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White House Press Briefing. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired February 05, 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]

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Asian-American women actually have the highest jobless rates for the past six months. And our reports indicate that's because of racism during the pandemic against them.

So other than sign the memo, what can President Biden do to refuse the racism against Asian-Americans and helping them find a job to deal with their current situation?

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Certainly one of the things he can do is speak out against racism of any form, but also how it impacts a raping of communities.

Asian-Americans, of course, communities of color -- and one of the factors we've seen in data about COVID, of course, is that the pandemic has had an undue impact on many communities, including many communities of color.

I don't have the exact data on Asian-American communities specifically, but I'm happy to check on that.

But, you know, his focus is on getting the pandemic under control in order to help provide a bridge to economic relief and recovery. And that's one of the ways he can help address that.

Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Thank you, Jen.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: I have two rather quick questions and then a little bit more-meaty one, if that's OK.

PSAKI: I like the setup so I know what to prepare for. Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The first quick one, I offer it as a yes, no or maybe, perhaps.

PSAKI: I never liked those questions. But go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Will President Biden use the power of the bully pulpit to help cajole teachers who are unwilling to go to school to go back?

PSAKI: One, I reject the premise of the question. I will say, I have teachers in my family, as I'm sure many of you do. They are the first people to tell you that being -- teaching in the classroom and being able to engage with kids in the classroom or middle schoolers or high schoolers in the classroom makes their job more enjoyable, makes them more effective at what they do.

The president is absolutely committed to reopening schools. He wants them not just to reopen but to stay open. And he wants to do that in a safe way. We're going to rely on CDC guidance which, again, is not officially out yet to determine the best way to do it.

But there are several mitigating factors that we've seen in data to date that will help make it safe. Of course, vaccines are part of that, but so is masking, so is social distancing.

So ensuring that schools have the ventilation and the facilities that they need in order to do it safely. That's our focus.

So the president's focus is on -- and that's one of the reasons why he's out advocating for the American Rescue Plan. Part of that is funding so schools can do exactly that.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: It sounds like a yes with an asterisk.

PSAKI: If you are the spokesperson for the White House, you can certainly say that, but you are not.

You can ask another question.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: My second question is the OMB and the Justice Department made it so Seattle and Portland would not get federal grants. There were violent protests.

Has the Biden administration decided to reverse those grants for these cities?

PSAKI: This is from the Trump administration, you're asking about?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Yes.

PSAKI: We are a new administration. We're reviewing our own policies and charting our own path. But I don't think I'm going to have comments from a year ago from the prior administration.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The president quoted in December, quote, "My son, my family will not be involved in any business, any enterprise that is in conflict with or appears to be in conflict where there's appropriate concern in government."

There were reports that the president's son still owns a 10 percent stake in entities. Do you know anything about that investment?

PSAKI: He is a private citizen. And I would point you to him or his lawyers on the outside for any update. Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: I have two questions. Jared Bernstein was talking about the checks and when they would phase out. He said people making over $300,000 should not get those checks. We heard Susan Collins talk about the checks ending with $55,000.

When will we know who is phased out?

PSAKI: There's an active discussion. A final conclusion has not been made, as Jared was saying. Those discussions are happening with Democrats and Republicans.

The president is firm on the necessity that people receive, who are eligible, $1,400 checks. He's not movable on that becoming smaller.

[13:35:01]

But there's a discussion, as Jared said, about the phase-out and what that looks like.

Now, that doesn't mean that somebody making -- that it's a dead cutoff. It means that it will be phased out to slightly less than that amount at whatever the cutoff is.

Those are ongoing discussions. And a final decision has not been made.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Finally, there's been a lot of discussion -- President Biden talked about the stimulus lessons that they learned. What are the other things that the president has drawn lessons from? Was it the auto bailout?

There were so many other things people were dealing with. And how is he applying that to this situation today?

PSAKI: I have not had an in-depth discussion with him about the Obama impacts. There are a number of us who served in the prior administration.

Of course, there are lessons about ensuring we act swiftly when the American people need relief, looking for bipartisan support, which is something certainly the former administration also did.

There are also lessons we've learned about how we sell the packages that we're putting out there to the public.

And that's one of the reasons why we bring in some of our economic officials or policy experts, so that they can help lay out for all of you and, hopefully, for the public the thinking behind how packages are designed.

And also that we need to continue thinking about how to break down these packages for the public as expanding what we're doing.

It's a package that has funding to reopen schools. It ensures that cops and firefighters can stay in their jobs. It's a package that gets vaccines in the arms of Americans. And it's a package that Americans who are concerned about putting food on the table can do that.

Those are some of the lessons, but I don't have anything more on what he specifically has drawn from it.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: It seems he doesn't want to wait for Republicans forever. It seems he wants to move quickly.

PSAKI: The president wants to move quickly as he talked about back on the campaign trail, too.

American people need relief now. We don't have the luxury of waiting months to deliver that relief to them.

That is about reacting and responding to the needs of the American public at this moment in time and the crises we're facing.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: I'd like to follow up on the issue of school reopening.

Dr. Walensky had said in a previous briefing there's increasing data to ensure that schools can safely reopen and it can safely reopen without teachers getting vaccinated. You then said the official CDC guidance is not out yet.

But there's some urgency to this, and schools are making decisions now about how and when to reopen.

Does the Biden administration have an assessment today about whether schools can reopen with or without teachers getting vaccinated?

PSAKI: The guidance will come officially from the CDC, as Dr. Walensky, who leads the CDC, would certainly convey to you.

What we are all conveying -- which I did a few minutes ago, conveying that there's a lot of data. We're looking at vaccines as a way to keep teachers and the American public safe.

But we also need to look at other mitigation steps, including masking, social distancing, proper ventilation in schools.

And the urgency should prompt Democrats and Republicans, many Democrats are, to come together and support the American Rescue Plan so we can get the funding we need. Many of them don't have the funding they need to reopen.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you know when the CDC will come out with that guidance?

PSAKI: I would point you to the CDC for more specifics on that.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you have a sense at this point of when the cabinet nominations will go through?

Obviously, we're right up against the impeachment trial. This is what you all didn't want to happen, which is this delay. We don't know how long the trial will last. I'm specifically curious about the attorney general. You know you're

eager to get him in. Any sense of that -- and I assume the president has spoken with Senate leaders about that. Is there anything that can be done?

PSAKI: We are certainly hopeful that more of our cabinet nominees can move forward. We have seen a number of them move forward in the last couple of weeks, many with bipartisan support, with bipartisan votes.

But you're right, getting the attorney general through, Merrick Garland, is vital, not only to the president but should be vital to Democrats and Republicans in Congress in order to have a leader at the head of the department who can oversee an independent Justice Department and review any ongoing efforts or investigations that are happening there.

[13:40:05]

This is an issue broadly, the confirmations in general, that he has raised in the past with members of Congress. And certainly there's an understanding about the importance of having his people in place, leading agencies.

But I don't have anything specific for you to update on the timeline of an attorney general being confirmed.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And there's no specific timeline on when these might be done? Just as soon as possible, no timeline?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Certainly, as soon as possible. We are confident that the Senate can walk and chew gum at the same time.

As you well know, there was a delay this part because of the need to agree on a power-sharing agreement. Obviously, we're past that.

And certainly, given most of the of the comments, including many Senate Republicans, about the qualifications of our attorney general, the president's attorney general nominee, and the value I think and hope we all share to have an independent Justice Department, we're hoping they can move forward as quickly as possible.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Quick housekeeping --

PSAKI: Sure, go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: -- about next week.

You mentioned a couple of things he's doing next week.

One, on the Pentagon visit, should we be expecting speeches like we saw yesterday at these -- I think Jake mentioned he'll be doing a round of visits. So should we be expecting a speech of that event next week?

PSAKI: That's a great question. I don't think we're fully cooked yet in the process. Certainly. part of his effort is to thank civil servants and members of the military, of course, for the work they do every day protecting the American people.

But in terms of what format the event will take, we're not quite there yet in our planning process.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The other thing about next week, you mentioned a couple things, but you didn't mention meeting with members of Congress on the bill. I assume some of those meetings are going to happen next week.

Can you tell us about any of those specific things? Will they come over here?

PSAKI: Many of them will be on recess. But he will be engaged, of course, continue to be engaged with members of Congress. Often those come together the day before, the night before. And we will, of course, keep you updated as those engagements happen or are planned for next week.

Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The president's meeting before the Super Bowl on Sunday, I'm guess that's an option to reach a huge audience with the recovery. Is that what's he's going to use it for?

And I guess I'd like to know, how will the president be watching the game? And who will he be rooting for?

PSAKI: Who will he be rooting for? Oh, boy. That's my first way to get hate mail from one part of the country. There's a division among our senior staff, I will admit, on this particular question. But I won't name names.

The president will be watching the game in Delaware with his family, of course, his wife, Dr. Biden.

In terms of the interview -- and as you know, CBS is hosting the Super Bowl this year. And there's a long tradition of networks doing an interview with the president. So that will certainly be part of what you will see on Sunday.

He -- of course, the anchor who is doing the interview, will ask whatever the anchor wants to ask. That's how these things occur.

But his objective is certainly to convey to the American people that he knows this time is difficult. He knows it requires a great deal of sacrifice. He is incredibly grateful to the health care workers, to the frontline workers, to people who are working every day to keep us safe.

And hopefully he will have the opportunity to reiterate the measures that we can take: Masking, social distancing, of course, ensuring that people are getting the vaccine when they're eligible to get the vaccine. and update the public efforts to do exactly that.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: I have a second one for a colleague. We saw a break with a Saudi policy in the Middle East. So will the

president bring sanctions against the Saudi government for the death of Jamal Khashoggi?

PSAKI: Let me reiterate that the murder of Jamal Khashoggi was a horrific crime. We are prepared to release a report with full transparency from Congress. This is the law and we'll follow the law.

The office of the director of National Intelligence would have further details, and I would refer you to them for additional specifics.

We, of course, expect Saudi Arabia to improve its record on human rights. That includes releasing political prisoners, such as women's rights, advocates, from Saudi jails.

We were encouraged yesterday by the dual release of Saudi citizens. We expect to see more progress in the coming months.

As we've noted, in a couple areas we've talked about, there's a long review of our policies.

You saw the president make a review of our engagement in Yemen. which, of course, is directly connected. But there will be ongoing discussions and reviews by our national security team.

[13:45:01]

I don't have any policy decisions to read out for you at this particular point in time.

Go ahead in the back.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: I have two questions as well.

In keeping with the economic theme of the day, my first question: Given the most recent job numbers and the continued unemployment and what you had to say today about, particularly how minority communities have been affected, is this the right time to increase the number of refugees coming into the country and to also ease immigration and border restrictions?

PSAKI: Well, the president fundamentally believes that having a humane and moral immigration system in place strengthens our country, strengthens our economy. And many, many business leaders across the country have said exactly the same thing.

The most powerful step that can be taken now is to pass the American Rescue Plan, because that is a step that economists across the board have said will help expedite economic recovery, help expedite getting people back to work.

And without it, we will be years behind, according to a lot of economic data, where we need to be.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And on the public health aspect of it, considering the coronavirus numbers are still where they are, the president has enacted more travel restrictions, including South Africa.

How does that play into the equation of the refugee policy?

PSAKI: Sorry, I'm not understanding your question.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: I mean, considering the coronavirus numbers, that were doing more restrictions on travel, does that not also affect refugee policy and immigration, bringing more people into the country, sort of following up on Kristin's --

(CROSSTALK)

PSAKI: The refugee policy is increasing the cap. It doesn't change what our travel restrictions or travel policies are. Those are put in place to keep the American people safe.

But those are not meant to do anything other than take necessary steps at this moment in time based on the advice of health and medical experts on where we need to restrict travel from.

Obviously, when it's safe to undo those restrictions, our health and medical team will advise us on exactly that.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And my second question, this is going to the Pentagon.

This week, the secretary of defense announced a stand-down for the military to discuss extremism and extremist ideology.

Why would the military need to stand down from enemies foreign and abroad to have these discussions?

PSAKI: Well, my bet is that Secretary Austin and my friend, John Kirby, would disagree with your assessment there.

But the president has tasked an overview and a review of domestic violence extremism in the country. That's coming direct from him happening in the White House.

I know my friend, John Kirby, a briefing in the White House, and I would encourage you to ask him about his plans.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Jake Sullivan mentioned there was a meeting on domestic terrorism yesterday. I think people want to know: How did this administration define the term domestic terrorist?

PSAKI: In what way?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Does that include Antifa, specific? How do you set parameters for domestic terrorist, especially as we see the focus on January 6th, much not much focus on some of the extremism and violence in the northwest?

PSAKI: I've answered a version of this question a couple times before, but I know everybody is not in the briefing room every day. The reason we have a review, which is not a political review, but is a

review done by our national security team, something tasked, again, to take a review of domestic violent extremism. We will have incidents across the board.

When they have completed that review, I'm sure they will have more to say on it.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Just one quick foreign policy question.

You know, just talking about Iran and China and the need to have allies that are willing to go into those kinds of stormy issues with you, there has been some reporting that the E.U. commissioner is going to have a phone call with President Biden and propose a six-month truce on trade tariffs.

I'm wondering wonder if he's open to that and whether that would give you a united front going into some of these issues.

PSAKI: I know there's a lot of interest on trade tariffs. I don't have anything for you now. I can follow up with you on any call with the commissioner. And if that's being planned, I'll provide you with a readout.

Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Following up on several questions about school reopenings. Does the White House believe - schools are contemplating now whether to go back to reopen schools.

Does the White House believe that schools should hold off on schools reopening until the CDC guidelines are out and the American Rescue Plan is passed?

[13:50:09]

PSAKI: Well, I think some schools are looking for that guidance, and also looking for funding. Obviously, different jurisdictions make decisions.

But we are hopeful that when the CDC guidelines are out, that will provide some advice from -- more than that, specific guidance from our health and medical team, the expertise of Dr. Walensky and her team on exactly when what mitigation steps can be taken to open schools up safely.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: But the schools at the moment, right now, on whether they should open, you don't have a recommendation one way or the other? Just wait for the guidelines? Just trying to clarify --

(CROSSTALK)

PSAKI: I'm not getting ahead of what the guidelines are. Different jurisdictions make different decisions. A lot of jurisdictions are waiting for those guidelines.

But also waiting for additional funding so they can reopen schools safely, make sure teachers are safe, students are safe, and families can feel confident in their kids being at school.

Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Thank you.

Following up on one of the questions from earlier, and then I have a foreign policy question, too.

But is there any update on the state of a large-scale public sort of P.R. media campaign supporting the vaccination effort?

Or is it difficult to do that without knowing whether or not the inventory is sufficient enough to actually tell people to go to CVS or Walgreens or wherever they're maybe supposed to go?

PSAKI: Certainly, part of our commitment is to launch a massive public affairs campaign, which is something we talked about a little in here.

It takes a little time to get all your ducks in a row to get that going.

But part of what we're also trying to do is utilize our experts to be out there publicly, do these briefings three time as week.

To, as Karen asked about earlier, provide more accurate and clear information to governors, so they can also communicate with communities and empower medical experts and doctors so they can communicate more clearly with their communities, which are some of the most trust sources.

We've had a lot of officials out on local television, doing local television interviews.

So even as we're preparing for more of a widespread, large-scale public campaign, we've also had a number of members of our team doing everything we can to communicate effectively and efficiently on this particular issue.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And the foreign policy question. Sometime overnight during the vota-rama in the Senate there was a --

(CROSSTALK)

PSAKI: You just wanted to use that word. I know it.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: But there was a 97-3 vote in favor of supporting the location of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem.

Is there a position in terms of the Biden administration as to whether or not the Trump administration's actual implementation of the Jerusalem Embassy Act should be maintained or whether it might move back to Tel Aviv? PSAKI: A great question. I haven't talked to our national security

team about that. I will venture to do that circle back with you directly.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Thank you.

PSAKI: Thank you, everyone. Happy Friday.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Friday press briefing from the press White House. And a few headlines here. Again, the White House defending this COVID relief bill, the size of it, the price tag on it, almost $2 trillion, against criticism there.

And certainly it seems are firm in going without Republican support and proceeding with only Democrats on this.

I do want to bring in CNN chief White House correspondent, Kaitlan Collins, our chief business correspondent, Christine Romans, and Neil Bradley, the executive vice president and chief policy officer for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Neil, I know you have something to say about whether this should be bipartisan or not.

But I want to go to Kaitlan first to tell us really just the top lines you're taking out of this briefing.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: What you saw in this is really an expansion of what the president said earlier, which was, basically, without saying explicitly, Brianna, that he is prepared to go it alone with only Democrats supporting the coronavirus relief proposal.

They're the strongest comments we've seen from President Biden since these negotiations over what the bill will look like have been going on.

And a few days ago, he had Republicans in the Oval Office. He said the other day, I believe yesterday, he believed they could still get Republican support for this bill.

But now he is saying that Republicans are not offering enough, or what they are offering is too little.

You saw Jen Psaki being asked about that there. The White House not saying it explicitly, yes, they are.

But they're talking about a need to move quickly, which is something you saw President Biden say earlier. He said he didn't want to get bogged down in a negotiation that would take forever.

Because he said, citing the grim jobs report we got this morning saying only 6,000 jobs were added to the private sector in January, he says puts fresh urgency behind the bill and the need to get it passed quickly.

[13:55:04]

So we know Democrats are moving there. So this is just solidifying what seemed to be slowly building up this week, which is we're getting closer and closer to having this bill be only furnished by Democrats and likely only supported by Democrats.

One big thing everyone wants to know, what the stimulus checks will look like. Biden said it's $1,400. He is not coming down on that.

But what Jen Psaki said, which is newsworthy, they haven't made a decision on how it will be targeted. She said it's something they're still reviewing. They have not come to conclusion yet.

So we know the checks will be $1,400 but, Brianna, we don't know who will qualify yet and how that's going to phase out.

KEILAR: Neil, important to note, that you, of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, are warning the White House and warning Congress to not have this be the effort of just Democrats.

What do you say to what you heard in the briefing today?

NEIL BRADLEY, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT & CHIEF POLICY OFFICER, U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: Well, I think we're hearing a false choice presented. The idea that either you go bipartisan or you go fast.

Reconciliation, almost everyone who is talking about the timeline - you heard it discussed just now in the press briefing -- is assuming a mid-March enactment, a month from now, a little over a month from now. That's not exactly fast.

In fact, probably get a faster deal enacted into law if Republicans and Democrats would sit down and negotiate.

If you look at the president's proposal and look at what the 10 Senate Republicans put together, the differences between them can be bridged. It simply takes sitting down and working through the differences.

KEILAR: Christine, what do you think about that?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Look, I think there's a real fire burning in the American economy right now.

Outside of the politics that's happening in Washington and the record highs on Wall Street, Main Street is still down 9.9 million jobs since this crisis began.

We know that the effect is uneven. It's been the lowest income workers. It's been women and minorities really hurt by this. And we just need a bridge between now and when the virus can be eradicated.

That's really what fixes this, the virus being eradicated. That's not happening tomorrow.

You can see by that this is not a super recovery. It's a resource recovery limping along. Too many are out of work. Too many people are relying on the government to pay the bills.

And 18 million people are getting some sort of jobless check. Those run out in March.

KEILAR: Kaitlan, you heard Neil say these are issues that Democrats and Republicans should be able to bridge.

What are your sources at the White House telling you about why they seem to be, you know, gearing in on going it without Republican support here? Do they think these cannot be bridged?

COLLINS: Well, you've heard -- what President Biden said basically, he doesn't have the conscience to go for a smaller package.

You saw in his top economic adviser came out with Jen Psaki, and he was talking criticism that came from Barack Obama's former economic adviser earlier today, saying Biden was really going too big and doing too much, talking inflation potentially, given how big and the size of the scope of what the stimulus package would be.

But the White House doesn't feel like Republicans will come onboard. They said time and time again that they are willing to sit down with Republicans. There's some ways to negotiate and compromise.

One thing is targeting these checks. Something even centrist Democrats had problems with. Even people like Susan Collins as well.

They're willing, it seems, to move in small ways, like targeting the checks, something of that nature.

But they do not seem to be ready to budge in any sense on the bigger aspects of this bill, the size of the stimulus checks, the size of the bill in and of itself.

President Biden make clear he doesn't expect to come down far from that $1.9 trillion price tag.

The way they've been framing it this week is saying, well, it's going to be a bipartisan bill, not because any Republicans support but because there's support for it throughout the country.

So that's what they repeatedly turned back to. That's a question that they will have to deal with.

A lot of talk has been what's happened in 2009 and how they did not go big enough then on the stimulus bill then when it was, of course, Barack Obama and Joe Biden in office. That's what you've heard from a lot of people.

That's at the forefront of these discussions and it's something that is in the back of their mind. And they're going through this and weighing the risk how big they're going to go.

So they seem pretty clear this is how they're moving forward.

It doesn't seem like Republicans are going to be onboard. You didn't hear President Biden saying today we might get some Republicans. Only saying Republicans are not offering enough and he's still going to move forward.

KEILAR: And, you know, Neil, what do you say to that? Listening to analysts, there's a risk in having a price tag that is too small here, and really not throwing enough water at the fire.

And you say that they should be able to bridge these differences, but there does not seem to be -- I don't know. I don't see it.

[14:00:03]

BRADLEY: Let me give an example. One of the bigger portions of the president's $1.9 trillion proposal is extending unemployment insurance through September 30th.