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Biden Kicking Off Campaign to Promote COVID Relief Plan; Vaccine Hesitancy Remains a Challenge in Several States; Border Patrol has 4,000+ Migrant Children in Custody; New York Governor Resists Growing Calls to Resign; Military Junta Declares Martial Law in Parts of Yangon; U.K. Reels Over Sarah Everard's Kidnapping, Murder. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired March 15, 2021 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:00]
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States and all around the world. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM and I'm Rosemary Church.
Just ahead, team Biden hits the road on a mission to sell their COVID relief plan directly to Americans. But that's not the only goal.
Plus, they've had tough measures in place for months, now millions of people in Italy are waking up to new restrictions. We're live in Rome to find out why.
And the queen of pop sets a new record. We will tell you how Beyonce made history last night at the Grammy Awards.
Good to have you with us. Well we begin with a new push from the White House to raise awareness for its recently passed COVID relief package. President Joe Biden and others will be crisscrossing the country starting today for what's being billed as a "help is here" tour. Supportive voices are already outlining its benefits as part of the messaging blitz.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA) U.S. HOUSE SPEAKER: The fact is, that it's strongly bipartisan across the country. It's only in the Congress of the United States where the Republicans have refused to meet the needs of the American people where they didn't vote, as I said, voted no and take the dough. We can be sure all their states and communities will be benefitting from this and they won't be complaining about it back home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: And the treasury secretary is trying to calm concerns that it could lead to major inflation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JANET YELLEN, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: The most significant risk we face is the work force that's scared by a long period of unemployment. People being out of work and not able to find jobs can have a permanent effect on their wellbeing. I think that's the most significant risk. Is there a risk of inflation? I think there's a small risk and I think it manageable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: CNN John Harwood has more on what the White House hopes to achieve with its tour.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Last week Congress passed President Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill. This week President Biden and his team hit the road to promote the legislation. It's already broadly popular in the polls. It won't hurt that those $1,400 per person COVID relief checks have already started hitting American's bank accounts over the weekend.
But President Biden wants to make sure people understand other benefits of the bill, including expanded child tax credits, aid to state and local governments, expanded health care subsidies, and also aid to small businesses that didn't qualify for previous rounds. The sales job will include first lady Jill Biden, who will go to New Hampshire and new jersey. Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentlemen Doug Emhoff who will go to Nevada and Colorado. And the president himself will make remarks at the White House on Monday. Then head to Pennsylvania on Tuesday and Georgia on Friday.
Now Georgia and Pennsylvania, of course, are two very important swing states in the elections. We saw last November they also have got big Senate races in 2022. So that's one of the reasons they're being targeted. Underscoring the political impact and the importance of the bill, there's also a super PAC that has begun airing aids hailing President Biden's accomplishment on COVID relief with a simple tag line "Joe Biden kept his word."
John Harwood, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: And of course, the relief plan is not without its critics, which not surprisingly, includes every single Republican in Congress. And here is how one Republican Senator is trying to flip the script.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN BARRASSO (R-WY): To call this a COVID relief is really false advertising. Only 9 percent of the money actually goes to defeating the virus. Only 1 percent of the money goes for vaccines. This is a Nancy Pelosi payoff to the liberal left. This is something she's been working on a long time. So, you know, today we see her taking a victory lap to what is now known as the most progressive bill in the history of the United States, according to the White House. And the price of it shows that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Meantime, COVID-19 vaccinations are ramping up across the United States.
[04:05:00]
The CDC says so far more than 107 million vaccine doses have been administered nationwide. But health experts say the country is still in a vulnerable place. As CNN's Joe Johns shows us, it seems crowds partying for spring break haven't received that message.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Spring break in South Florida where college students might not be the only ones hitting the beaches. Experts fear COVID-19 and variants of the virus are coming too, as the decline in cases across the country starts to level off.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Even though the numbers have gone down over the last couple of weeks, they've plateaued. And when you see a plateau at a level as high as 60,000 cases a day, that is a very vulnerable time to have a surge to go back up.
JOHNS (voice-over): Adding to the concern, air travel is setting pandemic records, more than 1.3 million people screened at airports on Friday, the highest number since March 15th last year. But it's not just spring breakers causing concern. In Arkansas, the Republican governor says there's trouble in his state with loyal followers of the last president who don't want to get vaccinated.
GOV. ASA HUTCHINSON (R-AR): We are seeing that problem, and the poll numbers are troubling, because in Arkansas, it's a very pro-Trump state in terms of the last election. And so we see that resistance whenever we are opening up eligibility for the vaccine, we are moving through it quickly because we are not having everybody to sign up to take it.
JOHNS (voice-over): If you think it's just Arkansas, you would be wrong. Only 50 percent of Republicans say they have gotten a dose of the vaccine or plan to get one, according to a new CNN poll. For the record, then-President Trump himself quietly got the shot before he left office.
Maryland's Republican governor says, Trump's failure to participate in the joint COVID messaging campaign did not help, but --
GOV. LARRY HOGAN (R-MD): You can't pin all of it on him. I mean, there's a lot of disinformation campaigns from the right and left, a lot of people who are vaccine hesitant, and we are doing everything we can to overcome that with public information spots.
JOHNS (voice-over): Though Governor Larry Hogan is defending his own decision as of this weekend to relax capacity restrictions at bars, restaurants, gyms and other businesses while keeping in place social distancing and face covering requirements. Which was the message of the day from the current president on Twitter, encouraging Americans to keep masking, social distancing and washing hands.
On CNN today, Dr. Anthony Fauci suggested some CDC recommendations on travel and the workplace could be revised soon as more people get vaccinated.
FAUCI: They just want to make sure that they get it right.
JOHNS (voice-over): The good news is that, across the country, there are signs that, for now, people are still keeping their guard up. St. Patrick's Day parades in many major cities have been canceled this year, though a bit of tradition survives as the city of Chicago, once again, died the river green.
JOHNS: And a bit more good news, as of the weekend, 107 million doses of vaccine had been administered in the United States. 69 million people have gotten at least one shot.
Joe Johns, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Another major challenge facing President Biden. A growing immigration crisis at the southern border. More than 4,000 unaccompanied migrant children are now in the custody of the U.S. border patrol. That's higher than last week's record and it comes as a growing number of migrants are arriving at the border each day.
Authorities have, so far, struggled to keep up with the influx. Often, they have been forced to leave the children inside border facilities instead of moving them to safer shelters, as required. The secretary of homeland security said he's sending federal teams to help with the process.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Joining me from Los Angeles is CNN's senior political analyst Ron Brownstein. He's also a senior editor at "The Atlantic." Good to have you with us
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hi, Rosemary.
CHURCH: So President Joe Biden is doing very well with his COVID vaccine rollout. And now he is traveling across the country to sell his COVID relief package. But the issue of immigration is proving to be more challenging for him and his administration. Could that issue cancel out all his good work on the pandemic?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, it is interesting the extent to which they have tried to remain laser focused on his public appearance, public utterances, really being confined almost entirely to the pandemic. I think they are very -- and it's clear they're trying to send the message to the country that is personally his overwhelming priority. Immigration I don't think it can cancel out. I don't think affects as
many people.
[04:10:00]
But it certainly can become an ongoing problem and one that particularly energizes the right. I mean, the Republican coalition in many ways is now defined by its kind of shared opposition to the way the country is changing and one of the issues that triggers that the most is immigration.
CHURCH: Right, and meantime despite a tax on police and calls to hang Vice President Mike Pence on January 6th, GOP Senator Ron Johnson says he didn't feel threatened by the Capitol rioters but might have if they had been Black Lives Matter or Antifa rioters. How does the GOP need to deal with this sort of messaging and how will it play with more moderate Republicans?
BROWNSTEIN: Right, I mean, that really goes to the heart of what I was just saying. I mean, I have written on CNN.com that I believe the extremist wing of the GOP has grown too big for the party mainstream to confront. And, really, to me the most significant part of Senator Johnson's remarks was not the open racism where he said, you know, if it was Black Lives Matters protesters, I would have been afraid. It was normalizing this kind of white nationalist violence. And in effect saying, you know, I wasn't worried about these people. I thought they were law-abiding. He described them as law-abiding, and that they loved this country.
And to me it's just another marker, like the House Republicans refusing to sanction or kind of excommunicate Marjorie Taylor Greene that we are seeing a process, a kind of incremental process of the razing -- r-a-z-i-n-g -- of the wall between the Republican coalition and these far right extremists. And I think it is simply too big a part of the coalition for them to truly confront. And it does raise the issue that you pointed -- the exact issue that you point to.
What do the Republicans that roughly 25 or 30 percent of the party that views all of this as ominous and dangerous, what do they do? Do they stay in a party where they are clearly subordinate to a Trump wing and to a kind of party conscience that is willing to open the door to groups like the Proud Boys?
CHURCH: Right, and to that very point, it has to said that during the Reagan era, we saw a rise in what most political experts referred it as Reagan Democrats. Now we're seeing a rise in what is being called Biden Republicans. Those voters who feel their party has abandoned them on issues just like this -- that we've been talking about. Is there any evidence that shows this could be a threat to the GOP as it moves further to the right and perhaps a benefit to Joe Biden in 2022?
BROWNSTEIN: Right, and in fact, it's already happening. And it is the exact mirror image. The Reagan Democrats were millions of blue collar, noncollege white Democrats. Usually Catholics in the north and evangelical protestants in the south, who had grown up voting Democratic. Began to move away from the party. Really with the passage of the '64 Civil Rights Act. Later issues like crime and bussing and guns. Further when you get to the Reagan '84 election where literally one quarter of self-identified Democrats voted for him.
And what we've seen over the last 30 years is kind of a slow motion reversal of that process at the other end of the income ladder, which are college-educated white suburban identities who historically had been Republican, more of them leaning more Democrat Party.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH (on camera): And our thanks to Ron Brownstein talking to me earlier.
Well the U.S. president is weighing in on sexual harassment allegations against New York's governor. Joe Biden was asked Sunday if Andrew Cuomo should resign.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think the investigation is underway and we should see what it brings us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: The president's comments are similar to those from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. And although Mr. Biden and Pelosi are not calling for the governor to resign, many other top Democrats are. CNN's Athena Jones reports Cuomo is clinging to power.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there. Calls for New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to resign are only growing louder. And those calls are coming from fellow Democrats. By Friday, the majority of the New York Congressional delegation was calling for Cuomo to step down including both New York Senators, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand who put out a joint statement to that effect on Friday and reiterated those calls on Sunday. Listen
SEN. KRISTEN GILLIBRAND (D-NY): I commend the brave actions of the individuals that have come forward to speak of serious allegations of misconduct and abuse.
It's clear that Governor Cuomo has lost the confidence of his governing partners as well as the people of New York. That's why I believe that the governor has to resign.
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY) U.S. SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: There are multiple serious credible allegations of abuse so that Governor Cuomo has lost the confidence of his governing partners and of so many New Yorkers. So for the good of the state, he should resign.
JONES: Now the governor is facing several investigations including one by the state assembly judiciary committee and one being conducted under the apices of New York Attorney General's office.
[04:15:00]
Both looking into multiple allegations of sexual harassment or misconduct.
You know, Cuomo has said repeatedly that he has done nothing wrong and that he will not resign. He says women have a right to come forward and be heard but he's urging the public to wait for the investigations to play out, to wait for the facts. Cuomo says politics didn't elect him. The people of New York elected him. And he's going to keep working for them.
Asked whether these investigations will distract him from being able to lead effectively, Cuomo says no. He says last year he negotiated a state budget amid the pandemic in New York and he can negotiate the budget again this year. He also stressed the need to oversee the distributions of millions of doses of vaccines.
But one lobbyist that CNN spoke with took issue with this idea that Cuomo can continue lead effectively and efficiently. This person who said they had a good relationship with the Cuomo administration in the past, says that these days something as simple as getting a call back to schedule a meeting is not happening because the handful of top aids to Governor Cuomo who make all the decisions aren't doing so because they're distracted by the scandals. This person calling the situation very frustrating.
So we'll be watching to see what other reactions there are to the controversy surrounding the governor this week.
Athena Jones, CNN, Albany, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Thanks for that report.
And still to come here on CNN NEWSROOM. Myanmar's military looks to tighten its brutal grip on power. What we're learning about Sunday's deadly crackdown.
[04:20:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: There are reports Myanmar junta is expanding martial law over parts of Yangon. It is the latest sign the generals aim to put an end to civilian rule. Security forces killed at least 38 protesters on Sunday. In one of the country's deadliest days since the military coup last month. The United Nations has condemned the bloodshed. More demonstrations against the coup are planned for today.
CNN's Paula Hancocks is following developments in the region for us. She joins us now live from Seoul. So, Paula, what is the latest on the deadly protests and martial law expanding into more parts of Yangon.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Rosemary, we know from one of the NGOs that's trying to keep a tally of those who have lost their lives. They're saying now at least 126 have been killed since that February 1st military coup. But activists we speak to on the ground say that believe that the number is actually far higher. It's just very difficult to get actual figures.
They also say that more than 2,100 people have been arrested, charged or sentenced. And it's clear to everybody that the level of force that the security forces are now willing to use against protesters is increasing. As you say, Sunday being one of the deadliest days that we have seen since that coup.
Now the martial law itself is being declared in six different neighborhoods in Yangon at this point. They're mostly industrial areas and they are areas there were Chinese-funded factories which were damages and then some cases, burned down over the weekend. Protesters do blame China. Believing that they are supporting the military. Although it's unclear who actually burnt the factories. And China asked the Myanmar military leadership to protect its citizens and also its property. So that's why martial law has been introduced to certain areas -- Rosemary.
CHURCH: All right. Many thanks to our Paula Hancocks, appreciate that.
I want to turn to the U.K. now where Prime Minister Boris Johnson will chair a special task force today to address violence against British women. The Prime Minister also admitted he was deeply concerned by the footage of London's met police using a heavy-handed response on vigil goers over the weekend.
The U.K. has been plunged into a national debate over women's safety after 33-year-old London resident Sarah Everard was kidnapped and murdered while walking home earlier this month.
And CNN's Nina dos Santos joins us now from London with the latest. Nina, the response to the heinous crime and then the heavy-handed police response to this vigil has been distressing for women across the U.K. but also across the world. What is the latest on this? And how will the government respond?
NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this has come at an extremely sensitive time, Rosemary, because today the government and the opposition parties in Parliament are going to be a debating a new crime and justice bill that could give sweeping power to police to try and police some of these events and curtail people's ability to gather in large groups to protest issues like these even further in the future.
And it has started to boil over. That's got people on to the streets. And you get the feeling that this is a movement that is gathering momentum by the day and is unlikely to go away.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DOS SANTOS (voice-over): They gathered illegally outside the headquarters of the very organization which had stopped them from holding a vigil to express their anger a day earlier. While there, they moved on to Parliament, taking a message that they had tried to express peacefully in a south London suburb all the way to the makers and enforcers of the country's laws.
CROWD CHANTING: The people united will never be defeated. The people united will never be defeated. The people united will never be defeated.
DOS SANTOS (voice-over): The upswell of indignation started less than two weeks ago after a young woman, Sarah Everard, was allegedly kidnapped while walking home in the dark and later found dead.
The vigil for her highlighting many women's fears for their safety, was aggressively dispersed by officers from the very force that the man charged with her murder served on.
CROWD CHANTING: Shame on you! Shame on you! Shame on you! Shame on you! Shame on you! Shame on you!
[04:25:00]
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think so many people have been told to keep up appearances and to shut their voices off so that they don't anger people, but without the anger and without talking about it, nothing can change.
DOS SANTOS (voice-over): The Metropolitan Police said that they haven't wanted to break up the demonstrations but felt the need to protect people from the pandemic, which has left large gatherings banned for much of the past year.
The women who had originally planned Saturday's event said that things could have been different, had the police allowed a safe moment of silence to take place.
LUDOVICA ORLANDO, ORGANIZER, RECLAIM THESE STREETS: We were going to have COVID marshals. We were going to keep distancing. And we offered the police quite a few alternatives, including staggered times so there wouldn't be a congregation at the same time altogether. But we clearly were forced to cancel, and we saw what happened. And you know, this week of all weeks, they should have understood that women needed a safe place to mourn and show solidarity.
DOS SANTOS (voice-over): London's mayor called the Met's handling of the vigil completely unacceptable. The home secretary ordered a review. But Scotland Yard's first ever female commissioner says she's not stepping down.
CRESSIDA DICK, METROPOLITAN POLICE COMMISSIONER: I fully understand the strength of feeling. I think, as a woman, and hearing from people about their experiences in the past. Indeed, if it had been lawful, I'd have been there.
DOS SANTOS: The police's heavy-handed attempt to try and disperse crowds seems only to have prompted more people to come and lay floral tributes and to stand up for women's safety. Peaceful mourning continues, despite COVID regulations. Yet on Saturday night, this local landmark was the scene of ugly clashes, as officers handcuffed women and pinned them down.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I really think that they should have been here in a much more supportive role.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I appreciate so many people coming to pay their respect, and everything. Yet, on the other hand, it's not so good so many gathering during the epidemic and everything.
DOS SANTOS (voice-over): To the many paying their respects, the emotions were no less raw as the weekend drew to a close.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're all the same age as Sarah. She worked in my company. We live two minutes from here, so I think we're all --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're all feeling very unsafe.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And it gets brought to -- brought to the surface a lot of issues that we may have buried.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Buried, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And that we've all been exposed to, and it's just -- I think we've said we've let a lot of things slip too long, and suddenly, yes, we're feeling less safe than ever.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think everyone's angry. There's a lot of feeling that comes to the forefront. But we also need to remember there's a family at the heart of it.
DOS SANTOS (voice-over): The U.K. Parliament will this week debate new policing and crime legislation further extending powers over protests. Without profound amendments to better protect women, a growing number of parliamentarians have made it clear that the bill is unlikely to pass.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DOS SANTOS (on camera): So this is part of a broader moment of national reckoning on women's safety and, also, the tragedy of Sarah Everard's death. Just behind me, as you can see, as people continue to lay floral tributes here at this bandstand that's come the fulcrum if you like, of this movement. You can see a sign that says, are 118 not enough to you, Rosemary. That's the number of women who have lost their lives at the hands of men in this country so far in just the first three months of this year.
CHURCH: Simply horrendous. Nina dos Santos, many thanks for bringing us up to date on that story from London, appreciate it.
Well most of Italy is waking up to new COVID restrictions today. And this includes a national lockdown on Easter weekend. We're live from Rome next.
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