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President Biden Outlines Path to Normalcy by July 4th; Group of New York Congressional Democrats Calling for Governor Andrew Cuomo to Resign; Arizona GOP Lawmakers Propose Two Dozen Restrictive Voting Bills; White House COVID Response Team Holds Briefing. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired March 12, 2021 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:40]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan. Thank you for joining us.

At this hour, we're standing by to hear from the COVID response team. About to brief reporters and we're going to bring that to you when it begins because they're going to be facing new questions today after President Biden laid down some markers last night. March 21 being one of them, that's when Biden says the U.S. will hit 100 million shots in arms and another date, May 1st.

Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEPH R. BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: All adult Americans will be eligible to get a vaccine to later than may 1. Let me be clear. That doesn't mean everyone is going to have that shot immediately. But it means you'll be able to get in line beginning May 1.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: And then there is July 4th when the president said he aims for the country to be able to gather safely once again with loved ones. How does the administration meet and exceed these markers. That is one major question.

Also when every adult is eligible for a shot, how do they make sure everyone gets that shot quickly and President Biden wants families to be able to gathered with loved ones on July 4th. Does he mean be able to travel to get together with loved ones? He may have some answers. We'll bring you when the briefing begins, we'll bring it to you when they start speaking.

And a few hours from now, another big event at the White House. A ceremonial bill signing of the $1.9 trillion COVID relief plan which President Biden actually signed into law yesterday. He's joined by the vice president and key Democratic lawmakers, no Republicans will be in attendance, they will not be joining as no Republicans voted for this bill.

Joining me right now is CNN's Jeremy Diamond. He is at the White House.

Jeremy, clearly a lot of new markers, a lot going on from the White House and the president is about to hit the road. What are the plans?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that is exactly right, Kate. Listen, last night in his speech we heard President Biden offer a blueprint for the way forward with coronavirus. He talked about these new markers in terms of making all Americans eligible for vaccines by May 1st. A return to at least a sliver of normalcy by the July 4th holiday.

So that was the blueprint. Now we get President Biden to talk about how that blueprint is achieved and he'll do so by talking about this nearly $2 trillion piece of legislation which he signed into law just yesterday. We'll see him in the Rose Garden with members of Congress celebrating the passage of this legislation.

And that really kicks off the effort by the White House to continue to promote and tout all of the components of this piece of legislation which is already pretty popular. More than 60 percent of Americans already say they support this legislation. But that is before the Republican attacks really are set to begin.

Republicans so far really didn't mount a very comprehensive attack against this legislation. None of them voted for it, though. And we've already seen a few Republicans try and take some credit for it.

But what is clear is that they will be trying to attack some of the spending components that are in this big piece of legislation.

So next week, you'll see President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, both of them hitting the road along with their spouses heading to some key states. We'll see the vice president on Monday in Las Vegas as well as in -- and then on Tuesday in Denver. You'll see President Biden in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, and then both of them will hold a joint event at the end of the week in Atlanta, Georgia.

Of course, Georgia having some symbolism here because it is because Democrats won those two key Senate seats in that state that they were able to secure the Senate majority and be able to pass this massive, nearly $2 trillion piece of legislation which will be a cornerstone not only for President Biden's agenda and his legacy, but it is something that every single Democrat up and down the ticket will be running on come the 2022 midterms -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: That is for sure. Jeremy, thank you very much.

Back to the new markers laid out by the president during his speech. I want to play for you his reference to Independence Day. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: If we do this together, by July the 4th, there is a good chance, you, your families and friends will be able to get together in your backyard or in your neighborhood and have a cookout and a barbecue and celebrate Independence Day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: And joining me right now is CNN medical analyst, Dr. Leana Wen. She's also the former health commissioner for the city of Baltimore.

[11:05:01]

Dr. Wen, what do you think of these markers that Joe Biden is laying out, ambitious or not ambitious enough?

DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: I think they are ambitious and are extremely hopeful. I mean, they give the hope that everyone has been waiting for, saying that May 1st is going to be open season. Meaning that all adults who want to be vaccinated can at least sign up to be vaccinated. I think that is really important because a lot of people had been wondering when is it my turn if I don't fall into one of these high risk categories.

So not that everyone is going to be vaccinated on May 1st but knowing that you could sign up at that point, that the federal government is confident enough with supply and of the ability of states to administer the vaccine at that point, that's really exceptional news.

And then the July 4th deadline, or the July 4th timeline I thought was also great, too, because what President Biden said is we have to do this together. If everyone gets vaccinated when it is your turn, and if the federal government continues to do their part, we could reach this goal together and I think it is that sense of shared responsibility that is really critical in the next phase of this pandemic.

BOLDUAN: And in this next phase as we're talking about opening up, this comes along with the CDC guidelines of how to do that safely. And we learned a bit more about what is behind the CDC's travel guidelines from a conversation on CNN last night. The CDC stilling do not travel even if you are vaccinated.

And Sanjay asked the CDC director about what seems a contradiction. Because at the same time the CDC said it is safe to go into nursing homes even if you are unvaccinated, and Dr. Walensky said it essentially boils down to this. Let me play it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: We are very worried about transmissible variants. A lot of them have come through the travel corridors so we're being extra cautious right now with travel and we'll follow that and update it as soon as we have more data.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: What do you think of that, Dr. Wen? WEN: I don't find this to be a satisfactory answer, because travel

itself is not the problem. As in it is not as if there have been large numbers of cases perfect the air travel or train travel or the actual travel. It's more about what happens when people get to their destination.

So I think we should be able to say, if you're unvaccinated, don't go on the spring break trip where you're going to be hanging out in bars with a lot of unvaccinated people but it is fine to say if you are fully vaccinated and want to spend time with your loved ones across the country and you're only going to be spending time with one family, that should be okay.

And so I think that the CDC guidance has to make sense. And there are some contradictions in there that I hope that they'll rectify in the issue that Sanjay raised last night is the right one, the nursing homes as an example, they're not saying that it is only vaccinated nursing homes residents that are able to meet with vaccinated families, they say even if you're not vaccinated, you could still visit indoors and that raises a lot of questions.

If that's okay, why can't people who are asymptomatic, who are low risk and who are fully vaccinated visit their family members across the country.

BOLDUAN: These are important questions and likely get some of the questions to the COVID response team in just a few minutes when they begin their briefing. Then we'll bring that to everyone and Dr. Wen will be here.

Thank you, Dr. Wen.

We also have breaking news coming in right now. Several of the most prominent Democrats in Congress representing the state of New York, they all just came out with statements calling for New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to resign now.

Let's get over to CNN's Shimon Prokupecz. He has the details on this.

Shimon, what is going on here?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so far it is 11 congressional, some of the congressmen and women there in Washington, D.C. who are calling on the governor to resign, this seems to be a coordinated effort for the first time this morning each of them releasing statements.

One of those coming from AOC, who said that after two accounts of sexual assault, four counts of harassment and the attorney general's investigation finding that the governor hid nursing home data from the legislature and public, we agree with the 55-plus members of the New York state legislature that the governor must resign.

Of course, she is one of 11 of the congressional leaders there in Washington, D.C., calling on the governor to resign. Also very significant, the head of the judiciary committee there in

Washington, D.C. in Congress, Jerry Nadler, calling on the governor to resign as well. This is someone who has been around Congress for many, many years, and has known the governor for many years. And of course, has probably been by the governor's side for many, many years and has a lot of political sway, certainly here in New York, given how long he's been around and for the first time we're hearing such words from him, calling also for the governor to resign.

[11:10:03]

And of course all of this coming as pressure here by state leaders here in Albany, in New York, calling for the governor to resign as well, some 60 Democrats here, at least 60 Democrats so far coming out publicly saying that the governor should resign.

However, a majority of the Democrats still here in the state are saying they want to see this investigation play out. They have the attorney general who is conducting an investigation, has brought in two independent attorneys who are looking at the claims by the women, the sexual harassment claims and the hostile work environment. And then of course there is also the whole issue surrounding the nursing homes data.

So again, growing number of Democrats, certainly the fact that the folks in Washington, D.C. are calling on the governor now to resign, brings us to a new level. We have yet to hear from the governor on any of this, Kate.

BOLDUAN: And issuing statements simultaneously, it is also significant as well.

I'm looking at the list. It doesn't look like we've heard yet from the top Democrat in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, New York Democrat is included. We'll see what Senator Schumer has to say about this as well. But this is important.

Thank you so much, Shimon. I appreciate it.

Still ahead for us, we have 24 bills and that is just since January. How Arizona has become the center of the fight over voting rights. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: Welcome back.

Any moment now, the White House COVID response team will be holding a briefing today and we're going to bring that to you as soon as it begins.

In the meantime, 24 bills, two dozen separate measures introduced in Arizona just since January, all targeted toward making it harder for some residents to vote.

Here is the movement this week. On Monday, the Republican majority in the state Senate voted to push forward a bill to require voters include more forms of ID if they vote by mail than in the current system.

[11:15:01]

Wednesday in the state house, they moved forward in an effort to purge names from early voting lists, simply if people skip consecutive election cycles. When about 80 percent of the state's votes are cast by mail, this is a very big deal. Another measure would empower legislatures to over turn the state's election results. Yeah, you heard me say that correct.

Twenty-four measures being pushed by Republicans in the state, a state that Biden won very narrowly in 2020 election, putting Arizona squarely at the center of this nationwide effort by Republicans to restrict voting after Biden's 2020 election win.

Joining me now is Arizona's secretary of state, Katie Hobbs.

Thanks for coming in.

You have said very clearly in response to what is going on in your state, that these efforts are designed specifically to suppress votes that tend to go Democratic. If these, even some of these measures may become law, what is the election going to look like in your state next cycle?

KATIE HOBBS, ARIZONA SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, I think what is important to note is that all of the bills were crafted by legislators who have little understanding of the actual process of election administration. And none of them will help with election security, as the justification that they're trying to use for these measures, and all of them are going to make it harder to vote, harder to administer elections, and, you know, none of the election experts, the election officials were consulted in crafting any of this legislation.

So it is concerning on many levels. And I think it will make the next election really difficult for a lot of voters if a lot of these measures are, in fact, signed into law and implemented.

BOLDUAN: And, Secretary, you're hitting on something I wanted to focus in on. Some Republicans say this is about voter security and making sure all and only legal votes are counted. For that to be true, it would need to be based on something.

How much fraud was found in your state in the last election?

HOBBS: There was no fraud found in our state in the last election. And you know, we do count all legal votes in the state. So, this is just solutions in search of a problem that doesn't exist.

BOLDUAN: You know, a Republican State Representative John Kavanaugh, he laid it out transparently in speaking to CNN. I want to read what he said in part.

Democrats value as many people as possible voting and they're willing to risk fraud. Republicans are more concerned about fraud so we don't mind putting security measures in that won't let everybody vote. But everybody shouldn't be voting. If somebody is uninterested in voting, that probably means that they're totally uninformed on the issues. Quantity is important. But we have to look at the quality of votes as well.

Secretary, if it is that transparent and obvious, can it be stopped?

HOBBS: Well, you know, I think that is a pretty elitist statement about who should be voting. But I really reject the premise that it is an either/or situation in terms of access to voting and controlling fraud in the system. We have well established systems that do both. And this last election is a testament to that. We had one of the most secure and successful elections in terms of voter access that we've ever had not just in Arizona but across the country and that was in the face of a global pandemic and we should be working to institutionalize the things that we did to increase voter access, not make it harder for people to vote.

BOLDUAN: Also, I'm told we need to jump now. Secretary, thank you very much. This is such an important issue. We'll connect with you again on this.

Here is the COVID response team. Let's listen in.

JEFF ZIENTS, WHITE HOUSE COVID-19 RESPONSE COORDINATOR: -- all Americans will be eligible for vaccinations no later than May 1. All Americans no later than May 1.

And the president put the nation on a path to get closer to normal by the Fourth of July.

As many of you remember, on the president's first full day in office, he outlined a comprehensive strategy to beat this pandemic. We've spent every day since then executing against that strategy. And we are making progress.

As you could see on our weekly vaccination progress report, the current seven-day average, the dark bar on the far right, it 2.2 million shots per day. That is a new record pace that we will continue to build on.

On inauguration day, only 8 percent of Americans 65 and over had gotten their first vaccination. Today that number is nearly 65 percent.

[11:20:01]

This is important because 80 percent of COVID deaths have been individuals 65 and over.

So, we're making progress. But there is more work to do. Last night, Americans heard the president say that all of us need to do our part and that if we do, there is a good chance that families and friends will be able to safely gather in small groups to celebrate Independence Day. I want to walk through the key components of our effort moving

forward, starting with May 1 eligibility. The president will direct states, tribes and territories to make all adults eligible for the vaccine no later than May 1st. That is earlier than expected and reflects our success working with vaccine manufacturers to increase supply and secure doses for all adult Americans. And also our progress in increasing both the number of vaccinators and the number of places that people could get vaccinated.

Now, that does not mean that everybody will get a shot immediately, but May 1st every adult will be eligible to sign up to get the shot. And by the end of May, we expect to have enough vaccine supply available for all adults in this country.

To help ensure that we turn vaccine supply into shots in arms, the president announced that we will continue to increase the number of vaccinators and the place -- the number of places to get vaccinated. First, over the coming weeks, we will deliver vaccines directly to up to 700 additional community health centers that reach underserved communities, bringing the total number of these community health centers participating in our federal vaccination program to 950.

Second, we will work to double the number of pharmacies participating in the federal pharmacy program. We will make the vaccine available at more than 20,000 pharmacies across America. And the administration is instructing these pharmacies to expand mobile operations into the hardest hit communities to reach more people.

Third, the administration will more than double the number of federally run mass vaccination centers to ensure that we hit the hardest hit communities. Sorry, to ensure that we reach the hardest hit communities. Many of the sites will include mobile operations to further reach out to underserved community and deliver thousands of shots per day.

Today, in fact, I'm pleased to announce the addition of a new FEMA supported site in Detroit. This site located at Ford Field, home of the Detroit Lions, has the ability to administer 6,000 shots per day. And last night, President Biden announced the deployment of more than 4,000 active duty troops to support vaccination efforts bringing the total troop deployment to over 6,000.

Fourth, we will increase the number of vaccinators. People who could administer shots in arms. Dr. Nunez-Smith will talk about the importance of today's Prep Act amendment to increase the total number of vaccinators in the field.

Now we know the work to increase vaccine supply, vaccinators is not enough on its own. We need to make it easier for every American to get vaccinated. Too often, it is too difficult, too time consuming and too frustrating for people to identify where vaccines are available, and where to schedule an appointment. That's why the president last night announced steps to make it easier for individuals to find a vaccine near them.

By May 1st, as vaccines are available in more places, the administration will launch a federally supported website that will show the locations near them that have available vaccines. And because we know that not everyone has Internet access or is comfortable online, we will also launch a call center to provide assistance in finding a vaccine.

Since so many Americans use their state and local websites to schedule vaccine appointments, the administration will also deploy technology teams to help to improve these systems.

Reopening schools safely is critical to getting closer to normal. Last night, President Biden discussed additional steps to reopen schools. Now that the American rescue plan is law, $130 billion will help schools pay for critical supplies to implement CDC's mitigation strategies, hire more staff, and support children's academic and social and emotional needs.

[11:25:05]

And we're getting educators vaccinated.

Last week, the president announced that he's using the administration's authority to direct states that haven't yet prioritized pre-K through 12 school staff and child care workers for vaccinations to do so immediately.

As we work to get more people vaccinated, we need to expand testing, diagnostic screening and genomic sequencing. With the American rescue plan, $1.7 investment, we will dramatically expand our ability to sequence samples to identify, track, and mitigate emerging variants. And the administration will use the nearly $50 billion in testing that comes from the funding in the American rescue plan to invest in screening tests to help schools reopen safely.

And it also will expand testing in congregate settings, including shelter for individuals experiencing homelessness, prisons and other setting where individuals live in close quarters.

Across the next several weeks, the CDC will provide public health guidance based on the best available science and the pace of vaccinations for people as they travel, participate in small gatherings, and go to work and in houses of worship.

Also, as we increase the number of people vaccinated, we know some people may have a need to demonstrate that they're vaccinated. The private sector and not for profit coalitions are beginning to work on this.

Our role is to help ensure that any solutions in this area should be simple, free, open source, accessible to people both digitally and on paper and designed from the start to protect people's privacy.

As the president noted last night, this fight is far from over. We still have a lot of work to do. This is certainly not a time to put down your guard. Mask up and follow the public health standards.

We need all Americans to get vaccinated as soon as it is their turn. And to help your family and friends and neighbors get vaccinated as well. Together, unified, we can defeat this pandemic and we could all celebrate a more normal fourth of July with our family and friends gathering in small groups to celebrate the holiday.

With that, I'll turn it over to Dr. Walensky -- Dr. Walensky.

WALENSKY: Thank you, Jeff. It is good to be back with you all today.

We are now officially one year and one day into COVID-19 pandemic. As I reflect back on the mere impossible clinical decisions we had to make to prioritize scant resources, ventilators and PPE, I recall those moments and I'm sure many of you shared them where I felt powerless and hopeless. And here we are one very long year later, led by science and propelled by a growing sense of hope that we can and we will get out of this together.

But cases and hospitalizations and deaths remain high. And we've been fooled before into being too lax. So now is the time to double down to see this through.

CDC's most recent data shows cases continue to fluctuate between 50,000 and 60,000 new cases per day with the most recent seven day average more than 55,500 cases per day. The most recent seven-day average of hospital admissions continues to decline, down from the previous seven-day period to about 4,900 admissions per day.

We also continue to see around 1,500 to 1,800 deaths per day, with the latest seven day average being just over 1,500 deaths per day.

I'm encouraged by these data but we must remain vigilant to continue in our efforts to get cases, admissions and deaths down. We're making remarkable progress on your vaccination efforts. We now have more than 64 million people who have received at least one dose of vaccine and we are vaccinating millions more each day.

This is our path out of the pandemic. As you heard last night from the president, we are working as quickly as we can to ensure that every American has access to vaccine. As we get more vaccinations into communities, I am asking everyone to do the right thing, continue taking public health precautions and be ready to roll up your sleeve when that vaccine is available to you.

Throughout the pandemic, parents and caregivers have faced challenging tasks of balancing childcare responsibilities with work responsibilities, often operating in virtual environments with limited childcare options.