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Republican Leaders Divided over Trump's Influence Going Forward; New York Governor Under Fire for Alleged COVID Death Toll Cover-Up; Air Travel Surges Over Holiday Weekend Despite CDC Warnings. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired February 15, 2021 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Swift backlash today, the state Republican Party in North Carolina is set to vote on whether to censure longtime and now retiring Republican Senator Richard Burr over his vote to convict former President Trump on the charge of inciting the insurrection on the Capitol.

Burr was one of seven Republicans to join with Democrats voting for conviction on Saturday. You see them there. But among them, Burr's guilty vote was the real surprise of the group.

CNN's Jessica Dean, she is joining me now, she is following this. Jessica, the North Carolina Republican Party now following, it seems, so many other state committees. What are you hearing?

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. So we're expecting that when they do vote in North Carolina that it will result in the censure of Senator Richard Burr who you mentioned was a bit of a surprise on Saturday when he voted for impeachment, for conviction for former President Donald Trump. So we're waiting to see exactly how that plays out in North Carolina.

But we do expect to see him censured. That would follow in line with the other seven Republicans who did vote for conviction. Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy has been censured. And the Pennsylvania Republican Party released a statement yesterday just simply saying that they were disappointed in Senator Pat Toomey's vote but so far have not officially moved to censure him just yet.

We've also seen a number of Republican members both in the House and the Senate who have been censured back home in their state parties and it really serves as an excellent example of this divide that we have talked about a lot in the Republican Party here in Washington, here in the House, here in the Senate.

And I've talked to members for the last several weeks, as this has all going on, and it is clear that some of them have really been outspoken, that they were going to vote -- or that they were leaning toward convicting former President Trump. It was a very small number that you saw there. But others really believed that former President Trump is the way forward, Kate. In fact, Lindsey Graham, just yesterday saying that he believes that Trump is still the most potent force in the party. While we heard Senator Cassidy saying that he believes Trump's power is going to wane.

So it really is this question of how do they move forward as they look to take back the House and the Senate in 2022, how involved will former President Trump be, and how involved will his messaging be. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Good question. Good to see you, Jessica, thank you.

Joining me now for more on this is Susan Glasser, CNN Global Affairs Analyst, Staff Writer for The New Yorker. It's good to see you, Susan.

The vote in the Senate, I'm going to call it a mixed bag for a second, because you've got overwhelming majority of Republicans stuck with Trump in the Senate but more Republicans voted to convict and break from him than people maybe thought was actually going to happen. So what is next for Donald Trump and for the Republican Party? What are you watching for?

SUSAN GLASSER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, look, I think you're right, the rift which always existed, of course, over the last few years has now, once again, broken out into the open. I think it is important to remember that Donald Trump himself represented a hostile takeover of the Republican Party, including the infrastructure of these state parties and the national GOP when he first ran for office, of course, it was essentially, completely united against him. So that takeover versus happened in the last few years, we could see it reversed.

I do think that it's significant that you have seven Republican senators and you have Liz Cheney in the House, the Republican conference chair, it is not a majority of the Republican Party elected officials but certainly it is now an indisputable and significant minority that now is on the record with views that are incompatible, basically incompatible not only with Trump but with the party itself at this point going forward.

So I think it's a rift that's not just going to go away overnight, certainly, although, obviously, these censure motions are more sounded fury than they are in a kind of a meaningful censure for a senator here in Washington who is going to be retiring anyways.

BOLDUAN: Excellent point. Let me pay for you Lindsey Graham from yesterday. He has clearly made his bet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): He's ready to move on and rebuild the Republican Party. He's excited about 2022. And I'm going to go down to talk with him next week, play a little golf in Florida. And I said, Mr. President, this MAGA movement needs to continue. We need to unite the party. Trump-plus is the way back in 2022.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BOLDUAN: Trump lost the election, he lost two Senate seats in Georgia, yet Graham still thinks they cannot win without him very clearly. Is 2022 going to be the final answer to this question? I mean, what is going to happen in the meantime?

GLASSER: Look, we don't know the answer yet. Clearly, Trump's popularity among the Republican base has proved more resilient than you might imagine given that he's encouraged his supporters even after they stormed the Capitol.

[11:35:03]

However, Donald Trump, generally, in his career has been focused on himself and he's not going to be on the ballot in 2022 and there is not a long history of Donald Trump working for other people. So maybe he will be animated by revenge against those who he feels wronged him at the end of his presidency. But, generally speaking, Trump has not done an awful lot in either his business or his political career that has been focused on others. So we'll see.

And then there is Lindsey Graham who changes his mind so quickly. Just like you, remember on the night of January 6 when Lindsey Graham was done with Donald Trump? So not to pay too much attention to his back and forth anymore on the subject of Donald Trump.

BOLDUAN: It seems -- it does seem though that Lindsey Graham has chosen Donald Trump. It seems that there is no back. It is just now forth or whichever one you want it to be because that is where he's chosen. And even if he tacks back, I don't know how many people should believe it now.

You tweeted something on Saturday that I wanted to ask you about today. You tweeted, this trial is not about Trump. This is trial is about who we are, as Congressman Raskin said in his argument. Remember that after Trump is acquitted later today. So where are we as a country today, do you think? What are your reflections on this?

GLASSER: Well, I'm glad you brought that because I've been thinking a lot about this, right? Donald Trump did a lot of shocking things over the course of his four years of his presidency. But, fundamentally, it was not that different than those who paid close attention could have told you even four years previously. It is the country and especially the parties that surprised us, I think, over the course of the four years.

And in the end, you can say pretty definitively that the Republican Party was willing to go with Donald Trump to places that probably you and I never thought they would go. And I think the events of January 6th are something that will be processed for many years to come.

But the fact that only seven Republican senators would go along with a conviction in a case that seems almost designed by the founders as a case study of impeachment, you know, why did they design impeachment in the first place and put it the Constitution in order to protect the system itself from attack from its most powerful person, the executive. And listening to Mitch McConnell's speech the other day, and yet this castigating censure, and yet there is nothing that he has wanted to do in order to hold Donald Trump accountable except give a speech. And that is a remarkable thing that I feel that we've learned about ourselves as a country.

BOLDUAN: Good to see you, Susan. Thank you.

GLASSER: Thank you, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, he is facing more and more questions from Republicans and Democrats alike now. Allegations his administration covered up the number of nursing home deaths during the height of the first COVID surge.

We'll be back.

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[11:40:00]

BOLDUAN: Right now, New York State lawmakers are calling for a special session of the state legislature to address Governor Andrew Cuomo's delayed release of data on COVID deaths in nursing homes throughout the state. It is the latest backlash that the governor is facing over his handle of the pandemic in long-term care facilities at the height of the surge last spring.

The newly public data reveals thousands more confirmed and presumed deaths at nursing homes than were previously disclosed.

CNN's Athena Jones has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EMILIE MUNSON, ALBANY TIMES UNION: This is a very big deal.

ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is facing calls he be investigated. State Republicans going so far as to say he should be impeached.

NICK LANGWORTHY, NEW YORK GOP CHAIRMAN: The gravity of this cover-up cannot be overstated.

JONES: This after his top aide admitted to withholding data for months that revealed thousands more confirmed and presumed COVID-19 deaths of long-term care facility residents than previously disclosed.

MUNSON: Throughout the pandemic, you know, between his Emmy for his coronavirus press briefings to Governor Cuomo's book, to his speech at the Democratic National Convention, Governor Cuomo has been held up as the model governor in his coronavirus response, even though New York was so hard hit by the virus early on.

JONES: But now, according to a transcript of a private video call, Melissa DeRosa told Democratic state lawmakers that in response to questions, basically, we froze because then we were in a position where we weren't sure of what we were going to give to the Department of Justice or what we give to you guys, what we start saying was going to be used against us.

14 Democratic state senators saying in a statement, Cuomo should be stripped of his emergency powers, state Republicans echoing their call and going further.

LANGWORTHY: The Cuomo administration purposely lied and withheld evidence and information to avoid prosecution.

Andrew Cuomo must be prosecuted and Andrew Cuomo must be impeached if this evidence exists.

JONES: Some 15,000 residents in facilities like nursing homes died, according to the Department of Health, about a third of all COVID deaths statewide.

[11:45:02]

The true death toll was revealed after New York Attorney General and Cuomo-ally Letitia James issued a scathing report accusing the state of undercounting deaths in these facilities by some 50 percent by only publicly reporting those who died on site, not residents who were admitted to hospitals and died there or elsewhere.

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): Whether a person died in a hospital or died in a nursing home, it's -- people died.

I wish none of it happened. I wish there was no COVID. I wish no old people died.

JONES: Cuomo has faced criticism over a March 2020 state health department advisory that required nursing homes to admit and readmit patients with COVID, something critics say may have further fueled the outbreak in those facilities. Cuomo has said the policy was in line with federal guidance.

DANIEL ARBEENY, FATHER DIED OF COVID-19 AFTER STAYING IN NEW YORK NURSING HOME: It was the absolute worst decision anybody could make in a time of a pandemic.

JONES: The controversial directive was scrapped in May. The Associated Press reporting more than 9,000 recovering coronavirus patients in New York were transferred to nursing homes from hospitals early in the pandemic.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JONES: What makes this so challenging for the governor is that this is someone who was put on a pedestal during the height of the pandemic here in New York with the accolades and the bestselling book and the talk of higher office. So now, at least, for many people that image has been shattered.

This is all still playing out but it is impossible to imagine this controversy not being a topic of conversation when it comes to Cuomo running for reelection in 2022. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Athena, thank you very much.

Coming up next for us, despite the CDC director warning that this is no time to be traveling, this holiday weekend was one of the busiest for airports in more than a month. An update ahead.

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[11:50:00]

BOLDUAN: Airports have screened 4 million passengers since Thursday, pushing air travel numbers to their highest in more than a month.

CNN's Pete Muntean, he is live at Reagan National Airport in Washington with the very, very latest. Pete, what are you seeing there right now?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, this is actually the biggest air travel weekend we have seen since the holidays, and now the question is will these new numbers stick around? The TSA just said 900,000 people passed through security at America's airports yesterday, another 900,000 people the day before that, 1.1 million people on Friday, another million people on Thursday. That means 4 million people have flown in the last four days alone, numbers that airlines say we would not be seeing if the CDC mandated that domestic travelers get tested for coronavirus at the start of their trip.

The whole idea was really thrust into the limelight last week by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. He said that the Biden administration and the CDC were talking about that. The Biden administration met with airlines after weeks of pushback from them. It was only hours after that meeting on Friday that airlines heard from the White House and the CDC that they were not considering a domestic travel mandate at this time. Instead the CDC not only recommending that passengers get tested one to three days before their trip but, again, three to five days after their trip.

We will see if all of the people traveling this weekend follow that guidance. It does seem though that people are following a little bit of guidance from the CDC in that they're being told not to travel, and these numbers really showed that, 45 percent of what they were a year ago. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Thanks, Pete, I really appreciate it.

The European CDC has also just issued a new warning saying that the majority of countries in Europe are still experiencing high rates of COVID infections and deaths in older age groups despite vaccine rollouts that have prioritized the elderly.

Let's get a check right now on the very latest on the pandemic from correspondents around the world.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Will Ripley in Hong Kong. New Zealand is locking down its largest city of Auckland after just three confirmed cases so far of COVID-19, all in a single family, a mother, a father and their teenage daughter.

Now, what is puzzling for health authorities is that none of these people had any recent travel history. This is New Zealand's first case of community transmission in weeks. So they're conducting extensive contact tracing right now, trying to figure out where this virus could have come from.

We do know that the woman, the mother in the family, was working with a company that deals with airline hospitality. She was in laundry department, so she may have had contact with items that passengers coming from outside New Zealand touched. That's certainly one angle that they're looking at.

But until they get to the bottom of this, New Zealand's prime minister is asking everybody except for essential workers in Auckland to stay home unless they go to the supermarket or to the pharmacy, the kind of restrictions that have helped New Zealand keep their numbers low and their deaths to just 25 so far this pandemic.

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN REPORTER: I'm Salma Abdelaziz in London. New travel restrictions went into force today. Now, if you arrive in the U.K. from 33 red list countries, you will be required to quarantine for ten days in a government-sanctioned hotel. That is at cost to the traveler of about 1700 pounds, which is about $2,500. You will also be given a COVID test on day two and day eight of that quarantine. Once all of that's complete, those tests are negative, you can then enter the U.K.

Now, the authorities are doing this because, of course, there is concern about variants that are popping up around the world. That's why among those 33 red list countries, there are many that are from parts of South America and parts of Africa because of concerns of variant spreading in those areas.

[11:55:07]

Now, the crown gem that the U.K. is trying to protect here is the country's vaccination program. More than 15 million people so far have received the first dose of their vaccine, and the government simply wants to wants to protect those gains from any variants that could be coming from outside of the U.K.

BOLDUAN: Thanks, guys, so much.

Still ahead, confronting the real elephant in the room. For the Republican Party, what is and what should be Donald Trump's role in the party now?

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