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CDC Says, Nearly 53 Million COVID-19 Vaccine Doses Administered In U.S.; Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) Says, Trump Is Excited About 2022 Midterms; Trump's Shadow Looms Over Republican Party's Future; Dr. Fauci Hopes CDC Guidelines Alleviates Teachers' Concerns; Prince Harry And Meghan Markle Expecting Second Child. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired February 14, 2021 - 18:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:00:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: I'm Pamela Brown in Washington on this Sunday. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

And we begin tonight with the fallout from Donald Trump's acquittal in the Senate. Today, the lead House impeachment manager, Jamie Raskin, is defending the Democrats' decision to skip calling witnesses.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): You know what? We have no regrets at all. We left it totally out there on the floor of the U.S. Senate and every senator knew exactly what happened, and just go back and listen to McConnell's speech. Everybody was convinced of the case we put forward.

But as the defense lawyer said, just pick any one of these phony constitutional defenses and then you can justify it. It can be First Amendment. It can be bill of attainder. It can be due process. All of them are nonsense. I thought that I successfully demolished them at the trial.

But there's no reasoning with people who basically are acting like members of a religious cult and when they leave office should be selling flowers at Dulles Airport.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Suzanne Malveaux joins us now from Capitol Hill for more on this.

It is clear, Suzanne, that even though the Senate trial is over, the horrific events of January 6th are still very much part of the discussion.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Very much so. No one has forgotten that. And you heard the House manager there, the impeachment manager, he and many others saying, look, they might have not gotten a conviction, but they certainly believe they won in the court of public opinion and the court of history.

This is the third presidential impeachment trial I covered. And this was very different in tone and tenor as you have those seven Republicans crossing over to join the Democrats, not so the last go- around with Trump and not with Bill Clinton.

These Republicans from very red states here, we're talking about North Carolina, when it comes to Richard Burr, Louisiana, Bill Cassidy, who was immediately censured afterwards, and Alaska, Lisa Murkowski, making no apologies, doubling down today, saying if months of lies, organizing a rally of supporters in an effort to thwart the work of Congress encouraging a crowd to march on the Capitol and then taking no meaningful action to stop the violence once it began is not worthy of impeachment, conviction and disqualification from holding office in the United States, I cannot imagine what is.

This is a party here that is divided. It is a time of reckoning here. We heard from Senator Lindsey Graham, who had a phone call with the former president, with Trump, and says he'll be visiting Mar-a-Lago and he says he is the future of the party. Make no mistake, he is the one that is going to deliver the goods when it comes to 2022. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): To the Republican Party, if you want to win and stop a socialist agenda, we need to work with President Trump. We can't do it without him. And to you, President Trump, you need to build a Republican Party stronger.

I'm into winning. And if you want to get something off your chest, fine, but I'm into winning.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: And, Pam, he implied that those will be asked when they are going to be going up against their opponents. What do they think of McConnell's statement? Whose side are they on, implying that that is something they're going to have to answer to.

On the Democratic side, they are moving on. They are at least trying to move it on. They say they are not going to censure, perhaps it will be a 9/11-style commission that will come about to investigate and try to come up with a common narrative of what actually took place. But they say they're eager to get back to COVID relief, to the economy.

And then also House Speaker Nancy Pelosi today putting out a statement in the third anniversary of the Parkland, Florida school shooting, that they want gun reform, something meaningful on that score, which is something that previous administrations have failed to do. Pam?

BROWN: Something that Biden is focused on today as well. Suzanne Malveaux, thank you very much.

And let me now bring in CNN Senior Political Commentator David Axelrod. [18:05:01]

He is a former senior adviser to President Obama and Host of the Axe Files podcast. David, thanks for coming on this Sunday.

What did the impeachment trial vote to acquit Donald Trump of an act, even Mitch McConnell admitted Trump was guilty of, say about the future of the GOP?

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, look. What it says is where the prevailing winds are coming from within that party. The only thing that I would say in dispute of what Suzanne just reported is I don't think the party is that divided. I think the party is very much in Trump's camp. He is an 80 percent approval rating in the Republican Party. More Republicans adhere to the basic tenets of QAnon in polling than believe that Trump was responsible for what happened at the Capitol on January 6th.

And so you saw that reflected in the votes. There were seven Republicans who were willing to stand up against those prevailing winds, and they're going to be facing the kinds of things that Senator Cassidy did, yes, say, the censure from their own party. But 43 of them thought that the better part of valor was to go along.

And so what it means for the Republican Party is that they are still in the thrall of Trumpism. They have coddled extremists. Our colleague, Ron Brownstein, has an excellent piece on cnn.com today about this. The fact that they didn't discipline Marjorie Taylor Greene for her comments, many, many comments and conspiracy theories and provocations tells you a lot.

The fact that Kevin McCarthy, who we now know had a shouting match with the president of the United States, as the insurrection was going on, because the president refused to send in help. And then McCarthy, after that, flies down to Mar-a-Lago to stand with the president.

That is where the prevailing winds are coming from in the Republican Party. And it's going to limit their ability to grow. They've lost a lot of support in suburban areas. The majority of Americans thought Trump should be held accountable. So it's going to be hard to be a national party and adhere to these extremist views.

But within the base of the party, there is a great deal of enthusiasm for them.

BROWN: Right. I mean, I think you can't argue with that that Trump still has this grip on the party. And as Ron said in his article, the moves Republicans have made, including acquitting Trump, has only given oxygen to extremists. We're going to talk to Ron later in the show about that.

But I want to read this analysis to you from The New York Times' Alex Burns. He said, the determination of so many Republican lawmakers to discard the mountain of evidence against Mr. Trump reflects how thoroughly the party has come to be defined by one man and how divorced it now appears to be from any deeper set of policy aspirations and ethical or social principles.

If you would, just help us understand why it is so devoted to one man to Donald Trump when, you know, he was just impeached, wasn't convicted but impeached for inciting a riot, lost the White House, lost the Senate arguably for Republicans and the House. Why?

AXELROD: Well, Pam, as I said before, they don't believe that he was responsible for what happened at the Capitol. They did not support impeachment. They overwhelmingly opposed impeachment because they felt he did nothing wrong. And, let's face it, Donald Trump has tapped into some very primal things in our country.

You know, this sense particularly among some white Americans that they are losing their country, as Trump often said, and as he said on the day of the insurrection, that is that -- he has touched that nerve. He has used all the tools, social media and the platform of the presidency to share conspiracy theories that have intensified these feelings. And his whole fraudulent cries about the election fed into those feelings of loss, that the system was rigged and so on. So, you know, this is a very serious thing, and the Republican Party has some real soul searching to do.

I really applaud those seven Republicans who stood up, even though only one is up for election in 2022, and two are retiring, they knew they were committing themselves to real unpleasantness when they cast those votes, and they put the Constitution ahead of the prevailing winds within their own party, and they did what they thought was right.

[18:10:06]

They deserve great credit for was the most bipartisan impeachment ever. But right now, they have an uphill battle in their own party.

BROWN: I have one last question for you, David. I want you to listen to something that Delaware Senator Chris Coons said this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): But there is still more evidence that the American people need and deserve to hear and a 9/11 commission is a way to make sure that we secure the Capitol going forward and that we lay bare the record of just how responsible and how abjectly violating of his constitutional oath President Trump really was.

We need to spend months and months unearthing all the evidence that can possibly be gotten to through a 9/11-style commission. I frankly, at that time, did not think that spending months fighting over additional witnesses would have changed the outcome of this trial one bit, and the House managers agreed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So, something like that would keep Trump front and center. Is that really the smart play by Democrats? AXELROD: Well, the 9/11 commission was designed to look back at what happened to try and make recommendations to make sure that it never happens again. And I think that is a worthy thing to do. What we saw on January 6th was horrifying and unthinkable. We should be thinking about how we prevent that. It should also include what we do about conspiracy theories and, you know, white extremism, white supremacist extremism, and all the elements that went into that day.

I just want to say, not to avoid your question, but I want to respond to the last thing that Senator Coons said. I agree with what the Democrats decided to do over the weekend. I don't believe that having further witnesses would have changed any votes in that room. And I think what it would have done was tied up the Senate at a time when the country is in desperate need of help to get out of the virus, to get out of the economic hole we're in. That's what Biden wants to do.

I think they made a responsible decision. But it also says something about that process that how implaquable these 43 Republicans were even in the face of a very strong and compelling case, and it underscores the state of the Republican Party, as we see it today.

BROWN: All right, David Axelrod, thank you for coming on to share your perspective on this. We appreciate it.

AXELROD: Good to see you, Pam, thanks.

BROWN: You too. And don't forget to join us Tuesday night. President Joe Biden will join Anderson Cooper live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for an exclusive presidential town hall starting at 9:00 Eastern. And that is only on CNN.

You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. After months of sharp rises, COVID cases and hospitalizations in the U.S. are finally falling, finally some good news on that front.

Plus, a sweet valentine for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle this year, royal baby round two, all of the details up ahead.

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[18:15:00]

BROWN: Well, we have some good news for you tonight in the fight to end the pandemic. The CDC says nearly 53 million Americans have now received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. And there's more encouraging data tonight. Cases, hospitalizations and deaths are all going down.

For more on that and the debate over how to get kids back to class safely, let's go to CNN's Natasha Chen. Natasha?

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Pamela, right now, the CDC guidance on re-opening schools safely really hinges on the level of transmission in the community where the schools are located. So in a high-transmission area or red zone, the recommendation is to do a hybrid model or virtual learning. But CNN analysis shows 99 percent of children in the U.S. live in a place that would be a red zone. So the key here is really to clamp down on community spread and get those shots into arms as quickly as possible.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHEN (voice over): Headed into Valentine's Day, fewer than 70,000 people in the U.S. are in the hospital with COVID-19, a level we haven't seen in about three months. But looking ahead at the next three months, another 130,000 people in the U.S. are projected to die of the coronavirus by June 1st, according to the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. What could make things worse, analysis of existing research in the U.K. suggests the variant first identified there makes the virus more severe.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: It makes people more sick, and it's more likely to lead to serious complications.

The somewhat comforting news is that the vaccine that we are now currently distributing, the Moderna vaccine and the Pfizer vaccine clearly work against this variant.

CHEN: Some teachers are now among those receiving the more than 50 million vaccine doses administered across the country, including in Colorado where teachers became eligible this week.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it's very exciting and it's a step closer to what everyone wants, which is schools back open full-time with teachers and students.

CHEN: While CDC Director Rochelle Walensky says she's a strong advocate for teachers getting vaccinated, it's not a prerequisite for re-opening schools. Instead, the CDC suggests measures including universal masking, which isn't happening right now in some places.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: It sounds to me like you're asking for 100 percent mask compliance and a number of measures that we're never going to be able to achieve. And that makes me feel like, boy, I don't know if the schools are ever going to open until everybody is vaccinated.

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: There's literature out that suggested that over 90 percent of people, when they're masked, you can have safe opening of schools.

[18:20:01]

What I will say is this is directly related to how much disease is in the community.

We have more flexibility in opening schools as our disease rates come down.

CHEN: The effort to stop community spread includes preventing crowds. 40,000 people are at the Cheersport National Competition this weekend in Atlanta. Though events are staggered with cleaning and mask-wearing protocols in place, still, it's the largest event hosted in Atlanta since the pandemic began.

In New Orleans, crowds on Bourbon Street more than a week ago prompted the city to shut down bars this weekend through Mardi Gras on Tuesday.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's terrible. The worst part is that they didn't announce that until after everyone had already booked rooms.

CHEN: It's a different kind of ghost town, but this haunted history tour guide supports the move.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've got to keep each other safe for right now so that we can actually celebrate Mardi Gras for years to come.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHEN (voice over): And as New Orleans keeps bars shut down through Mardi Gras, New York State as of tonight is actually extending the hours that restaurants, gyms, casinos can be open. They can open now until 11:00 P.M. And the state cites that's because of declining hospitalizations and infection rates. Pamela?

BROWN: So we keep that trend going. Natasha Chen, thank you so much.

And coming up in just 15 minutes from now, I'll speak to Becky Pringle. She is in charge of the largest teachers union in the country. And I'm going to get her reaction to the CDC not including vaccines as priority in school reopening guidelines. You won't want to miss that.

And also ahead, I'm going to speak to a pediatrician father and his 12-year-old son who's taking part in a kid's vaccine trial. That's something that a lot of parents wonder about, sending their kids. Can you imagine sending your kids to be part of this vaccine trial? We're going to talk to this father coming up.

And as some members of the GOP distance themselves from Donald Trump, others, like Senator Lindsey Graham, are playing golf with him and planning for the 2022 midterms.

Bill Kristol and A.B. Stoddard discuss, next. We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:25:00]

BROWN: Well, the majority of Republican senators in Trump's second impeachment voted to acquit but stark divisions exist in their ranks. On one side, there's Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. He voted to acquit on a technicality and then delivered a scathing speech blasting Trump and his actions, and then you have the other side, and that would be Lindsey Graham. He voted to acquit and he's defending Trump.

Well, today, he told Fox News he'll join Trump for golf next week and is excited to push the MAGA agenda in 2022.

I want to bring in Bill Kristol. He served in the presidential administration of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and he is now Editor-at-Large for The Bulwark. Also with us is A.B. Stoddard. She is Associate Editor and Columnist at RealClearPolitics.

This is something we've been talking about, right, for quite some time, the future of the GOP, Bill. But now, it's really been crystallized with this vote, this vote to acquit Donald Trump in many ways. I want to ask you though, with McConnell and Graham, why do you see so much daylight between their views on Trump but not their impeachment vote?

BILL KRISTOL, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, THE BULWARK: Neither has nerve. McConnell didn't have the nerve to actually vote to acquit, that we know, as he should have, but he's Trump-acquiescent or Trump-compliant or Trump-adjacent, or something like that. He sees the future party as bridging the Trump forces and the establishment forces. I don't admire that at all, but that's what McConnell is trying to do.

Lindsey Graham has decided to be Trump enthusiastic, all Trump all the time. Lindsey Graham wants to run for president. People don't understand what Graham is up to. Graham is a smart and shrewd character. I used to know him back in the day when he was a McCain guy, not a Trump guy. Lindsey Graham wants to be president. Lindsey Graham he thinks he can be Trump's designee in 2024.

Just think about it for a minute. Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley and those people, whatever you think of them, I don't think much of them, they have their own minds, they kind of have their own views of things. Lindsey Graham, having opposed Trump five years ago, is now the most, not just acquiescent but sycophantic to Trump, right? And Trump loves that.

So Lindsey Graham is playing the pure Trump card. He's going to cheer on Lara Trump, apparently, if she runs for Senate. She'll run in North Carolina, maybe, I think, as Lindsey has suggested yesterday. So, Lindsey -- and that, right now, more of the party is where Lindsey Graham is than even Mitch McConnell, let alone the seven people who courageously voted to convict Trump.

BROWN: And I think it does make you wonder then so more of the party is more like Lindsey Graham. You wonder if these Republican senators voted to acquit, how many of them, if it was secret ballot, how they would have voted. But they know what their constituents, where they are, where the rank and file Republicans are.

And speaking of Lindsey Graham, let's listen to what he told Fox News this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRAHAM: To the Republican Party, if you want to win and stop a socialist agenda, we need to work with President Trump. We can't do it without him. And to you, President Trump, you need to build the Republican Party stronger.

I'm into winning. And if you want to get something off your chest, fine, but I'm into winning. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Into winning. And it's worth remembering that Lindsey Graham trashed Trump back in the day, and now he's clearly aligned himself with him because he thinks it's politically expedient, apparently. But is Trump, A.B., really capable of helping, considering his own ego- driven needs have often hurt the party and arguably cost Republicans the Senate, the White House and the House?

[18:30:07]

A.B. STODDARD, ASSOCIATE EDITOR AND COLUMNIST, REALCLEARPOLITICS: Right. That's the question, I wrote about this in the "Bulwark" a few weeks back about how Trump is going to break the Republican Party because he simply can't help himself. He wants two sides pitted against each other. He wants retribution and the reality-based Republicans like Brad Raffensperger, the secretary of state of Georgia, and Doug Ducey, the governor of Arizona, and now anyone who voted to impeach in the House and the Senate.

They have to pay because they're not furthering the big lie and making him a martyr in a stolen election. What's happening at the state level is incredibly frightening if you look at the parties that -- just forget Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, Josh Hawley, all the people running for president. Just look at your average Republican senator who says when you talk to them and House members, too, look, you know, my constituents, they believe this stuff.

And so what they're admitting is they don't have the nerve to go home and tell their constituents you've been lied to. And at the state party level, the grassroots are still locked in an occult of personality for Donald Trump. And everyone who has crossed Trump during this transition and post-January 6th has been censured by their state party. If you look at Arizona, Texas, Oregon, Virginia, Wyoming.

BROWN: Louisiana, right.

STODDARD: These parties have gone off the deep end. Yes. And they are Trump-centric retribution, MAGA-battling combat forces. They stand for one man and loyalty to that big question and not for a bunch of Republican principles. So these lawmakers are still going where the wind is blowing.

BROWN: Right. And it's really been sort of this vicious cycle where Republicans at the time Donald Trump and others were spreading this big lie, then the constituents believe it, and then, you know, it just becomes this cyclical situation.

But the bigger picture question from this, Bill, is what does this mean for anyone watching this right now? Why should people watching how the GOP is unfolding and the future of the GOP care? And what does it mean for conservatives, true conservatives who are very principled, who are not aligned with the extreme wing of this party?

KRISTOL: We have two big national parties in America. They're about evenly balanced. The Republicans have 50 senators, almost as many members of the House, 27 governors, and this party is not a reliably pro-democratic, pro-truth, pro-facts party anymore. And that's dangerous for the country. They could win elections, they could have a majority in the House or the Senate after 2022.

They could win the presidency in 2024, whether it's Trump himself or a Trump family member or a Lindsey Graham sycophant type or Tucker Carlson or someone else. So I think this is why all Americans need to be worried about, concerned about, and thinking hard about how to both -- help fix the Republican Party to the degree it can be fixed, help support people who might be able to win some primaries, and raise more of an opposition force within the Republican Party, or frankly simply to defeat the Republican Party at the polls.

BROWN: You've considered yourself a Republican, though. Where are you now, Bill, just given what you laid out?

KRISTOL: Yes. I can't really be a Republican right now. I guess I'm -- I'm in Virginia, we don't have party registration, I'm an independent. But I don't see myself voting for a Republican for federal office in the very near future.

BROWN: That's interesting. So, A.B., let's talk about what lies ahead for Trump given this context. Right? Sources are telling CNN that Trump has privately voiced concern about whether he could face charges as a result of the January 6th riot. 200 people have been charged with federal crime so far.

If he joins that list, if he is charged, how could this affect his political future? Because, remember, the thing with conviction, impeachment, removal, is he couldn't hold office again in 2024. That's not necessarily the case if he's obviously charged.

STODDARD: Right. President Trump is definitely going to spin out this threat and lie that he's running again, just because it's good for him to be in the spotlight, and that's what he craves. So it doesn't matter if he ever intends to do it. He will lord over the party with that promise no matter what. It raises money and it gets him attention.

What's interesting about the next few years is that the loyalty that he demands from Ron Johnson and everyone who's defending him right now, and is up in 2022, is that they are likely to be in a position where they have to defend him as a criminal defendant. Something I don't imagine that Mitch McConnell will be doing or Liz Cheney. And they are increasingly vocal, but they are in the minority. And so it will be interesting how much that sort of takes the shine off of his electability.

I imagine with a hardcore base, anything about January 6th and anything about, you know, the big lie, again, makes him a martyr in their eyes. And they believe that Joe Biden is an illegitimate president because their own Republican leaders from Trump on down will never admit that's that -- that Joe Biden, you know, won fair and square.

[18:35:10] So, once he's under, you know, criminal investigation and prosecution for these potential things like bank fraud and wire fraud and tax fraud, that's going to become very difficult for the Republicans now who are trying to cling to his defense in order to term the voters.

BROWN: And also, Bill, just very quickly, it also makes you wonder, though, if he will be more sympathetic to some who would say, oh, well, he's -- you know, the deep state is going after him and how McConnell's speech on the floor gave cover for DOJ to go after him. It just raises those political questions.

KRISTOL: Yes. I don't know if the federal DOJ will, but if the state does, they'll say it's some Democratic state, total political trials. Who knows whether, you know, such easy to convict people with crimes? So, yes, I don't think Trump minds playing the victim.

He will raise tens, hundreds of millions of dollars off Trump legal defense funds. So I'm less confident than a lot of my friends that Trump is finished or that Trump won't be unfortunately a viable candidate in 2024, or at least in his blessing won't be very much very powerful in the Republican Party.

BROWN: All right, Bill Kristol, A.B. Stoddard, thank you so much. Hope to have you back on the show soon.

KRISTOL: Thanks.

STODDARD: Thanks, Pamela.

BROWN: And up next, the fierce debate on how to reopen schools safely. The CDC says vaccinating teachers is not a prerequisite for getting kids back to class. I'll speak to the head of the biggest teachers union, Becky Pringle, when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:40:42]

BROWN: Well, last week the CDC released new guidance for re-opening schools. And the plan was more thorough than anything provided during the Trump administration and highlights five key measures for re- opening. Universal mask wearing, social distancing, hand washing, cleaning facilities and improved ventilation. Plus, contact tracing, isolation, and quarantining.

One glaring omission from that list, vaccines being a prerequisite. The administration's medical experts contend that teacher vaccinations are not a requirement for schools to safely reopen. And this morning Biden chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said this about the issue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, CHIEF MEDICAL ADVISER TO PRESIDENT BIDEN: So vaccinating teachers are part of it, but it's not a sine qua non, it's something that you can't open a school unless all the teachers are vaccinated.

That would be optimal if you could do that, but practically speaking when you balance the benefit of getting the children back to school with the fact that the risks are being mitigated if you follow the recommendations and these new guidelines from the CDC, hopefully I think that will alleviate the concerns on both sides.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And here to discuss is Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers union.

Becky, thanks for coming on.

BECKY PRINGLE, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION: It's good to be with you, Pamela.

BROWN: So you just heard what Dr. Fauci said. Do you believe -- does the teachers union believe that vaccinating all teachers before schools reopen should be a requirement?

PRINGLE: Pamela, let me begin by saying that as an eighth grade science teacher, that's why they call it the wonder years, for over 30 years, this is what I know. Every educator in this country, whether they are teachers or paraprofessionals or nurses or counselors, they want to be back in person with their students.

That's what they want. But the reality is that for 11 months, 11 months, we've waited to get the resources to do exactly what Dr. Fauci is saying and what Dr. Walensky is saying, what the CDC guidelines are saying we need in our schools.

You said them yourself, Pamela. Mask wearing, we know that there are schools that don't have enough PPE, or where they're succumbed to pressure for not wearing them. Ventilation. We know our schools are not ventilated properly. All of those measures, the CDC guidelines, they take a really good first step, Pamela, but now we need to have the action. And that's what we have in (INAUDIBLE).

CABRERA: OK. So just to drill down on this, though, if those mitigation efforts can be available in all schools, are you comfortable with teachers going back and all teachers not being vaccinated? Is that acceptable?

PRINGLE: What's acceptable is ensuring that that's what they have. We've seen all over the country, Pamela, and --

BROWN: So I just want to be clear. So you're comfortable for them to go back not vaccinated and if those other steps are taken that I listed earlier?

PRINGLE: If all of the mitigation factors are put in place, all of them, we're not picking and choosing, we're not deciding to do it one day and not the other day, but most especially, Pamela, and this is really important. We know that the schools that are not getting the resources to have the social distancing. And by the way, the CDC guidelines now are very, very strong on this. At least six feet, at least six feet.

We know to do that we need more educators. We need buildings that are safe. That's what we're asking for. And we know that if Congress does its job, that we will have the resources to do just that.

BROWN: OK. So just, again, I want to be clear. So you are -- -if all those mitigation efforts are in place, you're comfortable with teachers going back if they haven't been vaccinated is what I heard from you. So let's talk about these mitigation efforts in schools being key to reopen. This is what Rochelle Walensky said to Jake Tapper, my colleague Jake Tapper today. She of course is the CDC director.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: We really don't want to bring community disease into the classroom. We also know that mask breaching is among the reasons that we have transmission within schools when it happens.

[18:45:06]

And so we really need to do the hard work to make sure that there is universal masking, there's strict six feet of distancing between, that there's cohorting or podding, so that there's restriction of disease if it were to be transmitted, you know, and all of the contact tracing and whatnot that needs to be done. And all of that is really hard to put together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So she's basically saying even if it's allowed, if the schools have the masks available, that the problem is mask breaching. So how can every school ensure there won't be mask breaching especially in areas where there are no longer mask mandates?

PRINGLE: That's exactly what the challenge is honestly, Pamela. And it's why Dr. Walensky as well as and Dr. Fauci both believe that educators should be prioritized for vaccinations. They both said that. And that's in the CDC guidelines as well.

And what she did was said that that is a complex problem. It's hard to put all of that together. It takes the entire community to ensure that our students are safe, that we can look our students and our parents and our educators in the eye, and say to them that the schools are the safest place to be.

That's what we have failed to do so far. If we follow the CDC guidelines with fidelity, Pamela, with fidelity and consistently, we will be able to return to in-person learning safely, and we will be able to stay in person, and that's important. We saw all the chaos in the fall. We want to stay in our classrooms.

And one more thing I want to say, this is really important as well. And we know as we think about the resources that must come to our schools, we've already seen that this impact of the COVID pandemic on black and brown and indigenous communities and all of the crises that it's on, economic crises and health care crises, we've got to make sure that we do that equitably and safely. And we have to make sure of the equitable distribution of vaccine.

BROWN: OK. Thank you, Becky Pringle. That is a priority for sure. Up next -- we appreciate you coming on.

Up next, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have just announced that they are expecting their second child. Our royal correspondent Max Foster is standing by with all the details, when we come back.

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[18:51:53]

BROWN: Well, some exciting news for the royal family this Valentine's Day. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced that they are expecting their second child. CNN's royal correspondent Max Foster joins me now.

So, Max, what more are you learning?

MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: Not very much. They just made this announcement. They said we can confirm that Archie is going to be a big brother. Those according to a spokesperson for the family, the Sussexes.

And they added the couple are overjoyed to be expecting their second child. And with that announcement came this photograph. All we know is that the photo was taken remotely by the photographer on a tablet computer, but certainly bringing a ray of, you know, California sunshine to the gloomy British winter.

Certainly, here it's all over the front pages this photograph today. Their first-born Archie is 19 months old, but of course the Duchess announced in November that she had had a miscarriage over the summer. So some really delightful news. Both sides of the family have been informed and Buckingham Palace announced tonight that the family, Prince Charles, the Queen, all delighted at this news, wishing the family well.

No more details. And it's not quite clear whether or not the couple know the sex of this new baby, but I'm sure we'll find out in good time.

BROWN: We'll find out soon enough. All right, Max Foster, thank you so much.

And with storms a big arctic blast more than half the U.S. population is under a winter weather alert right now. It is so cold on the plains they could see temperatures drop 50 degrees below average. More on that ahead.

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[18:58:17] BROWN: Well, if you're not under a winter warning watch or advisory tonight, consider yourself lucky. More than half of all Americans are in the grip of a brutal arctic storm system spreading across the country, leaving heavy snow and treacherous layers of ice in its wake.

And they are still digging out in Seattle but right now south eastern Texas, southern Oklahoma, northern Louisiana and southern Arkansas are in this storm's cross hairs.

CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam says people in those areas could experience the worst week of winter weather in their lifetimes. Already more than 600,000 customers have lost power in five states. That's not the worst of it. Slick roads are also causing dangerous jackknives and pileups in this accident take a look right here. It happened a short time ago right outside Oklahoma City. Multiple semis and passenger cars involved there. There are some injuries we've learned.

And there's more potential misery in the pipeline. Another winter storm is in the forecast in the days ahead.

Well, the scale of the pandemic's devastation in America is still so hard to fathom, so I want to focus on two recent victims. Juan and Blanca Rodriguez of San Diego. Juan and Blanca met in middle school and married five years later.

And on Monday, the proud grandparents and lifelong sweethearts succumbed to COVID-19. Just hours apart during their final Zoom call from separate hospitals, Blanca thanked Juan for being the love of her life. She died that night. And Juan passed away three hours later.

Here's how one of their four children characterized their final moments together.

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BLANCA VELASQUEZ, JUAN AND BLANCA RODRIGUEZ'S DAUGHTER: It's an epic love story, you know, that they went together in the same day.

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