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Biden's Agenda Takes Center Stage Following Impeachment Trial; Trump Faces Mounting Legal Trouble Despite Impeachment Acquittal; Study Finds Seven New COVID-19 Variants in the U.S.; CDC'S New School Reopening Guidelines Create More Confusion. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired February 15, 2021 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:27]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan. Thank you for joining us for this special Presidents' Day edition of the show.

The final verdict will be debated for years to come, but with the Senate vote this weekend, Donald Trump's stranglehold on the spotlight is over, at least for now. There is new room for a new focus in Washington and President Biden is pushing to make sure that focus is on his agenda.

At the very top of that, getting the pandemic under control, offering new emergency aid through the president's COVID relief proposal and there are 27 days left until unemployment benefits run out for millions of Americans. So the urgency is now. The urgency is here.

Will there be bipartisan support for the end result? How important is that right now to Joe Biden?

There is some fundamental question as well for Republicans today. First and foremost, is Donald Trump is the leader of the party still? Is that what they want for the next four years? Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, one of the seven Republicans to vote to convict Donald Trump is one of the few to publicly say no to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): I think his force wanes. The Republican Party is more than one just person. The Republican Party is about ideas. I think our leadership will be different going forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: In a perfect encapsulation of the divide that exists now in the Republican Party and the soul-searching that is needed by its members, Cassidy's own state party in Louisiana wasted no time and has already censured him for his vote to impeach Donald Trump.

Let's start with the White House this hour. CNN's Jeremy Diamond is there. He's joining me right now.

So, Jeremy, the Presidents' Day holiday really marks a new chapter early on for the Biden presidency. Where are they focused?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, over the past week, they've had the impeachment trial in the Senate really clouding everything that they were trying to do in pushing for this coronavirus relief bill. That doesn't mean that President Biden and the White House weren't trying. In fact, President Biden over the last week has had several meetings. He met with bipartisan governors and mayors on Friday to drum up support for that bill. But there's no question that it was a lot harder to break through with that impeachment trial happening in the Senate.

Now that is over. The book has been closed on that issue and President Biden this week, tomorrow in fact, he's going to be going out into the country for the first time to try to pitch his stimulus bill in a CNN town hall in Wisconsin. You could expect the president to once again stress the urgency of the need for the proposal.

And then again on Thursday, the president heading to the state of Michigan where he'll tour a Pfizer vaccination plan and there I think you'll hear something similar for the president which is that even though the federal government is doing all it can right now to ramp up vaccine distribution, he believes that they need more funding from Congress in order to really ramp up all of that activity.

And so, this week, you'll also see activity on the House side. Last week, we saw several House committees begin to do the work of actually writing that $1.9 trillion proposal into law. This week, the House Budget Committee expected to assemble those bills and start putting that together in one piece of legislation. But there is no question, Kate, that the clock is ticking here. Twenty-seven days until March 14th which is the day that those federal supplemental unemployment benefits are set to expire.

That is the date by which the Biden administration and Democrats on Capitol Hill want to make sure they could get this package passed.

And one more note, today, Kate, is the first day of Obamacare special enrollment period that has been reopened. This is because of an executive order that President Biden signed at end of last month, a three-month period now for most Americans to once again sign up if they need to on healthcare.gov -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Jeremy, thank you so much.

And as Jeremy just mentioned, President Joe Biden, he will be joining CNN's Anderson Cooper for Biden's first presidential town hall live from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. That's tomorrow night at 9:00 Eastern.

So, for Donald Trump, the impeachment trial is over, but his legal problems are not. The former president is facing multiple investigations now, including potential criminal liability in New York and Georgia.

CNN's Boris Sanchez is in West Palm Beach, Florida, where the -- where Donald Trump is staying. He's joining me now.

Boris, can you lay out for us the legal jeopardy that Donald Trump is facing now as a private citizen?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kate.

No shortage of legal issues for the former president, both in criminal and civil cases. Donald Trump put out a statement this weekend alluding to his political future and being involved in politics moving forward in 2022 and potentially a run in 2024, but he will have a series of legal hurdles to potentially overcome before that.

[11:05:09]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ (voice-over): Without the protection of being commander-in- chief, former President Trump has a growing number of legal concerns and investigations. Trump is facing at least two investigations in Georgia, including one, a source tells CNN, about the former president's phone call pressuring Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to find votes to over turn his election loss. Another by the Fulton County District Attorney's Office, looking into Trump's alleged efforts to influence the administration of the 2020 Georgia general election.

FANI WILLIS, FULTON COUNTY, GA DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Something occurred here within my jurisdiction that may be criminal and if that is the case, it needed to be investigated.

SANCHEZ: And there are multiple criminal and civil probes in New York, investigating Trump's properties and alleged insurance and tax fraud. There could also be charges filed against Trump in Washington, D.C.

(CROWD CHANTING)

SANCHEZ: Federal prosecutors stressing that nothing is off the table. When asked if they were looking at Trump's role in inciting violence during the Capitol insurrection in January.

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): I think there is grounds for further proceedings, both civil and criminal against former President Trump. That phase of accountability moves to the courts.

SANCHEZ: Nearly a month after leaving the White House, Trump's influence on Senate Republicans could interfere with President Joe Biden's agenda. Democrats noting a preview of that possibility after all but seven Senate Republicans voted to acquit the former president in his impeachment trial.

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): The rest of them, I think it effectively made the decision that, you know, Donald Trump's is going to be in charge of they for the next four years as they were deathly afraid of him for the last four years. They are going to continue to be afraid of him for the next four years.

SANCHEZ: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell directly blaming Trump for inciting the riot despite voting that he is not guilty. McConnell also saying the former president could still face criminal charges.

SEN. MITCH MCCONELL (R-KY), MINORITY LEADER: President Trump is still liable for everything he did while he was in office, as an ordinary citizen. Unless the statute of limitations has run, still liable for everything he did while he was in office.

SANCHEZ: For some of his top Republican allies, Trump remains the future.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): The Trump movement is alive and well. The most potent force in the Republican Party is President Trump.

SANCHEZ: But for others, it's time to move on.

GOV. LARRY HOGAN (D-MD): You've got to look at what's good for the country and not worry about the next election.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ (on camera): Now, Kate, I did want to quickly mention, Trump is also facing a number of defamation lawsuits, including from two women who claim that the former president sexually assaulted him -- assaulted them, I should say.

We should point out, Trump has denied wrongdoing in all of the cases and the Trump Organization maintains they've kept all of their business dealings in accordance with the law -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Boris, thanks for laying that out for us. Appreciate it.

Joining me for now is Ryan Goodman. He's a professor at the NYU School of Law and former special counsel at the Department of Defense.

It's good to see you again, Ryan.

What do you see as, I don't know, the next steps considering the investigations and in D.C. and New York and the D.A. in Georgia in the midst of a criminal investigation that would involve the president?

RYAN GOODMAN, PROFESSOR, NYU SCHOOL OF LAW: That's right. So I think that the two fastest moving trains are the New York district attorney's office where they've engaged in this investigation of President Trump's taxes and insurance statements and things like that for quite sometime.

And there has been a lot of reporting that the investigation is heating up. And then in the second one it is definitely coming out of Fulton County, in Georgia, in which the district attorney there, Fani Willis, has been explicit she's investigating potential election interference and that it is a high priority. And by all accounts, she's looking directly at President Trump.

BOLDUAN: Just broadly speaking, when you look at, you know, as Boris laid out, everything that the investigation is being faced and the ones you think are being fast tracked. How serious do you think the legal liability, jeopardy that Donald Trump is facing right now? GOODMAN: So if I were him or his attorneys, I would be very worried about the New York authorities and then the Georgia authorities. I might be a little bit less worried about the D.C. authorities but still it is -- it's a concern and a worry.

The New York authorities, they'll be able to prove their case either easily or not based on documents. So, it's going to be pretty straightforward in that regard.

The Georgia case, the district attorney certainly seems like she's fully committed to this. She has 19 years experience as a prosecutor.

[11:10:01]

She has multiple witnesses. She also potentially has multiple people she could flip because she's also indicated there have been reports that it is indicated that her investigation might implicate others like Rudy Giuliani.

So there are many ways in which she has extraordinary power to do something there. And it is a potential felony under Georgia law which is not subject to any kind of federal pardon.

BOLDUAN: Yeah, that's a great point.

Let me play -- we heard some in Boris's piece, some of what Mitch McConnell said from the Senate floor. But I also want to play for you how Mitch McConnell very clearly alluded to Trump having criminal liability in the speech from the Senate floor right after his -- the acquittal vote. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCCONNELL: We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation. And former presidents are not immune from being accountable by either one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: And you've mentioned the D.A. in Georgia. I mean, this is Fulton County, which includes, you know, a big part of Atlanta. She spoke to "The New York Times" this weekend. She says she's considering conspiracy as well as racketeering charges over the efforts of the Trump campaign to overturn Trump's loss in Georgia.

What do you think of that? What do you think that means for the president?

GOODMAN: I think it means very serious problem for the president. Multiple former federal prosecutors and state authorities in Georgia have suggested that the actions of that phone call that we have, which is extraordinary evidence of his phone call with the secretary of state of Georgia provides strong evidence of a crime of trying to interfere with the election and trying to overturn the election results and in Georgia, soliciting something like that on part of the president is a felony. So I think he's in serious jeopardy. If I were his attorneys, I would

be very worried from the very moment that the district attorney started speaking out publicly about this in the last few days, I thought immediately, this is a very serious risk for him.

BOLDUAN: Ryan, it's good to see you. Thanks for coming on.

GOODMAN: My pleasure.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, there are new mutations of the coronavirus and they're forming here in the United States. What scientists found and what it means now in the fight against the pandemic.

Also ahead for us, is the CDC, it puts out its long awaited guidelines on how to open schools safely. But did they add to the confusion? Are schools any closer to reopening now? Reopening now?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:16:49]

BOLDUAN: Homegrown variants, that is a new concern now after researchers have identified seven different strains of the coronavirus here in the United States and they appear to make the virus more transmissible. That is disappointing news as the country is seeing real progress right now in terms of the fight against the pandemic.

Right now, new cases are dropping nationwide. The number of people so sick that they need to be hospitalized is also down more than 40 percent than just a month ago. Good news against the bad news again.

CNN's Elizabeth Cohen, she's joining me now. She's been following all of this.

So, Elizabeth, what are you learning about these new variants found in the United States?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Kate, so, you know, it's been an issue that the U.S. has not been doing great surveillance for variants compared to other countries. But the U.S. is getting better. And so they have found once you look for something, you do find it, that there are some variants that originated in the U.S.

Now, you know, we have often said the U.K. variant, the South Africa variant, these researchers said there is a stigma attached to doing that. So instead we're going to name them after birds, which is great because then you just stigmatize birds and they don't understand what we're saying, so it's okay.

So they have named these after birds and let's take a look at what they have found.

They have found in the United States, one that they call Robin 1 in 30 states. Another one that's so similar, they called it Robin 2, that's been found in 20 states and then you could see in sort of descending order here, another five and the number of states that they have appeared in.

Now the big question that I know is on everyone's mind is, do we care? Does it matter that there are all of these variants? The answer is yes because it is possible that they may be more transmissible, more contagious, if you will, than the regular coronavirus that has been out there. They might not be. But the researchers are keeping an eye to see if they're more transmissible or if they cause more severe disease, are you likely to get very sick or die from these variants.

Now, there's a third issue why you want to look at these variants, and that is, do these variants evade to any extent the vaccine? Can they trick the vaccine? I spoke to the senior researchers and he says he doesn't think so. All of the evidence we've seen so far says that the vaccine will work fine against the variants, so that's good news.

BOLDUAN: Yeah. All right. We'll take whatever we can get in terms of good news against this virus --

COHEN: Right.

BOLDUAN: -- on any day.

Thank you so much. I really appreciate it, Elizabeth.

So how to reopen schools safely has been one of the most challenging and fraught questions throughout the entire pandemic. The CDC finally released their long awaiting guidelines for doing just that for schools. The agency focuses on five different actions and areas in its guidance, requiring mask, physical distancing, handwashing, maintaining clean facilities and contact-tracing among them.

Does this now get schools any closer to reopening?

An analysis by CNN found that 99 percent of students live in what the CDC now considers red zones, areas with high levels of transmission, which, according to the new CDC guidelines, means students should not be returning to full time in-person learning.

[11:20:03]

Listen to the CDC director.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: We have work to do, especially when the country remains in the red zone of high community transmission.

We really need to do the hard work to make sure that there is universal masking, there is strict six feet of distancing between, that there is cohorting or podding so that there's -- there's restriction of disease if it were to be transmitted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Joining right now is Dr. Celine Gounder, an infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist.

You know, Dr. Gounder, everyone involved in this debate over schools has been saying for quite sometime they're waiting to hear from the CDC. This guidance that they put out is 35 pages long. But does it get students any closer to in-person learning than they were before this guidance was put out?

DR. CELINE GOUNDER, BIDEN TRANSITION COVID ADVISOR: Kate, we've known really for months now that students can return safely to in-person learning, so long as you enforce the public health guidance that the CDC has outlined in its latest report. So the masking, the social distancing, having good ventilation, all of those components have shown that you could safely bring students back in the schools without students and, importantly, teachers getting sick.

The key is that the schools need to be provided with the resources to do this and not all school districts have the resources and support they need to do it right.

BOLDUAN: And at the same time, we know that President Biden has set a goal of having a majority of K-8 schools be back in-person learning in the first 100 days. There was a day last week what the White House press secretary tried to argue what they meant by that is at least one day of in-person learning a week. And I have to say, no parent is going to think that one day in person, four days virtual is going to mean that their kid is back in class. That's just not reality.

Are we at a place that this goal just isn't attainable at this point?

GOUNDER: It really depends on what we do as a community, Kate, because as Dr. Walensky noted, much of the country is in the red zone. And while cases are falling, we're still in a very bad place. We have more cases, more hospitalizations than we had than during over much of the summer.

And so, we had a very bad surge over Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year's, but we're still in a bad place where there is widespread community transmission and this goes back to some of what people were saying over the summer, schools not bars and restaurants. I think that the argument here is really masks if you want to go back to school. We need to be doubling down on wearing masks in the community, doing the social distancing, if we're going to be around other people, do so outside or in well ventilated space and stick to your household bubble as much as possible.

If we do all of those things, we have a better shot as being able to open schools. But I think unfortunately a lot of people, and myself included, I'm exhausted. We're all exhausted. But that is also led to complacency and not really following the public health guidance.

BOLDUAN: It felt after looking at this guidance, that I felt less optimistic about schools, about kids getting back in class than maybe I was hoping I would feel after seeing the guidelines. Did you -- do you feel the same?

GOUNDER: I think so much of this comes down to human behavior and whether we choose to do what is necessary. I think it is completely feasible for students to return to school. I think that the question is will parents in the community work with students to make sure that everybody is masking, parents included, in order to reduce community transmission to the point where it's is safe to reopen.

BOLDUAN: I want to ask you, you wrote an op-ed talking about the vaccine. You wrote an op-ed with other members of what was the Biden transition COVID advisory board and in this op-ed, you make the case that whichever vaccine you could get your hands on, you should get it.

And after reading it, I was wondering, essentially, like do not be picky, get the vaccine. Why did you all see the need to speak up about this?

GOUNDER: I think there has been some confusion about the efficacy numbers for the different vaccines. Right now, the two that have available are Pfizer and Moderna and those are almost identical numbers in terms of their efficacy. But the Johnson & Johnson and others are coming down the line and there are some differences in terms of how well they prevent mild disease.

But we're not vaccinating to prevent the sniffles, we're vaccinating to prevent severe disease and death and on that metric, all of the vaccines are equivalent. They all 100 percent prevent hospitalization and death and that's why you're getting vaccinated.

So, I would you not wait to get one vaccine over another. I would get your vaccine as soon as possible.

BOLDUAN: It's good to see you, Doctor. Thank you.

[11:25:02]

Still ahead for us, seven Republican senators voted to convict Donald Trump and now many are facing swift backlash back home. Why this said so much about where the Republican Party goes from here.

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