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White House Announces Immigration Bill; Storms Slowing Vaccine Rollout; Texas Blackout; Interview With Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX). Aired 3-3:30p ET.

Aired February 18, 2021 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:00]

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: You are watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you so much for being here.

From Texas to Massachusetts, more than 100 million Americans are under a winter storm warning or weather advisory right now. And officials say the Texas power grid was -- quote -- "seconds or minutes away" from catastrophic failure.

In San Antonio, for example, four consecutive days of snowfall. That is a new record for folks there. In Dallas, temperatures have been below freezing for five days. Power crews made some progress restoring electricity overnight, but still nearly half-a-million customers are still without power in Texas. And officials expect even more outages there today.

On top of all of that, many Texans are dealing with burst pipes, a gas shortage and stores running out of food and bottled water.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have got down all of the blankets out of the attic, that, like, for everything -- extra blanket we had. And we all piled on the couch and just slept on the couch and depending on body heat. And that's probably what we will do tonight.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm out of candles for a little bit of light. Can't charge batteries. We have got flashlights. We can't recharge the batteries. There's no propane in the area to be found. We drove for over an hour the other day looking for propane. There is none in the area.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No water. It's real bad. And I have a 7-year- old. And it's like -- it's tough.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But I don't think any of us was expecting this, for it to be like this. So it's all about survival right now, until it start getting warm.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We had us, baby, two dogs, a cat all in our bed. So it's been rough.

You're angry. You're cold. You're -- like, you just want to cry because you're like so frustrated. It's awful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Story after story here, and then, just on top of it all, the winter storm is also impacting the COVID-19 vaccination efforts; 19 states have been forced to cancel or postpone appointments.

And as Texas faces one of the worst crises in its history, it appears -- take a look at this picture -- Senator Ted Cruz of Texas packed up his family and flew to a sunnier and warmer locale, Cancun, Mexico.

These pictures surfaced from some other travelers, were posted all over Twitter. A source tells CNN that Cruz's office has now actually responded that -- actually -- excuse me -- requested that a Houston police department assist the senator during his departure in Houston, an already strapped police department.

But the senator has now issued this statement, seemingly blaming his kids. Let me read part of this for you.

He says: "With school canceled for the week, our girls asked to take a trip with friends. Wanting to be a good dad, I flew down with them last night and am flying back this afternoon."

We will get a Texas congressman to address that momentarily.

But, first, let's go straight to Ed Lavandera. He has been all over this there in Texas.

And, Ed, what's the story? Is it improving at all?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we have actually seen dramatic improvements.

Last night, when we were finishing up our day of reporting, there were about 1.8 million households across the state that still didn't have electrical power. I just checked. That number is down to about 417,000 households across the state that are still without power, so, obviously, a great deal of movement and dramatic change here in less than the last 24 hours.

BALDWIN: Great.

LAVANDERA: However, it is still going to take some time. State power grid officials say that the majority of -- or what appears to be one of the bigger problems right now for the remaining people without power is that it could be damage to power lines that crews have to go out into the field and repair, that it's not necessarily a power generation issue at this point, or it's leaning, getting more into that area.

So, that is going to take some time to be able to get the crews out into the field where they need to be. And one of the most significantly hard-hit areas that remains off the grid is the Central Texas area out into the hill country around Austin, so, probably an area with large trees, live oaks with leaves.

And you can imagine that the weight of the ice on those. Trees break, and that's what causes the damage to the power lines, so the domino effect of all of that. But we have also learned, Brooke, just how dangerously close the entire power grid system -- and you alluded to this just a moment ago.

But we heard yesterday from a Texas Democratic congressman, Marc Veasey of the Fort Worth area, who told me that he had been told that the power grid system wasn't just -- was minutes, seconds away from a total blackout collapse across the state.

And that has been at the center of the political finger-pointing that has been going on throughout the week here in Texas. ERCOT officials -- that's the state power grid agency -- they confirmed the details of that story this morning in a conference call with reporters.

[15:05:03]

And they say that they what they did was to prevent a catastrophic failure that would have taken perhaps a month to repair had they not did what they did early Monday morning, shutting down so much power to millions of people.

BALDWIN: And I know people at home are thinking, wait, this wasn't already a catastrophic failure? But I'm hearing from you this could have been much worse.

Ed Lavandera, thank you so, so much to you and your crew there in Dallas.

With me now, Congressman Lloyd Doggett. His district spans from San Antonio to Austin.

I see you bundled up there, sir. Congressman, welcome. Thank you so much for joining me.

REP. LLOYD DOGGETT (D-TX): Thank you very much for the coverage of this disaster that you provided.

BALDWIN: Of course. It is what we need to be doing day in and day out until this thing gets fixed.

I know that your power, Congressman, has been out since Monday 2:00 a.m. How are you doing? And it's my understanding your daughter actually had to rescue you.

DOGGETT: Well, I have been very fortunate. Yes, we did have a sudden power outage.

Finally, it's been restored a few hours ago. But as you can see from my attire, it's still a little cool inside. But we have been so much fortunate than the people that have been calling our office from San Antonio and Austin and in between. The number of people that are suffering out there is tremendous. Our state government has failed but. Our local leaders, our mayors, our county judges, just as they did with the COVID epidemic, they're working overtime to try to make up the difference.

And now Texas, with state leaders that are always attacking the federal government, are relying on assistance from the federal government that were calling for to try to bail them out of a situation that should never have occurred, that could have been prevented and adequate notice provided, but they just did not do that.

BALDWIN: I want to come back to your point on failure in just a second. But I really want to highlight people's stories.

I know you're talking to your constituents. I mean, as you mentioned, pipes are bursting. There was this boil water advisory for people who were lucky enough to have water. I was reading this morning, I was sitting here in New York, fortunate just be sitting in my dentist appointment this morning, reading in one of the papers about how people in Texas are having -- learning how to boil snow safely.

Like, this is where you are right now. What are some of the stories you're hearing?

DOGGETT: Well, the stories that have concerned me the most have come from those with disabilities or seniors with medical problems, reliance on oxygen, not being able to get the help that they needed.

We have moved very much from a energy problem, an electric problem, to a water problem now, and so--

BALDWIN: What do you mean that by that specifically? Flooding?

DOGGETT: Well, the same -- no, the same daughter who did rescue me, who lives only a short distance away, now has no water at all.

More significantly, the lack of water pressure affects the ability of our firefighters to respond. And, immediately, it affects hospital heating systems, so that one area hospital already evacuated some of its patients. Others have called on us to get tanker trucks out to provide the water that leads to the steam that allows for the heating of our hospitals.

All over, there is an issue, now that there are boil-your-water alerts from San Antonio in every community right on up to the north end of Austin. There's a question of where people will get the water they need for drinking for everyday needs. There's not an ample bottled water supply here.

And so folks are trying to get by as best they can.

BALDWIN: I was talking to an energy expert who was also in a lot of layers yesterday talking to me from Texas. And he was saying to me -- because I think a lot of people are sitting and watching. And they're thinking, well, why is Texas getting the brunt of this? And he was saying, Brooke, there's an East power grid, there's a West power grid, and there's a Texas power grid, right, that part of the Texas ethos is essentially that -- it's that pioneering spirit.

It's that we can we can handle it ourselves. But, in this case, because you all have your own grid, you can't lean on your neighbors for help. And I'm just wondering, when the storm ends, and you have still all these pressures -- problems between water, food distribution, et cetera, what needs to happen?

You pointed to state leaders who failed. What needs to happen so this never happens again?

DOGGETT: The response of our governor, instead of addressing people to explain the situation, the dire circumstances we were in, was to go on the broadcast of -- over on FOX of one of President Trump's cheerleaders, and use the opportunity to attack renewable energy.

This is--

BALDWIN: Which we know is factually incorrect.

DOGGETT: Well, and, indeed, just within the last few hours, ERCOT, the Energy Reliability Council of Texas, which is that independent grid, said the reason they were able to restore more power to people here within the last few hours, perhaps to my house as well, is because of solar power.

[15:10:11]

Solar, wind, of which Texas is the number one producer, have contributed greatly to our success. And the attempt of Republican officials, particularly the governor and some of my congressional colleagues, to attack renewables and just continue to spout out their fossilized thinking that we can rely solely on fossil fuels is a serious blunder and a misdirection.

What we need is cooperation across our country to address the climate crisis. And that's what they're refusing to do, to follow the science and know that this is not the last crisis we will face if we do not get a better handle on it.

BALDWIN: Right.

Speaking of serious blunders -- and I'm not going to put words in your mouth. I truly want to hear your response to all of this. Your colleague on the other side of the aisle in the Senate Texas Senator Ted Cruz has confirmed that, yes, he did up and leave his home, his constituents to take this trip to Cancun with his family.

After repeated attempts, the senator has finally issued the statement. So, let me just read every one part of it.

He says: "With school canceled for the week, our girls asked to take a trip with friends. Wanted to be a good dad. I flew down with him last night and am flying back this afternoon. My staff and I are in constant communication with state and local leaders to get to the bottom of what happened in Texas. We want our power back, our water on, and our homes warm. My team and I will continue using all our resources to keep Texans informed and safe."

Congressman Doggett, what would you like to say to Ted Cruz?

DOGGETT: Well, I think the most important thing is to be a good senator.

And it's disappointing. It really sends out a message that there's one standard for the jet-setters and one standard for the rest of us. I think he really fails to recognize how much people are suffering, what a failure has occurred here under our Republican state government, and the need for everybody to pitch in and do all they can to get people the water and the electricity that they desperately need.

BALDWIN: Congressman Lloyd Doggett, thank you so much, sir. Stay as warm as you can. Appreciate you.

DOGGETT: Thank you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Thank you.

This brutal weather is wreaking havoc on vaccination efforts. Now Dr. Fauci says the U.S. will have to work double-time just to make up for all these massive delays.

Plus, President Biden is unveiling a sweeping immigration reform bill that creates a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants. We have those details ahead.

And get excited. A live look at NASA mission control in California, as the world waits for the landing of this Perseverance rover -- that's the name of it -- on the Red Planet, on Mars, in mere minutes. It's happening a little later this hour. We have got it live for you. Talking to an astronaut.

Stay with me. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:17:41]

BALDWIN: Welcome back. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Another round of winter storms is threatening to disrupt, further disrupt the distribution of COVID vaccines. Dr. Anthony Fauci is now saying the U.S. is going to need to work double-time just to make up for delays caused by severe weather.

Dr. Fauci isn't sure just how much of the nation's vaccine rollout has been impacted, but says in some places it has come to weigh -- and I quote -- "grinding halt."

CNN's Alexandra Field is live in a snowy New York.

And so, Alex, how badly is that weather disrupting vaccination efforts?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, Brooke, we're talking about problems on top of problems.

In some places, the weather is stopping people from being able to go get the shots. In other places, it's stopping sites from being able to administer shots. But, really, the picture that we're seeing nationwide is these shipping delays. They're causing shortages being felt right here in New York City, where they have had to close down some sites, delay other sites from opening.

And here at this site in Brooklyn, they're prioritizing, only giving out second doses.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FIELD (voice-over): Hard-won progress toward getting more shots in arms derailed by severe weather across the country, the storms crippling efforts to keep vaccines moving. The delays could last as long as two weeks.

DR. MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, DIRECTOR, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA CENTER FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASE RESEARCH: The challenge we have right now is that there's about 22 million Americans who have received their first dose, waiting for their second dose.

FIELD: Supplies are running dry from New York all the way to Idaho, where only a limited number of Pfizer doses arrived this week. Same goes for Washington state.

Major problems stemming from storms affecting the FedEx hub in Memphis and the UPS hub in Louisville. UPS says that hub is up and running again after shutting down for the first time in its history. FedEx says it's prioritizing vaccine delivery. But weather is still affecting most of the network.

In Texas, a cold weather crisis created an avalanche of problems.

LINA HIDALGO, HARRIS COUNTY, TEXAS, JUDGE: We even had a facility lose power. So we have to figure out -- a public health facility lose power, so we had to figure out how to distribute and salvage those vaccines, which we were able to do.

FIELD: The city of Houston left with no choice but to shut down vaccine clinics.

OSTERHOLM: The biggest challenge we had up and to the cold weather was not enough vaccine to begin with.

FIELD: A brutal storm leaving us more vulnerable while many Americans are at their most vulnerable. New variants of virus are fueling concerns about another surge.

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: The continued spread of variants that are more transmissible could jeopardize the progress we have made in the last month, if our -- if we let our guard down.

[15:20:10]

FIELD: Dr. Anthony Fauci says part of our best defense against those new variants is administering more of those critical vaccines.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NIAID DIRECTOR: You have a vaccine that works against this variant.

FIELD: "The New England Journal of Medicine" publishing two new reports showing that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are highly effective against the variant that originated in the U.K., and still effective against the variant first found in South Africa, but with less antibody protection.

The country is posting its lowest numbers on new COVID cases in months, the average now just over 77,000 new cases a day, the lowest it's been since the end of October, hospitalizations now as low as they have been since early November. Deaths are declining, but still averaging more than 2,000 a day, the lasting toll of a virus that leaves a permanent scar on us all.

The CDC now reports that, in the first half of 2020, average American life expectancy fell by more than a year, the biggest decline since World War II.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FIELD: And, Brooke, within that shortened life expectancy, a widening gap, life expectancy for black Americans falling three times what it did for white Americans.

And, Brooke, don't forget we are only seeing data from the first half of 2020.

BALDWIN: Alex, thank you so much for just the broader look at everything and where we need to really focus our attention. Thank you.

A sweeping immigration bill from the White House lands on Capitol Hill, but there are still multiple obstacles ahead. We will talk about that.

Also, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has a new plan to deal with former President Donald Trump. Two words: Ignore him. How's that going to go?

And we're minutes away from NASA's latest rover -- it's called Perseverance -- touching down on Mars and the beginning of the first mission ever to search for signs of life on the Red Planet.

Stay here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:26:44]

BALDWIN: Major moves on the immigration front today.

Congressional Democrats, following President Joe Biden's lead, unveiled a new sweeping bill that clears a path to citizenship for millions of immigrants who are currently living right here in the United States.

Let's go to the White House. And our senior White House correspondent, Phil Mattingly, is with me.

And, Phil, just walk us through the bill.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so this is a Democratic bill from Capitol Hill that really tracks with what President Biden outlined in his first day in office, lining up very closely to what the White House wants.

And it is really the most sweeping immigration proposal, if it were signed into law, in more than three decades. The cornerstone of that proposal, Brooke, as you noted, is an eight-year window for the 11 million undocumented immigrants in this country to have a pathway to citizenship.

There also would be a surge in funding for immigration judges, about $4 billion for those Northern Triangle countries that have faced so many difficulties and have led to such a surge in immigration across the border over the course of the last several years.

You also have elements that would involve technology and border security, not to the extent that we have seen in past proposals. Obviously, this is a key area that Republicans often log on to -- or lock on to. And there would also be a significant increase in diversity visas as well.

I think the big picture right now is, here at the White House, they know that this is a long road ahead. And there are significant hurdles to get bipartisan support, if you think back, Brooke, over the course of just the last 15 years, the number of times that the possibility of immigration reform was -- seemed to be right on the brink, and then was snatched from the jaws of victory multiple times over and over again.

BALDWIN: Yes.

MATTINGLY: And I think people here in particular, many of them were experienced with 2005, with 2013, some of them during the Trump administration as well. And so they understand the reality here, particularly if they need to get the Republican support, at least 10 Republicans in the U.S. Senate.

But what this means is a couple of things. One, the president made clear during his campaign this was a key initiative, a key priority for him, backing that up by backing this bill today, and also that they understand this is going to be a process. And they wanted to put something on the table both on the first day in office and now with Democrats on Capitol Hill that can at least start the conversation.

This isn't going to happen fast. This will take time, if it happens at all. But Democrats and here at the White House believe that they now have something on the table. Let the talks begin, in the hopes that it could lead to something at some point over the course of the next year -- Brooke. BALDWIN: Try, try again. We will see if they can pull it off this

time.

Phil Mattingly at the White House.

Phil, thank you.

Now to the Republican Party, where we see Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell adopting, shall we say, a new approach to former President Donald Trump and his attacks: Ignore, ignore, ignore.

Instead, we're hearing he will reportedly focus solely on winning back the Senate majority. It is certainly a gamble, as more and more GOP lawmakers weigh whether they can win in 2022 without staying aligned with former President Trump.

CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger is with me now.

And, Gloria, I know that you have some scoop on this, that CNN learned that Senator McConnell, basically, when he read that -- what read to me as just a really long tweet, that statement from Trump, that he laughed, right?

But this rift has very real implications, including, as I mentioned the Republican fight to take back the Senate in two years. What do you know about that?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, according to a source familiar with McConnell's thinking, I have been told that, look, it's all about getting back control of the Senate, and that I was told -- and here's a quote -- "If the animating question is whether we need more Trump, that's not going to work."

(LAUGHTER)