled statements that she has made so publicly in the past.

Listen to some of what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): Free speech really matters. And yesterday, when the Democrats and 11 of my Republican colleagues decided to strip me of my committee assignments, Education and Labor and the Budget Committee, you know what they did, they actually stripped my district of their voice.

[11:45:09]

I have the greatest opportunity yesterday and I'm so grateful for it. I got to say what I had done wrong. And do you know how freeing that is? I'm not kidding. I seriously feel blessed by God because I got to do it on a world stage. I got to say I said things wrong. I believe things that were wrong. And you know what, I'm so happy I got to do that.

My district is thrilled with me. People are -- all over the country are thankful and supporting me. And for that, I'm grateful to them. None of us are perfect.

I'm fine with being kicked off of my committees because it would be a waste of my time. You know who I am, I'm a very hard worker and I'm proud of it. So now I have a lot of free time on my hands, which means I can talk to a whole lot more people.

I'm sorry for saying all of those things that are wrong and offensive and I sincerely mean that. And I'm happy to say that. I think it is good to say when we've done something wrong. So, yes, that is easy for me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN: Okay. Let me bring in Manu Raju and David Chalian for more on this.

Manu, what do you make of her remarks?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, she aired out a lot of grievances. She attacked the media and blamed other people other than herself. She did say, as you noted, you played that last clip there, she's sorry for things that people may say, things that were offensive in the past.

But when she was pressed on specific things that she said, she grew defiant and very combative. Our colleague, Jessica Dean, for instance, pushed her on her past comments from 2018 and 2019, suggesting support for executing prominent Democratic politicians, which is one reason why she's been committing off her two committee assignments, and she said she didn't want to address that at all when she was pressed. She grew combative. She attacked the media. She attacked CNN and she moved on to the next question.

And she was also asked about David Hogg, the Parkland survivor, that massacre in the high school in Parkland, Florida, who is now a gun control activist. There is that video that has surfaced about her confronting him and peppering him and harassing him as he was pushing gun control legislation, the aftermath of the massacre. She had no apologies for that. She said that he was an adult at the time in which she confronted him and she has no apologies for that, whatsoever.

She gave that general apology for all the things that she has said that are offensive but still stuck by her comments or some of her actions.

And also notable, Kate, she said that the party is still Donald Trump. She said the party is his, it doesn't belong to anybody else. So she clearly believes the Trump wing of the party, which she belongs to, is still strong despite the action of the House and the 11 Republicans joining all Democrats to strip her from her committee assignments.

BOLDUAN: And, David, being on a committee is a waste of time because now she has a lot more time on her hands. What does this change in terms of the war that is going on within the Republican Party in the broadcaster context? As Manu is getting at, she declares that this is still the party of Donald Trump.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes, it is a waste of time but it's stripping her constituents of their voice, and they all didn't seem to add up.

BOLDUAN: Right, those two thoughts you cannot have in your head at the same time.

CHALIAN: What she was saying. But to underscore what you and Manu have pointed out here, I mean, I thought that line that this is Donald Trump's party, it belongs to nobody else, to me, was the entirety of that press conference. Because in what universe is a political party just one person? I mean, even Kevin McCarthy, in the way he was dealing with this this week, was trying to keep all sort of wings of the party into what he described as a big tent. Well that's a totally different vision than what Marjorie Taylor Greene is saying. She thinks it is one person's party and it only belongs to him.

I mean, this is the fundamental divide that exists right now in the party, is this fealty so Donald Trump versus a broader sense of conservative principles that are not directly tied to one human being. And we are seeing it play out time and time again. We'll see it in primary after primary. This is the story of today's Republican Party.

BOLDUAN: This actually fits perfectly with something that I would really wanted to make sure that we discuss today, which is Republican Senator Ben Sasse, five-minute video that he put out in response to the Nebraska State Republican Committee, who is considering censuring him for a second time. It is five minutes worth everyone's time in watching, David. Let me play just a portion of it, what Ben Sasse has to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BEN SASSE (R-NE): I still believe, as you used to, that politics isn't about the weird worship of one dude.

[11:50:00]

The party could purge Trump skeptics but I'd like to convince you that not only is that civic cancer for the nation, it is just terrible for our party.

Let's be clear, the anger in the state party has never been about me violating principle or abandoning conservative policy. I'm one of the most conservative voters in the Senate. The anger has always been simply about me not bending the knee to one guy.

But my disagreements with President Trump have never been personal. They've always been about genuine affection for the constitutional order.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: David, what did you think of this?

CHALIAN: Well, right, this is the perfect contrast to what we just heard from Marjorie Taylor Greene. What Ben Sasse is saying here is that we can't be a successful party that puts forth conservative values and brings the majority of Americans on board if it is all about bending on one knee to one person, Donald Trump. Marjorie Taylor Greene seems to think that is exactly what the Republican Party is.

I just want to remind you, Ben Sasse, he had the support of Donald Trump in a Republican primary the last time around, right? I mean, he did the dance a bit to make sure that Donald Trump came on board with him, and that helped him get through a primary. He was just re- elected.

But what he is right to point out is his voting record is about as conservative as you can get, and somehow, in today's Republican Party and what we're seeing in the state parties across the nation, which are sort of formed in the image of Trump right now, that's not good enough for them.

BOLDUAN: One more bit of contrast, you guys, I mean, something that I was reminded of this morning, Manu, and you'll remember. Remember 2003 when this was the same party that was so offended by the word French fries in Capitol cafeterias that they renamed them freedom fries on menus over France's opposition to the invasion in Iraq? I mean, I know that this is going in the way back with Cheney for a bit, but this is now, I think, also showing contrast. This is now the same party that is okay with a member saying the things that Marjorie Taylor Greene is saying, and Ben Sasse is very clearly, desperately trying to say, we are not a party that is fealty to one person, one man, namely Donald Trump.

RAJU: Yes. And you're seeing this struggle really play out in particular when you compare the House Republicans versus the Senate Republicans. House Republicans, by and large, they're not as extreme, necessarily, as Marjorie Taylor Greene has been on a lot of the things she said, but they are in Donald Trump's camp. We've seen that time and time again. We saw that play out this week in the way that Kevin McCarthy dealt with everything that happened within his conference. We saw that play out after January 6th when a majority of House Republicans voted to throw out electoral results even after -- hours after the rioters came into this very building and threatened people's lives.

But the Senate Republicans have a different constituency to play to. And while they may vote to acquit Donald Trump during his impeachment trial that starts next week, there is just a feeling within the Republican conference in the Senate side, they want to move on.

BOLDUAN: Yes. This is also something nobody wants to even talk about, but this is also a very clear example of the problem of gerrymandering in this country, is what we're laying out right here, a conversation for another day. Good to see, guys, thank you very much.

So, still ahead for us, we're just moments away from hearing from President Biden, his remarks on the economy and also I'm talking about his coronavirus relief package. Are Democrats going to be pushing ahead on this alone? Is there any Republican support? Is there any room to negotiate with the urgent timeline that they're putting forward? We're going to bring his remarks to you once they begin.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:55:00] BOLDUAN: All right. We're watching the White House right now.

President Biden, he is about to speak on the economy, jobs and his coronavirus relief plan. He just wrapped up a meeting with Democratic leaders focused on the $1.9 trillion proposal just as a brand new jobs report is out this morning showing how bad the jobs market is right now and how slowly recovery is going to be.

I want to bring in CNN's John Harwood and Christine Romans for more on this.

Christine, can you just -- as we await the president's remarks, can you give me the bigger picture of what it's looking like when it comes to this jobs report that just came out?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Let's look beyond just the one month number, right, and look at the trajectory here. It's like a reverse square root sign when you look at the recovery. It's not a sharp V, a super V at all. You can see that it has stalled there. We are in a deep hole that we have not been able to crawl out of. When you look at the unemployment rate, it fell to 6.3 percent.

On the surface, that's the lowest of the pandemic, but strip away all these tables and tables of data, and you can see that millions of people have dropped out of the labor market. Over the past year, Kate, more than 5 million women have simply left the labor market. That's what the pandemic has done to our economy. It's just truly shocking.

And inside the sectors, you can see this K-shaped recovery where people who already have a job, business, professional services, they're doing fine. It's the people who serve the public who are losing their jobs again, leisure and hospitality, retail and the like.

So this is a deep hole we're in, it's a big problem, and within these numbers, you see an economy that could come back to pre-pandemic levels by the summer but years and years for the job market to recover.

BOLDUAN: Yes. So, john, what are you expecting that we're going to hear from the president today?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think we're going to hear exactly the message that Christine just said. We're down 10 million jobs still from last February before the pandemic ripped through the economy. He's going to make the case that we need to get to the other side of this.

This is only partially stimulus. It's largely relief money, putting money in the hands of people who have been suffering. We had this week again almost 800,000 people claiming first-time unemployment benefits, 46th consecutive week of that number being higher than it ever was before the pandemic. So there is a lot of need out there.

Argument over how to target the aid, and you get some pushback from some Republicans and some Democrats about the size of those checks and who should get those $1,400 checks. But a lot of other things in that bill, and I think Joe Biden is going to make the case that we need to move forward.

Procedurally, Senate passed a budget last night. The House has earlier passed a budget. They can do this with only Democratic votes. Still hope some Republicans comes along, but they don't have to have those Republicans, and I think he's going to argue full steam ahead, and the target for them is to get it done by mid-March before the extended unemployment benefits that currently exist in law are about to run out.

BOLDUAN: And on that, John, I mean, Senate Democrats, they've unlocked, if you will, the ability to move this through without Republican support. What is your sense? Is this now a foregone conclusion, this is how this is going to be with this whatever way, shape and form this COVID relief package looks like?

HARWOOD: I think it's highly likely that it's done with Democratic votes alone, maybe a couple of Republicans. The offer from those ten moderate Republicans was so far below what Joe Biden has proposed, had no money for state and local governments, core Democratic priority. It's very difficult to see how they can come together on a package that could get 60 votes that Joe Biden and fellow Democrats would want to pass.

I think they have got the tracks lined up for this to move, and it may turn out, Kate, that this impeachment trial next week is only a speed bump in terms of interfering with the agenda. The House can move forward with their committees on reconciliation. The Senate is going to do that. It appears that they're going to be able to hold all of those 50 Democrats behind this package.

[12:00:01]

BOLDUAN: Yes. John, thank you so much for that perspective.

We are standing behind, John, all of us together, to hear from President Biden. He's going to lay the groundwork for where things.