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Sites Opening Across U.S. to Administer Coronavirus Vaccines; New Coronavirus Cases and Deaths Begin to Decrease in U.S.; Department of Defense Begins Deploying National Guard to Help with Coronavirus Vaccine Distribution; Prominent Rioter Charged in Storming of Capitol Profiled; Vice President Kamala Harris Casts Tie Breaking Votes Related to Senate COVID Relief Bill. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired February 06, 2021 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They want people to use that instead so they don't start yelling and screaming and spread the virus. They don't want the Super Bowl to turn into a super spreader event, Fred.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: That's right. All right, people, behave. And I see some sunshine, very nice, good location, can't get better than that. Randi Kaye, thank you so much.

And of course, we'll have much more on the big game next hour in our CNN Bleacher Report special, "Kick Off in Tampa Bay," Andy Scholes and Coy Wire will be joined by two time Super Bowl champion Malcolm Jenkins, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and so many more. That's happening at 2:30 p.m. eastern right here on CNN.

Hello again, everyone, thank you so much for joining me, I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

Encouraging signs in the U.S. fight against coronavirus. But with new variants emerging, experts warn everyone must remain vigilant. First, the signs of progress. Vaccinations are now outpacing new cases. The U.S. is averaging 1.3 million vaccines administered every day. That's up from 1.1 million just last week. And new cases and deaths are dropping in most states across the country.

But the U.S. is seeing an increase in some of the new variants of the disease. Virginia just reported its first case of the South African variant, and the CDC says more than 600 cases of new variants from South Africa, the U.K., and Brazil have been reported in 33 states.

With that in mind, the CDC is warning Americans against holding large Super Bowl parties tomorrow, indoors especially. New guidance says that you should only watch the game with people you live with to prevent any new outbreaks.

And in New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo says his state is seeing a rapid decline in both positivity rates and hospitalizations. And it comes as vaccinations are ramping up across the state. CNN's Evan McMorris-Santoro is outside Yankee Stadium. Evan, who is getting vaccinated today? EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fred, I'm here at

Yankee Stadium. And what you're seeing behind me is kind of the best- case scenario for how vaccinations are supposed to work. This is obviously a massive site designed to move thousands of people in and out in a quick period of time, and that's what's happening here in the Bronx.

People who are eligible here in the Bronx, in this borough, are able to come and get vaccinated today and tomorrow, and 15,000 appointments are available this weekend. Thousands of them have already filled up.

The plan here is to try to target this borough, which has been one of the hardest hit in the city, and still has one of the highest percentages of infection rates of the entire city. So that's how it's supposed to work. It's working behind me, people are lining up, they're getting vaccines, they're coming out.

The main challenge remains here the actual availability of vaccine. City officials and state officials say, look, they can build sites like this all over the place, they can move a lot more vaccines into people's arms. They just need the doses to do it. So you're seeing behind me a sign of an actual success story behind me. They just need more doses to make it even more of a success story, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Increase that production if possible. Evan McMorris- Santoro, thanks so much, in New York at Yankee Stadium.

Meantime. on the other side of the country, California Governor Gavin Newsom is facing a recall threat as frustration over the pandemic grows across that state. Organizers say they've collected more than a million signatures supporting the effort to remove him from office.

They need a half-million more to get the recall process put into motion. This as California becomes just the second state in the nation to surpass 43,000 coronavirus deaths. CNN's Paul Vercammen joining us now from Los Angeles. So Paul, what more are you learning?

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're learning that we are starting to see some of the variants crop up here in California. And let's get right to Dr. Barbara Ferrer. She runs county health here in Los Angeles County. And how do you get ahead of the threat of these variants?

DR. BARBARA FERRER, LOS ANGELES COUNTY HEALTH DIRECTOR: That's such a good question, and good afternoon, everyone. I really want to note that the variants are really mutations of a virus, and almost all viruses mutate. The strategies that we have in place right now, keeping your face coverings on, keeping your distance from other people, washing your hands, those will protect you against the variant.

You just have to do them all of the time, particularly if we're suspicious that the new variants that might be circulating can in fact more easily infect other people. So we've got the tools. We just have to use them. VERCAMMEN: And as we look over your right shoulder, we see people who

have just received a shot in their arm. These are all first vaccines. But you have said that you could be vaccinating way more people at sites such as this, you just lack the vaccine.

FERRER: It's the heartache right now.

[14:05:00]

So many people want to get vaccinated. This site here could accommodate easily 4,000 people getting vaccinated a day, really 4,000 cars. And we just don't have vaccine. Today we were only able to release 1,100 appointments.

VERCAMMEN: Right now, in Los Angeles County, people 65 and older, health care workers getting vaccinated, what group gets added next to the list?

FERRER: There are three groups that will be added at the same time here in the county. It will be education and child care workers, food and agricultural workers, first responders, public safety, and law enforcement. And hopefully in the next couple of weeks if we get more vaccine, we'll start immediately being able to roll out vaccines for all three of those groups.

VERCAMMEN: And a lot of small business owners begging you to allow them to reopen. Any light at the end of the tunnel for, let's say, indoor dining and this of thing?

FERRER: I think we're a ways away from indoor dining. Let's just face it. The virus is really easily transmitted when you don't have a face covering on. So when you're indoors to eat or drink, and you have to take your face covering off, that's the perfect environment for this virus to get transmitted.

Usually when you go into a restaurant, there's lots of other people there, there are workers there, they're not in your household. So no, I think we're a ways away from indoor dining.

VERCAMMEN: Before you know it in California, this is almost hard to say, but we're going to reach 20,000 fatalities. I'm going to play a clip from you in December when we reached 8,000 fatalities, and you were extremely emotional.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FERRER: Over 8,000 people who were beloved members of their families are not coming back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VERCAMMEN: I'm wondering, how are you holding up with all of this? Was there ever a moment when you thought this was just becoming overwhelming and maybe you wanted to do something else?

FERRER: I've never felt like I needed to do anything else. But overwhelming, absolutely. Heartbreaking, almost on a weekly basis. So many families have lost people that they love. So many families have really also experienced the hardship of having people that they love in the hospitals for long periods of time.

So much devastation, economic devastation, and the devastation that's caused by losing thousands and thousands of people. There are days where I've had to report over 300 people have died and passed away. I don't see how that wouldn't be overwhelming for anyone.

But we're all in this together. I've got a job to do. I'm surrounded by wonderful people, helping us really try to make sure that we've got a path forward, that really helps all of us protect each other, because that's the name of the game right now. We can do stuff that is pretty easy to do, that will allow us to, in fact, reduce the number of people that are dying, reduce the number of people that are in the hospital. We just have to stay focused.

VERCAMMEN: I super appreciate your taking time out, Dr. Ferrer. I'm going to toss it back to Atlanta now. I also want to paraphrase really quick, Fred, what Dr. Ferrer said about tomorrow and the Super Bowl, don't be mixing together a bunch of different people from different households in one party. Back to you now, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Right, people cannot hear that enough. Dr. Ferrer, Paul Vercammen, thanks to both of you, appreciate it.

Keeping up with the target pace of vaccinations will take a huge amount of resources, including manpower. That's why the military, the U.S. military, is providing troops to try to keep things moving. Oren Liebermann has more from the Pentagon.

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OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin approved the deployment of about 1,100 troops to five different vaccination sites as part of the Department of Defense's effort to help FEMA build up and support COVID vaccination sites. The first of these teams of about 220 will deploy within the next 10 days or so to one of two vaccination sites in California, either in Oakland or in Los Angeles. That's up to FEMA, and it's unclear yet where those troops will be helping out.

The team of 220, each team in fact, will have nurses, vaccinators, command and control, as well as clinical staff, general staff, and others to build up what are intended to be these mass vaccination sites.

Now, 1,100 troops is still far short of the full FEMA request for 10,000 troops. But at this point even FEMA has acknowledged that buildup to those sorts of numbers that could deliver up to 450,000 vaccinations a day would be incremental. So this, it appears, is just the beginning.

One of the key questions here, how much vaccine supply is there, and is there enough to put out so many troops. And that is a key question we'll be asking as this process moves forward. How long will each of these vaccination teams remain in place? That will be a discussion between FEMA and the Department of Defense before they can wrap up at one site and perhaps move to another site where they're also needed.

Oren Liebermann, CNN, at the Pentagon.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WHITFIELD: And today marks one month since the insurrection on Capitol Hill, and nearly 200 people have been charged, including a self- proclaimed dating coach.

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Up next, we'll take a look at his bizarre online videos.

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WHITFIELD: Today marks one month since the violent attack on the U.S. capitol. President Trump's impeachment trial is just days away now, and so far, nearly 200 people have been charged by the U.S. Justice Department. Just this week two men affiliated with the Proud Boys were indicted on conspiracy charges.

However, there have been very few serious charges filed overall, and authorities have yet to charge anyone in the death of Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick. CNN's Alex Marquardt looks at one of the prominent rioters charged so far.

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ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: In the violent mob that stormed the Capitol building on January 6th, the FBI says, was Samuel Fisher from New York, a self-described dating coach who goes by the name Brad Holiday with a website that offers a misogynistic and darkly conspiratorial mix of countless posts ranging from wild political rants to supposed self-help tips in fitness, sex, fashion, and more.

SAMUEL FISHER, ALLEGED INSURRECTIONIST: You should be able to learn various black magic hypnosis skills.

MARQUARDT: His tirades and views of women indicate a deep-seated resentment of the political system and the opposite sex, grievances on full display while presenting a macho, chauvinist front seen in many of the insurrectionists that day. Court documents show photos from Fisher's Facebook page, including one that the FBI believes was taken on the steps of the Capitol.

[14:15:03]

On his Facebook account the FBI says Fisher wrote about January 6th. "It was dangerous and violent. People died," he wrote, "But it was f- ing great, if you ask me. Seeing cops literally run was the coolest thing I've seen in my life."

Another photo from court documents shows Fisher in front of a Trump flag with different weapons, and the menacing caption, "Can't wait to bring a liberal back to this freedom palace."

On January 6th, Fisher had, according to the FBI, written "Got to make a stand, not going to be intimidated," and then posted this picture of a rifle and a pistol. He wrote that he expected Trump to play an ace card, with the deep state arrested and hanged on the White House lawn, or, he writes, "If Biden takes over, patriots show up in the millions with guns. They execute all treasonous members of government."

Fisher now faces two federal charges, unlawful entry of and disorderly conduct on restricted grounds. On his website Fisher was trying to sell what he calls an attraction accelerate, a trove of digital tutorials on workouts, boosting testosterone, beauty products, handling guns, and seducing women, with, among other things, a hypnotic gaze and so-called porn star sex games. At the same time, he calls women "the least trustworthy people on the whole I have ever met in my life."

FISHER: If a girl is so hot you can't tell her to shut the -- up when she's talking nonsense, you have a real problem, dude.

MARQUARDT: Over in the political section, Fisher posted twisted, baseless conspiracy theories, and wrote on January 6th that he expected to be betrayed by Congress, that it would be the most historically important day of our lives. After the insurrection, he posted this video about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

FISHER: Some dude sat behind your desk. Oh, I'm so sorry. That sounds really tough.

MARQUARDT: "The New York Times" reports that Fisher grew up in New Jersey and said he was estranged from his family, born Jewish, but was known to post anti-Semitic articles and videos. People who know Fisher told "The Times" that he said he was bullied as a child and that three years ago, after reportedly posting online about the mother of his child leaving him, Fisher started drifting toward conspiracy theories.

We did reach out to Fisher's lawyer but got no response. Fisher was arrested two weeks after the insurrection. He has had a hearing already in which his lawyers said he would not be pleading guilty. But so far Fisher has not yet entered a plea.

Alex Marquardt, CNN, Washington.

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WHITFIELD: And this just in to CNN. An official says a faulty locking system is to blame for an overnight security breach at a downtown St. Louis jail. St. Louis' public safety director says certain inmates were able to manipulate the locks in their cells before escaping and releasing other inmates.

About 115 inmates ended up overtaking an area of the jail. They set fires, broke out windows, and threw things from fourth floor windows. Officials say they are working on improving the security system, but there was never any threat of the inmates escaping the building. The motivations behind the mayhem still unclear. About 60 of the inmates are expected to be transferred to a more secure facility.

Still ahead, President Biden signals he will move forward with his coronavirus relief bill with or without Republican support, but one major campaign promise likely won't be included.

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WHITFIELD: As President Biden moves forward with his $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill, he now says the package won't end up being exactly what he proposed. Some things, such as a $15 minimum wage increase, likely won't make the final version. But if the bill does come down to a close vote, Vice President Harris is prepared to flex her muscle in another tie-breaking vote. Here now is Arlette Saenz.

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ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Vice President Kamala Harris Friday morning with a tie-breaker.

KAMALA HARRIS, (D) VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The Senate being equally divided, the vice president votes in the affirmative.

SAENZ: Not once but twice.

HARRIS: And the concurrent resolution as amended is adopted.

SAENZ: Already this week, the vice president traveled to Capitol Hill three times to be on standby, ultimately flexing her new power as president of the Senate on a budget resolution unlocking the ability to pass a COVID relief package without Republican votes.

HARRIS: I was there voting at 5:00 this morning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you for that vote.

HARRIS: Enjoyable to be there.

SAENZ: It's a task she's expressed some reluctance to perform as the White House hopes bipartisanship will thrive. Just before taking office, Harris wrote she will do so if necessary, but "it is my hope that rather than come to the point of a tie, the Senate will instead find common ground and do the work of the American people." The demand as a tie-breaker in a dead-even Senate could also complicate her day- to-day work.

JOEL GOLDSTEIN, AUTHOR, "THE WHITE HOUSE VICE PRESIDENCY": It's a little bit of a mixed blessing because it means that she has to structure her schedule with attention towards the Senate calendar. If she needs to be at the Senate or near the Senate, she can't be doing foreign travel, she can't be doing domestic travel.

SAENZ: Harris' predecessor, Mike Pence, delayed a trip to the Middle East in 2017 to stay close as the Senate voted on a tax reform package. His vote ultimately wasn't needed, but Pence did go on to cast 13 tie-breaking votes, a record for a modern-day vice president. Dick Cheney, who was the last vice president to serve during an evenly-split Senate, made eight, while Al Gore had four.

AL GORE, FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: Every time I vote, we win. It's a very encouraging phenomenon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The yeas are 60.

SAENZ: President Biden never once cast a tie-breaking vote in his eight years as vice president but was a frequent fixture on Capitol Hill.

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We shouldn't predict how the Senate is going to vote before they vote, you won't make a lot of money.

SAENZ: While Biden served in the Senate for 36 years, Harris only spent four as a senator before moving to the White House. But now, as the tie-breaker, she may regularly roam the halls of Congress again, a move Senate Democrats welcome.

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR, (D-MN): There are times when she may have to be nearby or even be there because we don't know what a vote is going to be. Sometimes it's going to be more important than ever given the close, close Senate where we are literally a tie.

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SAENZ (on camera): And those frequent visits up to Capitol Hill could give Vice President Harris some valuable face time with senators. When she was up there earlier this week, Harris met privately in her Senate office with both Republican and Democratic senators as cultivating those kinds of relationships could be key to this White House as they're looking to push their agenda. Fred?

WHITFIELD: She'll have to keep those chucks handy. That's a lot of walking up there. Arlette Saenz, thanks so much.

And thank you for joining me today. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Up next, "Kick Off in Tampa Bay, A CNN Bleacher Report Special" with Coy Wire and Andy Scholes.

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