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Democrats Facing Huge Hurdles as Infrastructure Talks Resume; Soon, Biden Announces Gun Crime Prevention Strategy; Fauci Calls Delta Variant Greatest Threat to Progress. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired June 23, 2021 - 13:00   ET

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

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DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Thanks you so much for joining. Ana Cabrera picks up our coverage right now.

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: Hello on this Wednesday. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York. Thanks for being with us.

They were sent to the people's house by the people but what are they actually doing for them? One day after Republicans blocked a major voting reform bill, the focus now shifts back to another key piece of President Biden's agenda, infrastructure.

We know Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell firmly opposes the other side's proposal and making the picture even messier, House progressives are signaling they might hold that piece of legislation hostage if the president doesn't resolve the voting rights battle first.

And in the middle of all this comes another big push from the president. Minutes from now, he will speak on a new gun crime prevention and public safety plan. But will politics get in the way of this too?

CNN Chief Congressional Correspondent Manu Raju is live on Capitol Hill for us. Manu, an infrastructure meeting is about to kick off with White House officials in just about 30 minutes from now. Where do those talks stand?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the White House meeting is with the bipartisan group of senators. And they're trying to figure out exactly whether they can reach an agreement on how to finance this package. The Democrats who were involved in these talks told me today that they believe it is essential today to try to figure out a way to get an agreement on how to pay for a $1.2 trillion package over eight years. But there are still some disagreements about how to do just that.

And at the same time, there is pressure from the left, particularly from progressives like Elizabeth Warren and BERNIE SANDERS and the like, who are concerned about the direction of these talks and calling for these talks, Warren and others as well, to essentially end so Democrats can move on their own on this major sweeping package and try to pass it straight along party lines, saying time is running out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: What concerns you about these bipartisan talks?

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): Is how much time they're chewing up and how much delay they keep putting into the process when they recognize that's not the whole infrastructure package. It is a subset. And right off the top before the negotiations even began, the people involved acknowledged it was not going to solve the problems that we face on infrastructure.

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): I am certainly out of patience and we're running out of time on infrastructure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: So I asked one of the members of Democrats who's involved in these discussions about those concerns. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, someone who is very close to Joe Biden, and he said, some of my progressive members have been saying that for weeks. He said, I have reminded them repeatedly, in order to go along straight party lines, they need to go through this bipartisan process first.

And that's where the Democratic leaders are trying to do things along, two tracks, see what they can do with a bipartisan basis on a smaller bill, and then see if they can get the entire bigger caucus together on a big bill. But that would require all Democrats to support that strategy. At the moment, the democrats are not in line. Ana?

CABRERA: So, frustration is building on infrastructure, as we can hear. It seems to be boiling over already on voting reform. That bill failed in the Senate. Democrats are now split over what to do next. But what options do they really have?

RAJU: Not a whole lot, because there's pressure from the left also to gut the Senate's filibuster rules to move from a super majority of 60 votes down to a simple majority of 51 votes in order to advance such legislation. But there is resistance among moderate Senate Democrats to do that, people like Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, and just today, Angus King, who is an independent, who caucuses with Democrats, told me that he does not support lowering that threshold down to 51 votes.

So that means at the moment they need to get ten Republicans to break ranks and there is just no sign that's going to happen. That's why Democrats want to make this an issue heading into the midterm elections during the campaign season and blame Republicans for blocking their efforts. Ana?

CABRERA: Manu Raju on Capitol Hill, thank you.

Now, to the president's plan to take on crime, and CNN Chief White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins is live at the White House.

Kaitlan, tell us about this meeting he is soon hosting and the strategy he is laying out.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I think, Ana, that what this shows is the White House realizes this is an issue, and so they want it to look like President Biden is at the forefront of it and is addressing it and also addressing ways to change the numbers and send them in the other direction, of course, given the rise in violent crime that we've seen play out in the United States over the last few months.

And so that's why they're dedicating an entire day to it, having him meet with the attorney general and several mayors at the White House today.

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And then he's going to come out and make remarks on it. And the way they're viewing it is through the lens of gun violence, saying they believe that is the driving issue here.

And so they're going to layout some steps that President Biden is taking, including directing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to revoke gun dealers' licenses if they start to let gun sales happens with -- happened without a background checks happening first. They say they're going to do that on a first offense kind of basis.

They also say they're going to let communities use some of those COVID-19 relief funds to hire police officers, pay them overtime, take community-based initiatives. Essentially, they want to look like they are on top of this issue and that President Biden is taking steps to address it given that there's a concern this could be something that only continues throughout the summer, this trend in the rise of violent crime.

And so the course -- the concern is that Republican could try to use it against Democrats going into the midterms. That really remains to be seen. We're still pretty far out from that. And so that's what's driving these remarks that you are seeing from the White House today.

But there are two aspects here that are good, notable context, which is that this is something that is a divide in the Democratic Party, who is seeking to do police reform and police overhaul changes while balancing that with this trend that we are seeing, but also for President Biden himself, who has a little bit of political baggage here given the role he played in past crime bills when he was a senator in the 1990s, that 1994 crime bill that he touted at times and then later expressed some regret over aspects of it on the campaign when it was such a big issue in 2020.

So all of that feeding into these remarks when he is going to address the nation from the White House later today.

CABRERA: Kaitlan Collins, thank you for laying it all out of us, what we can expect.

And joining us now is the mayor of Rapid City, South Dakota, Steve Allender. He is also the city's former police chief. Mayor, it's great to see you.

We see you are at the White House because you are about to meet with the president along with other state and local leaders. What do you want to hear from him and what is your message to him?

MAYOR STEVE ALLENDER, RAPID CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA: Well, thanks, Ana, for having me. And what I hope to hear from the president today is that there's a rollout of some evidence-based programs that we're going to be able to access. And not only that, but perhaps be able to scale for the hometown America communities. Sometimes the federal government upsizes everything for the largest communities and we have similar problems on a smaller scale.

What I hope to convey to the group and to the president is that there's a real need here and there's a need on the local level to be able to access tools to support our law enforcement and to also support our community so that community violence intervention is a very important part of this.

CABRERA: And I know you have focused on that in your community specifically. Before we dive into the solutions though, let's talk about the root cause of the problem. Because this year alone, there have been 296 mass shootings and 16 mass murders, that's where four or more people have been killed, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

Mayor, your own city reported 100 percent increase in homicides from 2019 to 2020. Why do you think violent crime is surging?

ALLENDER: Well, it's not -- yes, you're right, it's not good, but I think it's two major components are causing the surge. One is that we've had preexisting problems and society produces violent individuals, and there's the whole psychological and upbringing discussion to be had there. The other is this is part of the post- pandemic consequence that we're experiencing here. Not only is violence up but many other activities are up that I think would have been pretty significantly unable to estimate prior to this.

CABRERA: You've called them crimes of opportunity. And as I was looking at your stats, everything from robbery, motor vehicle theft, burglary, aggravated assault, there are increases in all those areas as well.

And you were a police chief. You spent 29 years in law enforcement starting as a patrol officer and working your way up, so you have a unique perspective. In terms of solutions, what works and what doesn't?

ALLENDER: Well, for one, I've touched on it a little bit, taking a program that would seem to be effective in Chicago and trying to transplant that in a smaller community somewhere else in America may not be appropriate in all cases. I think, first and foremost, on the short-term, the solution is being able to support police officers. These police agencies across this country are suffering because there's high stress, high burnout with the negative public reaction that's occurred over the last year-and-a-half. It's been a very undesirable career field. So, in many cases, funding really isn't even the issue.

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We would hire police officers if we could find them, if we could get them through our background checks and our training programs, I think we would hire them. But we are very much burned out and in need of support from not only our communities but also other governmental agencies that can help with either funding or some type of agreements to work cooperatively together.

CABRERA: And we know that part of the strategy that the Biden administration is expected to announce is embedding federal agents with some of these local homicide teams and also doing nationwide sweeps for wanted fugitives. So that may be part of the solution when you talk about not having enough local police officers to really get a handle on some of the crime and the uptick in violence we're seeing.

I do want to ask you about what we're seeing there in Washington with lawmakers pointing fingers, blaming the other party for just about everything. Crime is no exception. Why do you think this issue has become so political?

ALLENDER: Well, I think every issue has become political. And it occurs that there are really only two political parties, the good and the evil. And you belong to the good one and everyone else belongs to the evil. We're very much divided on every issue and violence should be no exception to that. I mean, it's across the board.

These divided communities will not be helpful in addressing the community problems because the views that each side has on how to approach it is radically different. And so, therefore, we're just watching in Congress, those things play out from our elected representatives. So, really, at this point it's really no surprise but it is thoroughly disappointing.

CABRERA: Mayor Steve Allender, thank you for taking the time. Good luck with the meeting today. We'll see what comes of it.

ALLENDER: Thank you very much.

CABRERA: We have some breaking news I want to bring in right now, live pictures of a pedestrian bridge that has, as you can see, collapsed onto an interstate. This is in Washington, D.C. right now.

Pete Muntean is covering this. Pete, tell us what you know.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, this is happening on a critical route in D.C. right at a critical time, just before the start of the afternoon rush. This is Interstate 295. It runs right through D.C. from BWI Airport all the way down to Oxon Hill, Maryland.

And you can see the pedestrian bridge has collapsed. It collapsed in a critical area. This is a place where the bridge connects two sides of interstate 295 neighborhoods on the west side to a metro station on the east side. And firefighters tell us this bridge collapsed with three cars underneath. Thankfully, nobody trapped inside and three people have been reported as having minor injuries.

Now, D.C. police will investigate this, but it's so fitting that you talk about infrastructure at the top of the hour here, America's roads and bridges are failing. The American Society of Civil Engineers gave bridges a C-grade, 46,000 structurally deficient and in poor condition. We will keep look into this bridge as we get more governments as they come in. Ana?

CABRERA: You're right, it is case in point that infrastructure in America is crumbling, literally. Pete Muntean, thank you again. Just minor injuries reported in this pedestrian bridge collapse, more of an inconvenience at least at this point versus actual serious injuries.

A new lawsuit over vaccines, students at Indiana University go to federal court because of the school's vaccine mandate. Their lawyer joins us next.

Plus, another report torching Trump's big 2020 election lie, and this time, it's coming from Republicans.

And Britney Spears excepted to speak out today not on social media or on stage but in court.

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CABRERA: The more dangerous and highly contagious delta variant now accounts for about 20 percent of new COVID cases in the U.S., according to the CDC. It has now been seen in every state but one, South Dakota. Dr. Anthony Fauci calls it the greatest threat to the progress made against the virus so far.

But something can be done to stop it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: The good news is that the vaccine protects against it. And that's really another very powerful reason why we want people to get vaccinated because this is a threat.

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: Nearly every death due to COVID- 19 is particularly tragic, because nearly every death, especially among adults due to COVID-19, is, at this point, entirely preventable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here now. How worried should we be?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: This variant is really of concern, Ana, and let's talk about the two reasons why. Number one, this delta variant, this is the variant that was first spotted in India, it looks like it is around 60 percent more transmissible. That's compared to the variant that was first spotted in the U.K., which, in and of itself, is more transmissible. The second reason is that there are some early studies that show that it leads to higher than usual hospitalization rates. In other words, you're more likely to end up in the hospital.

Now, let's take a look at a map of the United States. The delta variant represents about 20 percent of cases. In other words, of all the cases in the U.S., about 20 percent of them are this new variant. And it's grown enormously just in the past month or so. And in this sort of chunk of states over out in the west, it's about 46 percent of cases. And so what you're going to is you get pockets of people who are not vaccinated, you're going to see higher rates.

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And the reason for that is that the vaccine works quite well, not perfectly, not 90 something percent, but it really does work quite well against this new variant. So the concern here is about people who are not vaccinated.

Now, let's take a look in Europe, and we can see how quickly it's moving there. The European Center for Disease Control and Prevention forecast, with computer modeling, that the delta variant is going to make up to 70 percent of new cases by early of August and 90 percent of new cases by the end of August. And as we have seen throughout this pandemic, as goes Europe, so goes the United States. Ana?

CABRERA: Elizabeth Cohen, thank you for all that repoting.

So, despite the news that every COVID death now is almost entirely preventable, vaccine hesitancy is still high among young adults, especially members of Generation Z and Millennials. That's becoming a problem as more colleges require vaccinations before returning to campus.

Eight students are now suing Indiana University, saying its vaccine mandate is unconstitutional. The attorney representing those students, James Bopp, joins us now. Thanks for being with us.

First, make your case, why are the students suing?

JAMES BOPP JR., ATTORNEY FOR STUDENTS SUING INDIANA UNIVERSITY: Well, they're suing because they're being stripped of their constitutional rights to make medical treatment decisions for themselves and to protect their own bodily integrity. I mean, after all, they are adults and they can -- and they would like to weigh the risks and consequences of taking the vaccination or getting COVID. And unless there's really compelling situation, which no longer seems to be the case now, then they have that right to do that.

CABRERA: I think people would take issue with it being compelling enough when we have over 600,000 Americans who have died from the coronavirus. And deaths are still happening and the spread, as Elizabeth just laid out, is still happening, particularly in places where there are lower vaccination rates. And we know Indiana, as a state, is one of those states that is behind the national average right now in terms of vaccines.

But let me ask you about this, because the university has already required vaccines for other types of illnesses, for MMR, for TDAP, for meningitis. And this was all before the pandemic, and they do allow for exemptions. So why is there a problem with this one?

BOPP: Well, of course your recitation of what has happened is an interesting historical recitation, but you need to start at the beginning. I think everybody agrees, I agree that it appears that it was a very serious pandemic that required drastic measures and we did those. But when we have seen it peak, it is now at almost the lowest level it has ever been in terms of infection rates, death, hospitalizations. And with this group, it's almost zero in terms of the risk of adverse effects with COVID infections.

So we have to look at the situation right now, not what happened in the past.

CABRERA: Right.

BOPP: The therapeutics are doing a great job in ameliorating the adverse effects, the vaccinations are working, so a lot of people are not getting COVID --

CABRERA: But to your point, vaccinations are working and these are people who don't want to get vaccinated. And, to be honest with you, the facts are that some of these variants are showing signs that the therapeutics aren't working against them, like the gamma variant, for example.

Can I give you the university's statement and let you respond to their -- what they're saying? The university is confident it will prevail in this case following release of the Indiana attorney general's opinion. Our process was revised with uploading proof of vaccination no longer required. The attorney general's opinion affirmed our right to require the vaccine.

You didn't necessarily answer the part of my question given that there are already vaccine requirements for other types of diseases.

BOPP: Well, it's been very difficult to answer all of your questions and your claims all at one time. But regarding the I.U. statement, the Indiana attorney general was just opining on state law. Under state law, can they require medical treatment? Yes. Does it violate I.U.'s prohibition on vaccination passports? He said yes. But he didn't answer the question of federal law, whether or not I.U. is a government institution, can require adults to waive their constitutionally protected rights in order to attend Indiana University.

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And that is the very we're presenting to the federal court. We believe that that is not the case in the situation as it exists now.

Consider this, no one in the United States or the state of Indiana other than at some universities is being mandated to be vaccinated. College students have one of the lowest risks of adverse affects of COVID infection. In fact, people over 70 have an 870 times greater risk of hospitalization and death than do college students. And we don't mandate people over 70 to get the vaccination. So --

CABRERA: I understand what you're saying, but I have spoken with doctors just this week who say their patients are younger and they are being hospitalized. So to think that there is no risk or nearly no risk for this age group is just not true. If these students don't like this, though, they have the option to go to a different school, don't they? Why not? Why not just go to a different school?

BOPP: I thought we believed in freedom and constitutional rights. And the government can't impose unconstitutional conditions on whether or not we benefit from their institutions. And, of course, there is some risk, but when you compare the risk of older people with college students, it's astronomical for the older people.

CABRERA: Right, that may be true, but if you're subjecting a large group of people to risks, then there is an argument to be made, right, that why should the university's policy be applied to just a few students who want to not get vaccinated versus taking care of the greater population at those universities?

BOPP: Well, regarding the greater population, every student can protect themselves from COVID infection by being vaccinated. Every student that wants to protect themselves against COVID infection can wear a mask. So they are -- and Indiana University believes, and I'm sure you believe, thatthat is effective and that's why those are required.

But how about the student -- for instance, one of my students has Lyme's disease. Her physician has told her there's a high risk of injury and death to her if she gets the COVID vaccination and I.U. does not allow a medical exemption for that and is requiring her to either take the vaccination that will risk her life or leave I.U. That's wrong and that's unconstitutional, in my opinion.

CABRERA: There are medical and religious exemptions when it comes to the vaccine requirement at Indiana University.

BOPP: They don't apply. They don't apply to having underlying medical conditions where your own attending physician says that the vaccination is a great risk. It does not apply if you've already had COVID, already are immune and we now know that getting a vaccination after having COVID imposes more and additional risks.

CABRERA: No, that's not true. That's not true at all. Do not say that. That is not true. Because, in fact, the doctors recommend, the medical experts recommend, the CDC recommends if you've had COVID, you should get vaccinated. Initial infection does not prevent against the variants. And we're talking about the delta variant, the gamma variant and these variants that are taking off in parts of the world, like Europe and are emerging more and more prevalent here in the U.S.

James Bopp, I do appreciate the conversation. I did not mean to interrupt you but I do have to end the conversation here. And I appreciate you laying out the case. And we'll see. We'll see where this case goes in the courts. And, hopefully, we can come back and talk some more. I appreciate it. Thank you.

We'll be right back.

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