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Marjorie Taylor Greene More Emboldened?; Biden Pushes Ahead on COVID-19 Relief Package; Positive COVID-19 Trends. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired February 05, 2021 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:00]

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you for being with me.

President Biden is drawing a line in the sand today, justifying moving forward with his COVID-19 relief package without Republican support.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Getting help right now to Americans who are hurting so badly and getting bogged down in a lengthening negotiation, or compromising on a bill that's up to the crisis.

That's an easy choice. I'm going to help the American people who are hurting now.

Here's what I won't do. I'm not cutting the size of the checks. They're going to be $1,400, period. That's what the American people were promised.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: And here's the update now. Both chambers of Congress have just passed a resolution to make that stimulus package easier to pass.

But it all comes amid this lackluster January jobs report, the unemployment rate dropping slightly, the economy only adding 49,000 jobs. And, today, the White House is underscoring this troubling statistic; 2.5 million women have been driven from the work force since the pandemic hit.

On the medical side of this whole thing, we now have news on Johnson & Johnson's one-shot vaccine. It is moving closer to authorization for emergency use. So, that is a step in the right direction.

Also today, Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene once again defending her controversial rhetoric one day after her colleagues voted to remove her from her committee assignments.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): Going forward, I have been freed. I do. I feel freed, because you know what's happening on these committees? You see, we have a -- basically, a tyrannically controlled government right now, the Democrats.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: How does her party move forward now that Trump's out of office. Her response? It doesn't.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GREENE: And when I tell you, Republican voters support him still. The party is his. It doesn't belong to anybody else.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let's start there with our CNN congressional correspondent Jessica Dean, who had quite an exchange with her earlier today at the press conference. And we will get to that in just a sec.

She apologized a little, but also attacked a lot, Jessica.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brooke, good afternoon to you.

When we were outside with the congresswoman earlier today, she did go through some prepared remarks first, and she talked about how she supports the First Amendment and freedom of press and how she wants to like us, the press being us, there in that comment.

But then, when it got to the question-and-answer portion, I pressed her on some specifics, because while we saw her both today and also yesterday say that she was -- she didn't -- looking back, she shouldn't have said the things she said -- today, she said she was sorry for the things she said.

But she wouldn't talk specifics. Here's our exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: I just wanted to ask you specifically.

I know you talked yesterday. I listened to your speech. But you said on a video in January 2019 -- I'm just going to read it to you verbatim.

(CROSSTALK)

GREENE: Who are you with? What's your name?

DEAN: I'm Jessica Dean.

GREENE: With?

DEAN: I'm with CNN.

GREENE: CNN.

DEAN: "By our law, representatives and senators can be kicked out and no longer serve in our government. And it's a crime punishable by death, is what treason is."

That's what you said.

GREENE: Did you see my speech yesterday? How many -- how many stories did you report on Russian collusion conspiracy lies?

(CROSSTALK)

GREENE: No, I want to know have you apologized for Russian conclusion conspiracy lies? Have you--

(CROSSTALK)

DEAN: I want you to be able--

(CROSSTALK)

GREENE: I don't have to.

DEAN: Do you stand by the fact that you said Nancy Pelosi is guilty of treason and that's punishable by death?

GREENE: I think you heard my speech yesterday. You owe the people an apology. You lied about President Trump.

DEAN: Ma'am--

(CROSSTALK)

GREENE: You owe the people an apology. I have done mine yesterday.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: So, again, simply just not responding to those specific questions.

That specific statement is one that we saw House Democrats really zeroing in on, of course, the threats of violence around House Speaker Nancy please. And she simply would not answer that specific question, if she still stood by those comments today.

Again, she did say she was sorry for the things that she had said, but wouldn't get into specifics, wouldn't apologize for specific things or say exactly if she still believed so many of the lies and conspiracy theories that she had talked about previously.

So, Brooke, from here, we know she's been stripped from her committees. She says that's going to give her more free time to help former President Donald Trump with whatever his next venture and to help other conservative Republican candidates in 2022.

And she says, as you heard her in that clip just a little bit ago that you played, she feels like she's been freed because she's not going to be on any of these committees, and that she plans to simply move forward doing the work outside of the committees.

Of course, she's still allowed to vote, so she does get to represent her district in that way -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Jessica Dean with the smart questions. Hold your ground.

Jessica, thank you, working that Capitol Hill beat for us.

With me now to discuss all of this, CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger and CNN political commentator Charlie Dent. He is a former Republican congressman.

[15:05:05]

So, welcome to both of you.

And, my goodness, where do you even begin on all this?

Charlie, I'm starting with you.

You just heard Marjorie Taylor Greene. She says that she's feeling fried, not on these committees, that this is now Trump's party and only Trump's party. And based upon what Republicans did or didn't do, my question is, is it?

I can't hear you, or you can't hear me, Congressman.

All right, Gloria, question to you. What do you think? Is this Trump's party?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, at this point, I think the Republicans, at least in the House, are making a bet, of course, that it is Donald Trump's party.

You saw that less than a dozen of them voted to take her off her committees. And I think the bet is that their voters, their base voters, 74 million of them, want Marjorie Taylor Greene to serve where she's serving.

I think it's a -- it's a deal with the devil, because I think that Marjorie Taylor Greene showed very little, if any, remorse, refused to answer direct questions like those posed by Jessica.

And I think, in the end, this is going to be a big albatross hanging around their necks, because she's not going to get docile. She is going to be more and more of a problem for them.

BALDWIN: Yes, I want to come back to that point, because, clearly, she feels, I would say, emboldened.

BORGER: Yes.

BALDWIN: Congressman, I'm coming to you. Give me a thumbs up. You got me? OK.

CHARLIE DENT, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I got you.

BALDWIN: Cool.

Let's talk about Ben Sasse, before we come back to Marjorie Taylor Greene, because Nebraska's Republican Party is now trying to censure their own Republican Senator Ben Sasse, drafted the resolution, lists more than a dozen alleged defenses against Sasse for going after former President Trump and even after Senator Josh Hawley.

I want to play this clip, and then we will talk on the other side. This is what Senator Sasse had to say about all of this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BEN SASSE (R-NE): You are welcome to censure me again. But let's be clear about why this is happening. It's because I still believe, as you used to, that politics isn't about the weird worship of one dude.

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

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Charlie, what do you think of what he's saying? And what does this say also just about the Republican Party on the state level?

DENT: Yes, many of these Republican state committees and local county committees have become very Trumpified. They have been taken over.

It is alarming. And I see Pat Toomey was being censured by one of our county committees the other day. I was censured when I was in by a county committee. This is not uncommon.

I should let you know too that, as we're speaking, there's a summit going on among a number of Republicans that are talking about these very issues, people who feel so disaffected and disenfranchised right now by this cult of personality. The party has to return to something closer to a party based on values and ideals and principles, not the loyalty to one terribly flawed, disgraced individual. That's where we are.

BALDWIN: Well, speaking of -- well, I want to stay on your point about the -- let's call it the Trumpification of members of Congress.

I mean, Gloria, to your point about how Marjorie Taylor Greene feels totally emboldened, she just said that if she was actually still on a committee that she would be wasting her time.

Do you think she's more trouble for Democrats and Republicans on or off her committees?

BORGER: Look, I think she's got a big bullhorn right now, and she's tweeting away.

This morning, she said: "I woke up early this morning literally laughing, thinking about what a bunch of morons the Democrats, plus 11, "meaning Republicans, "are for giving someone like me free time."

Well, if she has so much free time, maybe she shouldn't be drawing a salary. I mean, if she doesn't have anything to do in service, maybe she shouldn't be taking money from the American taxpayer.

So she feels emboldened. She says Donald Trump is in control of the party. And I think the congressman is absolutely right. Look at what's going on. Across the country right now. You saw Cindy McCain, Flake and Governor Ducey censured in the -- Arizona.

BALDWIN: Arizona.

BORGER: And one of the reasons that Ben Sasse was censured -- and I went through this ridiculous thing -- was that he showed indifference to the factual evidence of illicit acts, as were committed during the November 3 election, meaning he didn't buy into the big lie, and that's why they're censuring him.

BALDWIN: So, it's a brewing, as we have been talking about, on the state level, and now percolating amongst certain members of Congress, especially on the House side.

Here's the -- here's my overarching question. Charlie, this is for you. The Republican Party has really now created this space, this safe space for the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene. And we have been having these big overarching conversations about how did we get here as far as the Republican Party?

[15:10:08]

We know how we got here. Trump never denounced QAnon. He never denounced David Duke. He never said no to these people. He left the door open. Republicans let him.

So, Congressman, unless something major changes, won't this now just keep the door wide open for more Marjorie Taylor Greenes to be elected in the future?

DENT: Regrettably, yes.

And when you think about it, I think the real sad legacy of the Trump administration was the lowering of the standards bar. There used to be a time when we could get members of Congress to resign on their own or there would be forced resignations, if they became a distraction or an embarrassment. That's not happening now.

That should have happened. And I can think of 11 resignations since I was in Congress that -- where members actually resigned on their own or were forced because they became an embarrassment, in many cases for issues smaller than what we're talking about with Marjorie Taylor Greene. And that's the tragedy right now. We have allowed ourselves to not

enforce rigorous standards of these members. Marjorie Taylor Greene has no business being in the Republican Conference or on any committees. Strong leadership would have said, you know what, we're going to primary you in 2022, and you're not welcome in the conference. Enjoy your time here in Congress. That's how they should deal with her.

BALDWIN: Charlie Dent, Congressman, thank you. Gloria Borger, great to see you. Thank you both so much for all of that.

We're just getting some news in, word of a major security breach at Joint Base Andrews, as a man somehow gained unauthorized access on site.

Let's go to our correspondent at the Pentagon, Barbara Starr.

Barbara, what's happened?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Brooke.

Well, the Air Force has had a very disturbing security breach at Andrews, which, of course, is the base that is the home to the Air Force One operations just outside Washington, D.C., the aircraft that carry the president and vice president of the United States in those very well-known blue and white aircraft.

The aircraft that was breached was a blue and white, but we are told not part directly of that presidential fleet. It was an aircraft that was the equivalent of a 737 last night, and a man got onto Andrews, Joint Base Andrews, and then got onto the flight line and entered this C-40 blue and white aircraft. He was stopped. He was apparently in civilian clothes.

We don't know how long he was aboard the aircraft. We don't know the circumstances, the aircraft apparently on the flight line unlocked because they were conducting training operations. So what now?

Well, first, the Air Force watchdog, the inspector general, conducting a full investigation of the incident and how it happened. Much deeper than that, there is now a worldwide review of all Air Force installations and flight lines to ensure that something like this cannot happen again.

And security has been raised today at Joint Base Andrews. This was not a plane that President Biden or Vice President Harris was expected to be flying on. But it really, to some extent, doesn't matter. The world knows those blue and white aircraft as Air Force One, the aircraft -- the designation for any airplane the president is on board, and a lot of concern that security is just not locked down as tight as it must be -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Understandable concern.

If you get more information, we will pass it along. Barbara, thank you at the Pentagon. There is a lot of good news. How about this today in the fight in this

pandemic? Cases, by the way, dropping, as vaccinations start to outnumber new cases 10-1. And another vaccine could be on the way very soon. We have those details.

Also ahead, President Joe Biden today defending the price tag of his $1.9 trillion COVID relief plan, as Democrats just took another major step toward pushing it through without Republican support.

And former President Trump rejects the request to testify in his second impeachment trial next week. And the impeachment managers say that's only going to help them.

You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. We will be right back.

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[15:18:42]

BALDWIN: We're back. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Now to the battle against the coronavirus. The good news, at this moment, no one, not a single us state is seeing an upward trend of more cases. More positive news for you this afternoon, vaccinations in the U.S. this week outnumbered the number of new cases by 10-1.

It gets better. There could be a third COVID vaccine in rotation by next month if the FDA approves Johnson & Johnson's one-dose vaccine. And now the Biden administration is sending in the troops to help states with those mass vaccine sites that are finally ramping back up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDY SLAVITT, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE ADVISER FOR COVID RESPONSE: He's ordered the first contingent of more than 1,000 active-duty military personnel to support state vaccination sites.

Part of this group will start to arrive in California within the next 10 days to begin operations there around February 15, with additional vaccination missions soon to follow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Teachers in several states are finally getting vaccinated. And President Biden says millions of at-home COVID tests could be ready by the end summer.

[15:20:01]

Erica Hill, CNN anchor national correspondent, reports from New York's massive vaccine site at Yankee Stadium.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERICA HILL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): More Pfizer vaccine could be coming soon, with some help from the Defense Production Act.

TIM MANNING, DPA WHITE HOUSE SUPPLY COORDINATOR: We told you that when we heard of a bottleneck on needed equipment, supplies or technology related to vaccine supply, that we would step in and help.

HILL: And a third vaccine now in line for FDA emergency use authorization.

DR. ASHISH JHA, DEAN, BROWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: I'm really excited about the J&J vaccine.

HILL: The FDA will consider Johnson & Johnson's single-dose vaccine on February 26.

JHA: Certainly, by April, it'll become a real player in terms of expanding vaccine access.

HILL: More mass vaccination sites coming online today.

JAHQYAD AUSTIN, VACCINE RECIPIENT: As soon as I heard about it on the news, I signed up right away.

HILL: Yankee Stadium offering 15,000 appointments in the first week.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will do whatever it takes.

HILL: Mega-sites also opening in San Francisco and Maryland, as states and cities push for more equitable distribution.

KATHERINE GILMORE, PHILADELPHIA CITY COUNCIL MEMBER: How we prioritize communities of color, with the continued vaccine distribution and rollout, will be vitally important to ensuring that we can close that inequitable.

HILL: Gap teachers and some school staff now eligible for the vaccine in 24 states and D.C., the CDC working on new guidance after prompting confusion earlier this week.

DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Schools and parents and teachers and staff have been waiting for this type of guidance for months now.

HILL: Nationwide, more than nine million shots administered last week. That's 10 times the number of new cases added in the U.S., two very different metrics marking important gains.

DR. PAUL OFFIT, CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA: I think, overall, things are definitely getting better. And I really do think that we will get on top of this by summer or late summer, because I think everything is now moving in the right direction.

HILL: New cases are down nearly 20 percent in the last week, COVID hospitalizations falling below 90,000 for the first time since November, the federal government considering a plan to send masks to all Americans.

RON KLAIN, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: I hope in the next few days or next week, we may be able to announce some progress on this.

HILL: Experts stressing masks, physical distance and handwashing are the key to keeping fast-spreading variants at bay while waiting for your vaccine.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NIAID DIRECTOR: Viruses will not evolve and mutate if you do not give them an open playing field.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Brooke, it is not just Major League Baseball that's stepping up to the plate, if you will.

CNN has just obtained a letter from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to President Biden in which he has now committed that the stadiums for every NFL team will now be activated to help as mass vaccination sites. Seven teams have already opened up their stadiums or sites nearby to help in those efforts.

But, again, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell saying every one of the 32 NFL teams is in this effort, and they will make those stadiums available, Brooke, as mass vaccination sites.

BALDWIN: That's huge. I'm feeling this, ah, breath of fresh air finally just a little bit when it comes to this pandemic.

Erica Hill at Yankee Stadium.

Erica, thank you.

Dr. Celine Gounder is an infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist and a former member of the Biden/Harris Transition COVID Advisory Board.

Dr. Gounder, nice to see you.

I'm just riding the positivity wave here. So here's my question. This week, for every one COVID case, there are 10 vaccines being administered? Are we officially turning a corner?

DR. CELINE GOUNDER, BIDEN CORONAVIRUS ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER: We may be, Brooke.

It really depends on how we abide by some of these mitigation measures over the next several months, while people are getting vaccinated. Only about 2 percent of Americans have been vaccinated so far. So, we are very far from achieving herd immunity.

What we're really seeing is a decrease in cases, hospitalizations and deaths because we saw a big surge over Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's. And so I am cautiously optimistic. I'm hopeful that people will have gotten the message and see -- have seen what happened when they got together with family and friends over the holidays and what that caused in terms of increased transmission.

I'm hopeful that that message sinks home, that, as Dr. Fauci says, that people will cool it a little bit over the Super Bowl weekend, that folks will celebrate socially distanced and safely.

BALDWIN: The other piece of this, which I mentioned a second ago, is this new J&J, this Johnson & Johnson vaccine, right, which could potentially be approved within a couple of weeks.

How much would the Johnson & Johnson vaccine help, big picture here?

GOUNDER: Well, big picture, it really does increase your vaccine supply.

We are looking at having a total of 400 million vaccines delivered by Pfizer and Moderna by the end of June. You divide that by two because it's a two-dose vaccine. That's 200 million people.

Johnson & Johnson, which is one-dose vaccine, would add 100 million doses, 100 million people to the mix. That gets you to 300 million people.

[15:25:06]

And then you have the Novavax and AstraZeneca vaccines coming on the heels of J&J. And so, by this summer, I anticipate we will have plenty of vaccine to vaccinate all 330 million Americans who want to be vaccinated.

BALDWIN: Let me just sit on that for a second. We will have plenty of vaccines to vaccinate all the Americans this summer.

Here's the one bit of not great news. Dr. Fauci is still warning that the U.K. variant could become, his word, dominant. Dr. Gounder, what does that mean? And how much might this push back on all this progress?

GOUNDER: Well, this is the bad news in the picture.

The U.K. variant is predicted to become dominant by March, so quite soon. It is a more contagious variant. So you will have more cases, more hospitalizations, more deaths as a result of transmission of the U.K. variant.

There is also concern it may cause more severe disease for the individual who's infected with it. I think, big picture, we really do need to do everything possible to prevent transmission to hold on until this summer, when everybody can get vaccinated who wants to be, because, if we don't, if we allow the virus to mutate, which is what it does when it spreads, more variants could emerge.

And those variants, well, our vaccines may not protect against them. And so that would leave us in a very difficult position.

BALDWIN: It would.

Dr. Celine Gounder, thank you so much for all of that.

Back to politics this afternoon. The Democrats just took another major step toward passing their massive COVID relief plan without Republican support, and all of this is coming after President Biden defended the size, the cost of this package.

Also, former President Donald Trump says he will not show up. But with the start of his second impeachment trial just four days away, who else might be called to testify?

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