Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Pelosi announces 9/11-Style Commission to Investigate Capitol Attack; New York Governor Accepts Some Blame for Nursing Home Scandal; Futures Higher As Major Indices Approach Record Highs; Biden Faces Questions as Nation Battles Pandemic; U.S. Reports Lowest COVID Case Count Since October; Winter Storm Forcing Cities, States to Delay Vaccine Distribution; Impeachment Vote Exposes Deepening Rift in the Republican Party. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired February 16, 2021 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:20]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Hi. Very good Tuesday morning. I'm Jim Sciutto.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Poppy Harlow.

The nation needs leadership and hours from now we will hear from President Biden in his first town hall as president. You'll see it only right here on CNN. He faces questions from a nation divided. A nation that is weary and a nation that is desperate. Desperate to get back to some sense of normality.

With just weeks before existing pandemic benefits, economic aid run out, the president is set to make a major push tonight for his $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill. His plans to take on the economic and the health crises will be front and center on that stage tonight. Even as we do see some good news, Jim, some good news in this fight against the pandemic.

SCIUTTO: Yes, it's significant. The U.S. reported fewer than 53,000 new infections on Monday. That's about a quarter of where it was at the peak. And the country's lowest mark since last October.

The timing of tonight's town hall comes just days after the end of former president Donald Trump's second impeachment trial. But the fallout of the deadly insurrection on January 6th still hangs over Washington. The House speaker has announced that a 9/11-style investigation will begin even as the divide within the GOP deepens. The North Carolina GOP has censured Senator Richard Burr over his decision to convict Trump.

Let's begin, though, with President Biden's town hall in Milwaukee. The questions he's likely to face. CNN's Jeff Zeleny is there.

Jeff, do we know what the president's message will be tonight?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, good morning. There's no question President Biden, as he wraps up the first month of his presidency, suddenly has the spotlight all to himself. And he is going to be talking, selling to the American people his $1.9 trillion COVID economic relief package.

So we do know that he has been working behind the scenes on this. But this is the first opportunity to take this message directly face-to- face with voters. And he will be taking questions from Democrats, Republicans and independents here in Wisconsin. Last year it was battleground Wisconsin. This year it's governing Wisconsin. So this is the chance for him to make his argument here.

But so many challenges facing this administration. Vaccines first and foremost. The administration has rolled out its plan to have some 300 million Americans vaccinated by the end of July. But that is still very much an open question here as, you know, this administration is taking ownership of this problem. But, you know, the administration also is struggling with its message on schools. There has been very much a mixed message. So look for the president to get questions on schools as well.

Now, Jim, this is also something as he is really trying to begin to make his push. The next two weeks are absolutely essential to getting this through Congress. The House has already passed some of these budget bills. The Senate will look at this as well. But this clearly is President Biden's first chance to go around Congress, make his case to the American people, and the White House believes that people are on his side -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes, he staked the start of his term really to a large degree on the passage of this huge stimulus plan.

Jeff Zeleny, thanks very much.

CNN's town hall with President Biden moderated by our colleague Anderson Cooper begins tonight 9:00 Eastern Time.

On Monday, the U.S. reported its lowest new case count since October. By far. But the threat of this virus of course is still high across the country.

HARLOW: So CNN took a look at the actual numbers and our analyses show 89 percent of children right now live in a county that is considered a red zone under the CDC's new school reopening guidelines. What does that mean for you, your family, your kids, for teachers?

Our senior medical analyst Elizabeth Cohen is here.

So, I mean, this was I think the most important line of questioning that Jake Tapper, you know, went back and forth with the CDC director on over the weekend, which is, does that then mean that 90 percent of our kids can't go back to school?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, I think that's -- we wouldn't want to say it quite that way. That's a little bit too black and white. This is a report that its footnotes have footnotes. I'll put it that way. It is very complicated. We're going to try and lay it out for you nice and simply, or as simply as we can. So the report lays out different zones that you can be in. So it's the

zones are based on how much coronavirus is in your community. The red zone is the highest amount of COVID-19. And it's the worst and almost 90 percent of the country is in it. So that's, first of all, not great. Second of all, let's talk about what that means. So if we look at what that means for children in middle and high school, it means that they should be in virtual mode unless they do the mitigation measures that are necessary, such as masking, and social distancing and all those sorts of things, and they can keep their case numbers down.

[09:05:10]

So that's a big if. If you can do that, then you don't necessarily have to be in virtual mode. And for elementary schools, it's a little bit different. They say even if you're in this red zone, the worst zone you can be in, be in hybrid mode, meaning you can do both virtual and in-person, but keep physical distancing of six feet or more, which I have to say, as the mother of four children, I have trouble socially distancing them when there's two of them, let alone an entire classroom.

So that certainly is a real challenge. I think it's going to be a real challenge looking at this report how schools are going to figure this out. It is extremely complicated. I have to say it is not public health communication at its best.

HARLOW: No, if it's confusing for you, then it's confusing for everyone.

Elizabeth Cohen, thank you, though. You really helped us understand it better.

COHEN: Thanks.

HARLOW: So nearly five million Americans this morning without power as a deadly winter storm grips a lot of the country.

SCIUTTO: The storm is forcing many cities and states to delay their vaccination plans.

Let's go to CNN's Kristen Holmes for more on this. Of course, you never want to delay. It's a big storm. Do we know for how long and how many people this is affecting?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Jim and Poppy. Well, look, this couldn't have come at a worse time. We know that even before the bad weather, states were having to cancel some of their appointments because they simply did not have enough supply. I cannot tell you how many people I spoke to yesterday who told me that they qualify to get the vaccine but it has been near to impossible for them to actually get an appointment.

Now because of this bad weather, some of those people who were actually lucky enough to get an appointment will have to wait. We know there have been mass vaccination sites that have been closed down across the country. We're talking about Dallas, Frankfort, Kentucky, areas of Missouri. And this is coming at a time in which we'd really expected to see a ramp up not only in production but also in shots in arms.

So if you look at the current number here, you're about 70 million doses distributed and about 52.8 million doses administered. This is, obviously, continuing to increase, but it's not where health experts had hoped we would be at this time.

And one thing I want to note here because this is incredibly interesting. We heard from governors Democratic and Republicans for the first time writing a letter to the White House raising alarms over how exactly the federal distribution process works. They say that there's just some confusion. They want them to lay it out.

This is the first time we've heard this kind of explicit request of this administration. And one thing to point out here, we spoke to someone who spoke, you know, off the record here, on background, who told us that what they're hoping that the federal government will do here is acknowledge that some of the problems are due to shortages. Not state and local officials messing up in some way.

SCIUTTO: Understood. Well, listen, that's the key here, right, is getting out those vaccines and that's why the administration's hope that they can have hundreds of millions more by the summer will make a difference.

Kristen Holmes, thanks very much.

Well, to another big story we've been following closely. And that is a growing and very public rift within the Republican Party. GOP Senator Richard burr of North Carolina, he's the latest lawmaker to be censured by his own party for his vote to convict the former president in the impeachment trial.

HARLOW: He joined six other Republican senators in that vote to convict and find the former president guilty of inciting the January 6th attack on the Capitol. Within hours of those votes, though, state party leaders of state Republican parties began condemning those Republicans' vote.

Our congressional correspondent Jessica Dean is on Capitol Hill. No reward for diversity of thought, I suppose, but yes, in Utah, which we'll talk about later, but not elsewhere.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. That's exactly right, Poppy. In fact we're just seeing censure in states across the country where the senators and House members who voted to impeach the former president are facing a lot of blowback in their home states and home counties. In fact, in addition to Senator Burr, we also know that Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana has been censured by his state party.

Several county committees in Pennsylvania have censured Senator Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania, and we know that the state party is meeting soon to discuss censuring him from the statewide party. So more of that, you know, that we're seeing just across the country as this all plays out. A lot of these members who believed they were voting their conscience and doing the right thing are really getting a ton of pushback and punishment from their state parties.

Now for Senator Burr in North Carolina, that happened overnight. And he released a statement calling it a sad day. Here's a little bit of what he said. He said, "My party's leadership has chosen loyalty to one man over core principles of the Republican Party and the founders of this great nation."

Now that was a unanimous vote to censure Senator Burr there in North Carolina. It was expected that that's how it would play out.

[09:10:03]

Poppy, you mentioned Utah. It is worth noting that the Utah Republican Party put out a very different tone in their statement. Of course, Mitt Romney who voted to convict former President Trump, Senator Mike Lee who voted to acquit former President Trump, but they put out a statement saying that it's the differences where the power comes from and that they are celebrating difference of thought.

So one state Republican Party really breaking from pack in all of this. But we are seeing a lot of pushback across the country.

HARLOW: We'll talk to the head of the Utah Republican Party a little bit later this hour about that. Thank you, Jess.

DEAN: Yes.

HARLOW: Still to come, as we said most Republicans who voted to impeachment former President Trump are facing some serious backlash in their home states. Not Utah. We'll talk about that ahead.

SCIUTTO: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is calling for a 9/11-style commission to investigate the January 6th attack on the Capitol. We're going to speak to two architects of the original 9/11 Commission. What we could learn from that. That's coming up.

And millions of people are now without power in Texas as temperatures in that state plunge to dangerous levels. What went wrong?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's like a walk-in freezer. It's like 34 to 36 degrees, I would say. You know, me and my family have been getting inside our cars trying to warm up and all that stuff.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Goodness. We'll have a live update from there, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:15:00] POPPY HARLOW, CO-ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is

officially calling for a 9/11-style commission to investigate the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6th. In a letter to house Democrats, she explains what is at stake, writing, quote, "now is always security is the order of the day, the security of our country, the security of our Capitol which is the temple of our democracy and of course, the security of our members."

JIM SCIUTTO, CO-ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: The house speaker is not the only one calling for an independent inquiry. In a letter to the president, vice president and congressional leaders original members of that 9/11 commission write that such an investigation is necessary, and quote, "it should establish a single narrative and set of facts to identify how the Capitol was left vulnerable as well as corrective actions to make the institution safe again." Well, joining us now, the authors of that letter and members of the 9/11 Commission Chair Tom Kean and former 9/11 Commission Vice Chair Lee Hamilton. Gentlemen, thanks so much to both of you for joining us today.

THOMAS KEAN, FORMER 9/11 COMMISSION CHAIRMAN: Thank you.

LEE HAMILTON, FORMER 9/11 COMMISSION VICE CHAIR: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: If I could begin with you, Governor Kean. The 9/11 Commission was bipartisan. Its recommendations were accepted by, largely by both parties, and it dealt with a common set of facts, right? That was a starting point. The sad fact about January 6th is that there is still not a common set of facts. You have many Republican lawmakers who are still pushing, you know, pushing the line that, you know, this was Antifa, it wasn't really the Trump supporters. You know, denying the president's role. I just wonder, can such a commission succeed without that starting point, right? One reality.

KEAN: I think it can, and I think it has to because when we started 9/11 war, there were not an accepted set of facts. There were a lot of confusion about what happened, who did it, how it happened, how it was allowed to happen, and a lot of argument around the country. A lot of articles. And we had to do -- you know, we had to do almost a two-year investigation to determine the facts. Well, the first thing we had to do was get the set of facts right. And once we had the set of facts right, then we could make our recommendations to make the country safer. And based on those four-year recommendations, you know, the country has been safe from major attack since -- ever since. So it worked.

HARLOW: Senator Hamilton, good morning. You're warning about the traps of partisanship, though, in all of this. And I think Jim does make a good point that, even if there were not universally-agreed-upon facts, you know, we are so much more divided now. And there's so much more reward for not getting along, oddly, politically.

HAMILTON: Well, that's true, of course. I think we live in a time of a very intense partisanship. You know, the partisanship is not new. Partisanship can often be helpful in this country and has been in the past. But there are times when you have to come together. You have to put aside the partisanship and look at the problem or the challenge from the standpoint of what's best for the country. Tom and I believe very much now is a time when we have to come together. We have to understand what the facts were on that awful day. It was really scary to me to watch the people coming into the Capitol building, breaking windows, walking up and down the floors of the Capitol, going into chambers of the Senate and the house and desecrating the Capitol which is the temple, as you said, or the citadel of our democracy. We must take steps to prevent that from happening again. The very republic is at stake.

[09:20:00]

SCIUTTO: Governor Kean, to your point -- and people forget, right. There were factual disagreements going into the 9/11 Commission, particularly about what warnings there were, what were missed, et cetera. I wonder just in terms of the broader threat. No one questioned the threat from international terrorism after 9/11, who could? Right now, though, you do have something of a partisan disagreement about the seriousness of the domestic terror threat here. If you speak to the FBI and they've been saying for years, at least, their non-political appointees have been saying this is a big deal. As you enter this, how concerned are you about the threat from these domestic extremist groups?

KEAN: I'm very concerned. I think everybody has to be concerned after seeing what happened at the Capitol. Look, I'm concerned about any group that preaches violence. I'm concerned about any group that would invade, as leaders rightly called the temple of our democracy. This -- the Capitol is a symbol not only for us, it's a simple around the world of democracy.

SCIUTTO: Yes --

KEAN: So to have that defiled, this is enormously important, and you know, Lee is absolutely right as always. And the non-partisanship, bipartisanship is very important here. And to find people -- not who want Republicans or Democrats, but people who will talk to the other side, can cooperate, can work around the middle to get an agreement. And then again, make recommendations so this will never happen again. That's the most important.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HARLOW: Coming from a Republican and a Democrat. You guys who worked together to get this done, and it has so protected our country since. Congressman Hamilton, you, on the 9/11 Commission, you had subpoena power. And I wonder how important -- you do mention it in the letter that you two wrote together. But how important is having that subpoena power and the ability to refer to DOJ?

HAMILTON: Well, it's critically important. There are all kinds of investigations that are set up in Washington, but if you're really going to be serious, you're going to have to get information from people who don't want to give it to you.

SCIUTTO: Yes -- HAMILTON: And you have to have the power to force them to give you

the information. You can only do that through the power of the subpoenaing and the enforcement of the law. So it's critically important that the investigators have the resources, the money, if you will, and the legal power to force action. Otherwise, you're not going to be able to get the facts as you must have if you're going to do an adequate job and try to prevent these things from happening again. That's the purpose, after all. We want to stop the efforts to disrupt the democratic process. And we are going to penalize those who try to keep information from us.

SCIUTTO: Yes, well, gentlemen, we appreciate the work you're doing. It's important. And I think a large portion of the folks watching right now are eager for this kind of work. Governor Kean, Congressman Hamilton, thanks very much.

KEAN: Thank you --

HAMILTON: Thank you very much.

SCIUTTO: Well, the governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo is denying accusations that he hid information about the true number of coronavirus deaths in nursing homes in his state, but admitting some things should have been done differently by him. We're going to take a closer look.

HARLOW: We are also moments away from the opening bell on Wall Street, futures pointing higher across the board this morning, investors still really focused on what's going to happen to this $1.9 trillion stimulus bill as well as, of course, the vaccine rollout and the drop that we're seeing in new COVID-19 cases. We'll keep a close eye on the market as soon as it opens.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:25:00]

SCIUTTO: Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo is denying that his administration covered up the number of COVID deaths in the state's long-term care facilities.

HARLOW: The governor is now admitting that there were mistakes. Is he taking responsibility for them? Our Athena Jones has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): We made a mistake.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Days after his top aide admitted their office withheld data for months about COVID-19 deaths of nursing home residents, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo finally speaking out. Cuomo acknowledging on Monday that the data was not provided quickly enough.

CUOMO: In retrospect, should we have given more priority to fulfilling information requests? In my opinion, yes. JONES: But maintaining that his administration provided accurate

data.

CUOMO: To be clear, all the deaths in the nursing homes and in the hospitals were always fully publicly and accurately reported.

JONES: Approximately 15,000 long-term care facility residents have died in New York. That's about a third of all COVID deaths statewide according to the Department of Health. But until late last month, New York only accounted separately for people who died from COVID-19 in long-term care facilities like nursing homes. The data didn't include the number.