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Cases Dropping Across Nation as More New Variants Appear; Biden's Agenda Now in Spotlight as Clock Ticks on COVID Relief; North Carolina Republicans to Censure Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) Tonight for Vote to Convict Trump. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired February 15, 2021 - 13:00   ET

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

JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: One of the fascinating calculations as we watch this legislation in the next several very important days ahead. John Harwood, grateful for the reporting right from the White House. I'm grateful for your time today. We'll see you back here this time tomorrow.

Don't go anywhere. Brianna Keilar picks up our coverage right now. Have a good day.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Brianna Keilar, and I want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world.

There is a light at the end of this pandemic tunnel. New cases and hospitalizations are all trending down, but health experts insist this is not the time to let up on measures like masking and social distancing, as new variants of the virus continue to emerge.

Seven new mutations have just been detected here in the U.S. Researchers are identifying these variants by bird's names to avoid stigmatizing any region where any new strain is discovered.

The U.S. has been at a similar juncture before with signs of progress leading to ease restrictions then followed by a surge. But this time, new cases still higher than they were during any of the previous summer surges even as numbers decline.

The U.S. is still reporting nearly 65,000 new cases and more than a thousand deaths per day. More than 67,000 Americans are currently in the hospital fighting this virus.

But, again, these case numbers are much lower than what we saw last month. Going by the seven-day average, new cases dropped 58.5 percent, hospitalizations dropped 44 percent.

Moments ago, the World Health Organization talking about it like this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS, DIRECTOR GENERAL, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: So far this year, the number of weekly reported cases has fallen by almost half, from more than 5 million cases in the week of January 4 to 2.6 million cases in the week starting February 8, just five weeks. This shows that simple public health measures work, even in the presence of variants.

What matters now is how we respond to this trend. The fire is not out, but we have reduced its size.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Let's talk about this now with CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner. He's a Professor of Medicine and Surgery at George Washington University.

I mean, the decrease in numbers, this is good news. We still have to emphasize how high these numbers still are. But talk to us about what you're seeing and why we're seeing this drop.

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Hi, Brianna.

At the beginning of November, before Thanksgiving, we were starting to see cases drop. This is why this is actually so frustrating. And that was interrupted by this enormous surge from Thanksgiving. And then prior to Christmas, we started to see cases drop again. And then we had the massive Christmas/New Year's surge. And finally now we're seeing a steep decline, which began about a month after the last Christmas/New Year's surge. And it's been breathtaking in its speed, and in the sharpness of the decline.

And this is -- it's a consequence, probably, of a much better message uniformly distributed about masking in the United States. More people, really, than ever before in this pandemic are wearing masks. A lot of people have had this virus, so we might be starting to see, in some parts of this country, just a little bit of a taste of herd immunity. And the message has gotten out. So I think that this is all very good news, and you're right, we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and every day it's getting just a little bit brighter, but this is not the time to let up.

KEILAR: No. We obviously know how transmissible this is. And one of the things that I think really is concerning people are these variants, these new variants that have first been detected here in the U.S. We know that these seven U.S. mutations impact the same physical part of the virus, what is called the spike protein.

I think a lot of people are familiar with that now. One lead researcher said that, quote, this stretch of spike is important because of its proximity to a region key for virulence. Explain that to us. What does that mean? How worried are you about this?

REINER: So, the spike protein is the protuberance on the virus that the virus uses to attach to a receptacle, the a2 receptor, on the cells that basically line the respiratory tract in human beings. And these modifications that the variants have acquired enable the virus to attach more avidly to the respiratory mucosa. So this allows the virus to be transmitted more easily and perhaps a bit ominously to have a greater amount of infection, what we call a higher viral load, which might very well be associated with a higher risk of a bad outcome.

[13:05:12]

So we know that these mutants can be transmitted more easily and perhaps at higher levels in the body. So that's really the concern.

The good news is that, so far, the predominant variants in the United States are susceptible to our current vaccines. And they are absolutely susceptible to just common sense masking and social distancing. So if we continue to do everything we're doing now, we do not have to be overrun by these variants.

And I think we have to start talking about spring break. And I think, at this point, spring break should be at home. This is not the time for this country to start traveling en masse. We can put this fire out completely, but not if we have a big migration over the next six weeks. We really should stay put, and let's just finally finish this once and for all and vaccinate the country.

KEILAR: It's a very good point. Dr. Reiner, thank you so much for being with us.

REINER: My pleasure.

KEILAR: Chicago schools are now open after a fierce standoff between the city's mayor and Chicago public schools and the teachers' union. They came to an agreement last week that included access to vaccines for school staff, increasing that, speeding it up. The city will open those sites this week.

And joining me now to talk about this is Stacy Davis Gates. She is the vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union. And, Stacy, you have this deal, reopening for elementary and middle schools by next month. Do your teachers feel safe with these plans as they are?

STACY DAVIS DATES, VICE PRESIDENT, CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION: I don't think anyone in America feels safe right now. Your guest just talked about the danger that is still a part of our everyday lives with respect to the pandemic. We feel like we finally have a base level safety standard, and so we'll be reopening on those terms.

KEILAR: And, of course, I mean, a lot of people, I think, outside of Chicago was tracking what was happening between you, the union, and the mayor. This was a bitter fight between your union and Mayor Lightfoot. And in an interview with The New York Times that was published yesterday, she said, quote, when you have unions that have other aspirations beyond being a union and maybe being something akin to a political party, then there is always going to be conflict.

And she went on to say your union, quote, they'd like to take over not only Chicago public schools but take over running the city government. That will play itself out over time. What is your response to Mayor Lightfoot?

GATES: Well, I think a couple of things. One, to make school clerks, care professionals, clinicians and teachers, the enemy of the common in the middle of a pandemic is a bad move.

And I think in number two, our union believes in advocating for the people who exist in Chicago. Our students, our members, there are families, they are residing Chicago, so advocating for housing stability, advocating for schools without police, advocating for the ability of our students to have art and music, language and libraries in their school communities.

That is our leadership. And I think that America would be best served when all of us unite on making sure that our students get everything that they need from, you know, curriculum enhancements to housing stability.

KEILAR: I wonder if you still believe in the leadership of Mayor Lightfoot.

GATES: Well, our union took a vote last week. 90 percent of our members voted a no confidence in her leadership with the Chicago public schools. Our members will never forget being demonized during a time that they have been holding the hands of students and their families. Our members will never forget having to teach outside in order to fight for basic level safety standards. This wasn't a fight between two entities. This was a fight for survival in a city that has been ravaged by COVID-19.

KEILAR: Do you still have -- do you have confidence, I guess, in the process not just of this particular person, Mayor Lightfoot, who clearly you do not, but the way in which things are set up where the mayor has so much pull? Not all cities have that. Chicago does. Do you have confidence in that?

GATES: Well, what I would say is that this union has been on the forefront with families across the city advocating for an elected school board. We are the only school district in the state of Illinois that does not have an elected school board. In fact, our mayor ran on the platform to provide Chicago with an elected school board. But we also understand that we've been misled on other things with this mayor to Lincoln Yard, to no cap academy (ph), to the Anjanette Young debacle.

[13:10:00]

So this is just par for the course. The ally coalition group, who have been pushing for an elected school board will continue to push for an elected school board. And, thank God, it is the work of our general assembly in Springfield and our governor who can grant that for us.

KEILAR: One of the CDC has just come out with its guidance, right? Part of what you agreed to when it came to reopening schools, if you look at that, it actually tracks considerably with what we saw some of the CDC guidance to be. The CDC releasing its guidance on Friday on reopening schools, and it had the usual mitigation procedures, like masks, distancing. What was not on the list was teachers being vaccinated. Certainly, it's something that is clearly encouraged and they are speeding up vaccinations in Chicago where you are. But this is what the CDC director said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: I also want to articulate that while it's not in our school guidance that it's a prerequisite for schools to open, our ACIP Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices Guidance does put teachers in the 1b category for vaccination. That is vaccination of the same group as greater than 75-year-olds.

So I'm a strong advocate of teachers receiving their vaccinations, but we don't believe it's a prerequisite for schools to reopen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: What is your response to the CDC director and her agency's guidance?

GATES: The vaccine is a lifesaving medical intervention. And why wouldn't we want school workers, teachers and school clerks and lunch ladies to have access to that vaccine? I think that is more than reasonable, I think it's also humane.

Listen, it's never been about the guidelines per se in Chicago, it has always been about the generations of neglect, underresourcing and underfunding and the defunding, quite frankly, of public education here. To ask individuals who have had had a very disparate experience with the Chicago public schools to all of a sudden trust their ability to resource them and keep them self safe in the middle of a pandemic was a bar too high. We obviously needed something that was more enforceable to do so.

Listen, on the west side of Chicago that is home to a majority black population of people, there are only four schools, four schools that have school libraries. And so forgive us for not taking their word for it. There is a mountain of evidence to say that guidelines are often bypassed by every mayor of the city under mayoral control, and we needed a bit more than trust me.

KEILAR: Stacy Davis Gates, thank you so much. This is very hard work ahead of you as you get back into the school year, even just for elementary and middle school students. Thank you so much for being on to talk with us about it.

GATES: Thank you.

KEILAR: So now that former President Trump's second impeachment trial is over, President Biden's agenda is now in the spotlight as the clock is ticking on his COVID relief package.

Plus, state Republican parties are punishing more lawmakers who voted to convict Trump, but isn't that the cancel culture that Republicans say they hate?

And some interesting behind-the-scenes moments involving Senator Rand Paul on the Senate floor. We'll take a look and we'll tell you what we found.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:15:00]

KEILAR: With former President Donald Trump's impeachment trial now in the rearview mirror, Democrats are racing to pass President Biden's COVID relief package as soon as next week. On top of that ambitious $1.9 trillion plan, Biden is calling on Congress to enact common sense gun law reforms. All of this happened with Congress out of session this week and unemployment benefits set to expire next month.

CNN's Kaitlan Collins is with us now from the White House. And, Kaitlan, President Biden will be making a national push for his COVID relief package tomorrow. This is going to be during a CNN town hall in Wisconsin. What are you expecting he'll say?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, one big question he's going to be faced with and is going to have to answer is the fact that this bill is not one that has bipartisan support, and that is something, of course, that he not only promised on the campaign trail but you even see him reflecting that in the statement he issued after former President Trump's trial came to an end, still talking about the fact that he does want to achieve bipartisanship during his time in office.

And so, of course, now that that distraction of the trial is behind him, Brianna, this is going to be the fight that takes center stage. Because the House is drafting this bill right now, they're going to send it to the Senate soon once they can pass that, and so that's the question here, is what it's going to look like when it finally gets passed and who has actually supported it.

Because you're seeing, time and time again, like his senior adviser, Cedric Richmond, did this morning, they are pointing to the fact that it's building Republican support out in the country, but it is not doing so here in D.C., certainly not yet. We don't have any Republicans on board with this.

So I think that's going to be something that we are going to hear President Biden get asked about and weigh in on likely tomorrow night during this town hall when he's not only taking questions from Anderson Cooper but also voters as well.

And so, as you just showed there on the screen, several of the priorities that are in this bill, one big question that still remains is about that $15 federal minimum wage. Because you've seen there are two key moderate senators who have said they are not going to support it, and they don't think it belongs in this bill. So whether or not Senator Chuck Schumer can get them on board, something can change there, that remains to be seen, but that is going to be something people are watching as they're really crafting this. [13:20:05]

And now there have been this kind of split screen between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, and now it's just Joe Biden's agenda out there center stage in this push to get this bill passed.

KEILAR: Yes, and facing scrutiny, right, up against a test here. Kaitlan Collins, thank you so much.

We do have a programming note. President Joe Biden will join Anderson Cooper live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for that exclusive town hall. This is going to be starting tomorrow night at 9:00 Eastern right here on CNN.

More and more state Republicans are punishing lawmakers for their votes against Donald Trump. Here are their arguments.

Plus, a former Bush adviser joins me on why Republicans are still loyal to someone who is an exile at a Florida golf club.

And is Joe Biden ghosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu? Why there hasn't been a phone call yet from the new president.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:25:00]

KEILAR: Republican Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina is the latest lawmaker to get burned by his own party for his vote to convict in Trump's impeachment trial. Burr was one of seven Republican senators who found former President Trump guilty of inciting the January 6 attack on the Capitol. And within hours of their votes, state party leaders began condemning those Republicans.

CNN Political Director David Chalian is joining us now to kind of walk us through this. I mean, what's happening here with these Republican senators, David, who broke away from the party?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes. As you know, Brianna, this was the most bipartisan impeachment in history, those ten Republicans in the House, those seven in the Senate you just pointed out. But, by far, the majority of Republicans across the country and in the Congress are standing by Donald Trump. And you see that happening in some of these local parties.

So Bill Cassidy, senator of Louisiana, censured immediately after the vote on Saturday by the State Party Executive Committee, the Republican Party of Louisiana. Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania censured by a handful of counties across the commonwealth there following that vote for Pat Toomey.

There are a couple more that are facing censure. Richard Burr, you mentioned at the top, the North Carolina Republican Party expected to act on that today. He'll likely be censured. He's retiring. Ben Sasse also facing censure in Nebraska. He was already facing censure before he actually cast the vote to convict and he has faced censured once before there, but he says he is standing up for the Constitution, not this notion that he has to bend on one knee to one man.

And then take a look here, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney, Susan Collins, the other senators who voted to convict being rebuked in some fashion by Republicans back home, Brianna.

So they are facing pressure from their fellow partisans back home for taking a vote that they think was a vote of the conscience.

KEILAR: And on the house side, I mean, you had many Republicans, or more Republicans. Tell us about what is happening in their home states.

CHALIAN: Yes. I mean, we saw Liz Cheney, as you know, the number three House Republican, leader of the conference, she was censured back home in Wyoming. And, in fact, I saw today, Brianna, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois sent out a fundraising appeal for Jaime Herrera Beutler in Washington. Remember, she had those details on Friday that Jamie Gangel reported about the conversation McCarthy had with Trump during the insurrection.

Kinzinger now coming to the aid, donating his own PAC money and urging others to donate to Jaime Herrera Beutler, because these folks are in a book together, they understand, they went against the grain of their party. They may be facing very tough primaries upcoming.

KEILAR: Yes, indeed. David, thank you so much for taking us through that.

And nearly a month after leaving the White House and just days after an acquittal in his second impeachment trial, former President Donald Trump is facing a number of legal probes at the state and federal level. So why do Republicans continue to pledge their loyalty to him?

Peter Wehner has worked for three Republican administrations and he wrote, The Death of Politics. He is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and he's a contributing opinion writer at The New York Times. Thank you so much for being with us.

Your latest op-ed here, your latest one, it's titled, Why Republicans still loyal to a Mar-a-Lago exile? So, answer your question for us. Why are they?

PETER WEHNER, SERVED IN THREE REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL ADMINISTRATION: Well, the short answer is that old habits and bad habits die hard, and the Republican Party has accommodated itself morally and politically to Donald Trump for four years, and it's it very hard they're finding to break in part, I would say, because the base of the party has been so radicalized. It's extreme, and we're seeing that in that litany of states that were mentioned in the report preceding our conversation.

I mean, the base of the Republican Party is, in some ways, fundamentally illiberal and anti-democratic and angry. And so these lawmakers know that, and they know if they speak up against Trump, they will be targeted.

[13:30:02] Others, it's cynical ambition, people like Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz.