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Biden on Pandemic: Things Should be Better by Christmas; Biden Pitches His Massive Pandemic Relief Plan; Biden: Every American Can Get Vaccine by End of July; Oil, Stimulus Hopes Power Dow Jones to Record High; Trump Rips McConnell, Deeping GOP Civil War; Attacks Against Asian Americans Spark Calls for Change; North Korea Accused of Hacking Drug Maker Pfizer. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired February 17, 2021 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everyone. Well, U.S. President Joe Biden clearly didn't want to overpromise, but he said he is hopeful American life will return to normal by Christmas. Mr. Biden offered his timeline during a CNN Town Hall event Tuesday evening. He also provided encouraging predictions about COVID-19 vaccinations. He said that the U.S. will have 600 million vaccine doses by the end of July, enough for every American. And he also addressed concerns about coronavirus variants.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thus far, there is no evidence that the existing vaccinations available from Moderna and Pfizer do not either make sure that they apply, they work as well against the strain in the United States. And there is no evidence that they're not helpful. So if you can get a vaccination, get it whenever you can get it, regardless of the other strains that are out there.

There are studies going on to determine it's not only more communicable, but are there vaccines -- do the vaccines not provide helpful protection by getting the vaccine? There are some speculations -- I've got to be very careful here because millions of people are watching this -- it may be that a certain vaccination for a certain strain may reduce from 95 percent to a lower percentage of certainty that it will keep you from getting --

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: It may not be as effective as --

BIDEN: -- it may not be as effective.

COOPER: -- against a variant, but it still would be effective.

BIDEN: Still be effective. So the clear notion is if you're eligible, if it's available, get the vaccine. Get the vaccine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: With us now is the former U.S. health and human services secretary Kathleen Sebelius. She's also the former governor of Kansas. An honor to have you with us.

KATHLEEN SEBELIUS, FORMER U.S. HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: Thank you. Nice to be with you.

CHURCH: So President Biden's goal after CNN's Town Hall was to refocus the nation on the pandemic and sell his $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill to the public. What was your assessment of how well he did that?

SEBELIUS: Well, I think it was a great forum for President Biden, he loves to engage with the public. And I think he clearly was enthusiastic about making the trip to Milwaukee. Back to Wisconsin, a very cutting-edge state. And he was able to focus the conversation on not just COVID and what's happening with vaccinations and school openings but to really focus on the relief package that is so important for Congress to pass and pass quickly. Given the fact that a lot of people's benefits will run out at the end of March. And I think he did a great job clarifying what's in the bill and pressing the urgency of the issue.

CHURCH: And we also learned from President Biden that by the end of July, vaccines will be made available to all Americans. That is a different timeline though, to what we heard from Dr. Anthony Fauci who just moved the date to early June.

[04:35:00]

Many people will have already been vaccinated in the meantime, of course. But do all of these altered timelines confuse people and impact trust. Or do you think the American people understand the difficulties involved here?

SEBELIUS: Well, I think it's frustrating because a lot of people would like to be vaccinated tomorrow. And there clearly is not enough vaccine. I think what both Dr. Fauci and the president are doing is trying to tell the American public as clearly as possible what they know. How fast we can get both the Moderna and the Pfizer vaccine into the arms of Americans.

The good news is that the president secured another 200 million doses of these very effective vaccines so that we will have enough doses for 600 million doses to be administered. That's basically the entire United States getting the two-dose regimen. That's great news because that wasn't done until the last week or so.

The vaccine is ramping up but it's rolling out gradually. And I think what you're hearing from both Dr. Fauci and the president is, as soon as it's ready to roll, they're going to roll it out. They're going to mobilize a more massive effort. They're trying to make sure that the national government is very involved in rapid distribution and larger vaccination sites in mobilizing vaccinators, people who will actually give the shots. All of that is good news. But we won't have the vaccine as quickly as many people want it, which is immediately. It won't all be produced at once.

CHURCH: Yes, I mean, they do have to be careful not to overpromise now to deliver. There's no doubt about that. SEBELIUS: You bet.

CHURCH: So another big topic that President Biden was pressed on was the safe opening of the schools during this pandemic. Asked about his plans to get kids back to school, he said protective gear was critical to everyone, of course. Smaller teaching pods. Kindergarten through eighth grade can be sent back easier because they don't transmit the virus as much as high school students. And the big headline was that he thinks all teachers need to be vaccinated, despite the CDC saying, that is not necessary. Again, a mixed message here. What are people to make of all of this?

SEBELIUS: Well, I think thar there are really kind of two messages. The CDC said it isn't essential for all teachers to be vaccinated. I think what teachers are saying in lots of places and custodians and bus drivers and others is, as adults susceptible to the virus, they really feel that if they're going to go back to work with full classes and gear, they should be vaccinated.

CHURCH: And our thanks there to former U.S. health and human services secretary Kathleen Sibelius.

Well, investors are keeping an eye for any stimulus news today. As U.S. markets are poised to hit fresh records. Oil and cryptocurrency prices are driving the gains with bitcoin soaring to another new milestone. So let's bring in John Defterios, our CNN business emerging markets editor. Good to see you again, John. So what does this mean for the economy and inflation? And can this momentum hold?

JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN BUSINESS EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: Well I tell you, a holding pattern is a good way to describe what we see today in the stock market, Rosemary. But it's contrary when it comes to bitcoin and oil. We had a surge to a better than 51,000 in New York trading for bitcoin. And then we went back down to 48,000. But if you bring up the quote now and take a look, there is new record high. There is demand for this currency, 51,300 and change, with a gain of 4.5 percent.

By the way, this time last year and March 2020 as well, that was trading around 5,000 -- 10 times the return. That's a whopper of a fat return, of course.

In the wider context with regards to the stimulus, President Biden at the CNN Town Hall talked about that $1.9 trillion stimulus package, but he said there's a direct relationship or correlation with job creation. He thinks we can recreate 7 million jobs over the next year after losing 10 million if we can get that stimulus package through.

This is feeding into inflationary concerns we have out there because there's so much money chasing assets. But that's why we see if you take a look at U.S. futures. They're trading pretty flat. Asia was down not a little bit lower, not substantially. But people are wondering where we go next.

When it comes to the commodity market and that massive storm we see in the United States, particularly hitting Texas very hard, which is the largest oil producing state, we have oil prices at a 13 month high in the United States trading above $60 a barrel. And we crossed $64 on the international benchmark and creeping slightly lower.

[04:40:00]

But there is a concern about fueling inflation. And this is a special case, of course, because of oil, because of that massive storm knocking out about a fifth of U.S. oil production right now.

CHURCH: Yes, absolutely. John Defterios joining us live from Abu Dhabi. Many thanks.

Well former President Donald Trump is slamming Mitch McConnell, the most senior Republican in the Senate, in a very personal and nasty way. Trump called him an unsmiling political hack and warned other Republicans not to support him. Trump's attack coming just days after McConnell delivered a blistering speech against Trump after the impeachment trial is further exposing a growing rift inside the Republican party. CNN's Ryan Nobles picks up the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The statement by the former president in many ways is a worst case scenario for Republicans in their hopes to unify the party ahead of the 2022 midterms. The statement comes after the Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell did vote to acquit the former president in his recent impeachment trial but then went on to hammer Trump's role in the January 6th insurrection.

First in a speech that he gave on the Senate floor right after the vote and then in an op-ed that ran in "The Wall Street Journal" on Tuesday morning. And this is how Trump responded.

He said quote, the Republican Party can never again be respected or considered strong with political leaders -- in quotes -- like Senate Mitch McConnell at its helm. Mitch is a dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack, and if Republican Senators are going to stay with him, they will not win again. Where necessary and appropriate, I will back primary rivals who espouse Making America Great Again and our policy of America First.

In this editorial that Mitch McConnell wrote in "The Wall Street Journal" on Tuesday morning, he said that Trump was wrong and how he helped to encourage the riots to take place on January 6th.

This really poses a problem for Republicans where the former still remains very popular among his base, and this is him saying that he is going to get involved in these 2022 primary races and back candidates who show they're loyalty to him and his agenda.

It's clear that Mitch McConnell believes that that may not be a winning formula in general elections. So this is going to be a big problem for Republicans that plays out over the next two years. Do they side with Trump? Or do they side with Mitch McConnell and the wing of the party that would like to put Trump in the rear view mirror?

Ryan Nobles, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: And still to come, growing concerns how the growing pandemic may be driving hate in the United States. We will look a disturbing rise in attacks against Asian-Americans. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:45:00]

CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. Well, the United States is seeing a rise in hate crimes against Asian-Americans. Thousands of incidents from verbal attacks to physical assaults have been reported. Rights groups say the problem has gone on far too long, and they are demanding immediate action.

CNN's Kyung Lah has more. And a warning some viewers may find images in this report disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Birthday, dear grandpa --

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Turning 84 was a milestone for Vicha Ratanapakdee and his family.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ooh, happy birthday, grandpa.

LAH (voice-over): The San Francisco grandfather had just received the vaccine and stayed healthy through the pandemic, walking for an hour in his neighborhood every morning. It was on his walk when an unprovoked attacker ran across the street.

LAH: How did you find out what happened to your father?

MONTHANUS RATANAPAKDEE, VICTIM'S DAUGHTER: The officer answered the phone and then he told us like, they found him, got assaulted. He got an injury very bad about his brain, bleeding. And he never wake up again. I never see him again.

LAH (voice-over): A 19-year-old suspect is charged with murder and elder abuse. The Ratanapakdee family calls it something else.

ERIC LAWSON, VICTIM'S SON-IN-LAW: This wasn't driven by economics. This was driven by hate.

LAH (voice-over): Ratanapakdee's death is part of a surge and reported attacks against Asian Americans during the pandemic. In Oakland, a man walked up behind a 91-year-old man and threw him to the ground, one of more than 20 assaults and robberies like this one in Oakland's Chinatown.

In Portland, more than a dozen Asian-owned businesses in recent weeks have been vandalized. These incidents are not new. In New York, the MTA re-tweeted this video of what they called racism. This man sprayed Febreze at an Asian-American on the subway at the start of the pandemic, prompting an NYPD hate crime investigation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Bleep) Asian piece of (bleep).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my god.

LAH (voice-over): A coalition has tracked more than 2,800 anti-Asian hate incidents between March and December of last year. Like this one at a California restaurant. Before the election, this man invoked President Trump.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trump is going (bleep) you, you (bleep), you need to leave.

LAH (voice-over): The then-president's words --

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: China virus, kung flu ...

LAH (voice-over): -- have lasting impacts, says Professor Russell Jeung, who tracked those 2,800 hate incidents through Stop AAPI Hate, because no governmental agency would.

RUSSELL JEUNG, PROFESSOR, STOP AAPI HATE: Mainstream society doesn't believe that we face racism. And we needed to document what was happening.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're offering our support to the community.

LAH (voice-over): Identify and change them, says this group of Bay Area volunteers, offering escorts for the elderly.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE).

LAH (voice-over): And offering a bridge to those who may not even know how to talk to the police.

DEREK KO, VOLUNTEER, COMPASSION IN OAKLAND: We want to take that rage and I see something, like, let us do something, what can I do?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mm-hmm.

KO: And this is what we're doing.

LAH (voice-over): Vicha Ratanapakdee's daughter spent the last year ignoring what people said to her.

RATANAPAKDEE: You bring the COVID, screaming, spit on us. But we just walk away.

LAH (voice-over): She won't do that anymore.

RATANAPAKDEE: He got to be proud about -- we protect a lot of other people in this city or the whole country.

LAH: The San Francisco Police Department has not charged the suspect in Ratanapakdee's murder with a hate crime because, as in many of the cases, it's so difficult to prove.

Activists believe that incidents of hate against Asian Americans in this country are probably far higher than anyone realizes, especially when you consider this community is often immigrant and has language barriers.

Kyung Lah, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

CHURCH: And you are watching CNN NEWSROOM. North Korea has been accused of trying to hack a coronavirus vaccine maker and steal its secrets. But now that report is being denied. We'll have a live report.

[04:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. Well, New Zealand is planning Thursday to begin rolling back the coronavirus restrictions it quickly put in place last Sunday. It comes as officials work to contain a small cluster of new cases connected to just one family. The government will be reducing restrictions in Auckland to its second lowest level and the rest of the country will be reduced to level one.

Well, now to serious allegations against North Korea. A South Korean lawmaker says Pyongyang successfully hacked drug maker Pfizer to try to steal technology linked to coronavirus vaccines. But now, we are hearing that may not be the case.

Will Ripley is following this story for us from Hong Kong. He joins us now live. Good to see you, Will. So what more are you learning about the real story behind this?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, what happened in South Korea, Rosemary, that the NIS, the National Intelligence Service gives these confidential briefings to lawmakers who write down notes and then sometimes leak the information to the press.

So you have the South Korea lawmaker who posted one of the notes that he wrote alleging that North Korean hackers targeted the U.S. biotech company Pfizer which has made one of the successful COVID-19 vaccines and he has doubled down on this. He says I heard them talk about Pfizer. Pfizer was hacked. This made big headlines.

But then NIS turned around and said they never mentioned Pfizer. They talked about other South Korean companies that were hacked and basically denied the South Korean lawmaker's claim which he then doubled down on when we at CNN followed up with him.

Regardless of whether they mentioned Pfizer or not, one thing has been made clear time and time again. North Korean hackers are believed to indeed be targeting biotech companies. There were reports in November that they targeted AstraZeneca, which is also working on COVID-19 vaccines. North Korea at the time told CNN that was fake news. [04:55:00]

But then Microsoft accused North Korea of targeting a number of different pharmaceutical companies using their cyber army, which is believed to be one of the most substantial in the world. The U.S. considers them on par with Russia and China which is extraordinary for a country as small and destitute as North Korea. It really does show the investment and the commitment that North Korea has to their cybercrimes, allegedly, Rosemary, stealing $316 million over the course of the last year.

CHURCH: Will Ripley, many thanks joining us live from Hong Kong.

And before we go, a touching moment from Tuesday's CNN Town Hall with President Joe Biden. It came after a mother standing with her young daughter expressed her children's' concerns about getting COVID-19.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BIDEN: Are you in first grade? Second grade?

LEYLA: Second.

BIDEN: Oh, you're getting old. Second grade. Well, has your school -- have you been in school, honey?

LEYLA: No.

BIDEN: No?

See, that's -- that's kind of a scary thing, too. You don't get to go to school. You don't get to see your friends.

And so what a lot of kids and, I mean, and big people, too, older people, they just -- their whole lives have sort of changed like when it used to be. It used to be you just go outside and play with your friends and get in the school bus and go to school, and everything was normal. And now, when things change, people get really worried and scared.

But don't be scared, honey. Don't be scared. You're going to be fine. And we're going to make sure mommy is fine, too.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Comforting America there.

And thank you so much for your company. I'm Rosemary Church. We will have much more from President Biden's CNN Town Hall coming up on "EARLY START." That's next. You're watching CNN. Have a wonderful day.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)