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Hunt For Brian Laundrie; President Biden Gets Booster Shot; Biden Agenda. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired September 27, 2021 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:05]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: Hello. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York.

Any moment now, President Biden will receive his COVID vaccine booster shot. And he is doing it in front of cameras. We will bring that to you live.

And that shot might be the easiest part of the president's day, as Democrats scramble to meet a host of deadlines this week that could determine the fate of the president's agenda and the country's economy.

Let's go right to Washington and CNN chief White House correspondent, Kaitlan Collins, along with CNN congressional correspondent, Lauren Fox,

Kaitlan, we just learned of the president's booster shot within the last couple of hours. What do we know about this decision? Why today? Why on camera?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, reporters are walking into the room right now to watch the president get this booster shot on camera.

Of course, the reason that's happening on camera is because the White House wants to use this moment to send a message to the rest of the country for those eligible, based on what the CDC and the FDA have authorized so far, that they should be getting their booster shot.

Obviously, the president is over 65 years of age, so he qualifies for this. And so this will be his third dose of the Pfizer vaccine after he got that first one last December. He got a second one in January. Now he will be getting this third one on camera and making remarks about it as well, as they are trying to make this push to get people who are eligible to get that third dose of the vaccine.

Of course, right now, that is just for Pfizer. And there are certain subsets, depending on your job and your age and when you got your first sight, of who is actually authorized to get that vaccine, as others who got the other vaccines, Moderna and J&J, are still waiting for that kind of authorization -- Ana. CABRERA: And as we watch the man behind you mow the -- lawn looks

like a beautiful lawn -- in front of the White House, you did a good job with that distraction behind you.

Lauren, let's talk more about this make-or-break week for the president and his party on Capitol Hill. There are a lot of moving parts, raising the debt ceiling, passing new funding to avert a shutdown, then the whole Biden economic agenda.

But a key vote is just hours away. What's today? Walk us through today's timeline?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Well, Ana, the moment that really matters is whether or not the government is going to be shut down or not.

And Congress will have its first opportunity tonight, when the Senate brings to the floor a bill that essentially would increase the country's borrow limit, as well as would make sure that the government remained open. That deadline is Friday, meaning that lawmakers only have a matter of days.

And we expect the vote tonight in the Senate to fail because Republicans are objecting to helping increase the debt ceiling. They say that that is Democrats' responsibility. Whether or not they're going to move quickly to a plan B remains to be seen.

What that plan B is, is another question entirely, Ana.

CABRERA: And the other big thing at stake this week, of course, is the president's economic agenda, and Democrats all trying to get on the same page.

So, Kaitlan, we have reported the president is optimistic about this. What makes him optimistic?

COLLINS: He's optimistic, and he's been the one having these conversations with lawmakers in addition to his staff. But they are far from where this is actually going to end up.

And what the end of this week looks like is also still far from certain. What we do know is, they are missing one of those deadlines that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had set for today, which was to vote on that $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan. That is a vote that is now going to happen on Thursday.

And, of course, that is so they can hopefully have more time to secure the votes of those progressive House members, who say they want a more firm commitment of what the bigger social spending and climate change policy bill is going to look like.

And they also want commitments from those 50 Democratic senators that they're all going to vote for it, because there have been concerns that, of course, if they got this $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan passed, that then maybe some of those more moderate members would go back and not want to vote for the bigger package that they say is what President Biden promised on the campaign trail.

And so there are a lot of unknowns right now, in addition to what Lauren just laid out. And the White House is essentially racing to solve these feuds within the Democratic Party.

CABRERA: Just a quick follow-up to you, Kaitlan.

Obviously, the president has held meetings, which we reported about last week. He made phone calls over the weekend. But is there any evidence it's gone beyond listening to the different factions? Is it not time for some arm-twisting in the party to get this done and across the finish line?

COLLINS: I think there are certainly some members who want to see that. I think that is a territory that you could see the White House potentially move into by the end of the week.

So far, it has been the president meeting and sitting down with these lawmakers trying to find out exactly what it is they want to see in this, those that, of course, have threatened to derail it.

And so whether or not and it comes down to that, with House Speaker Pelosi also having to do some of that with her more progressive members, that remains to be seen, and whether or not the public messaging from the president changes as well.

CABRERA: Lauren, one official said, based on history -- quote -- "If the speaker is involved, it's going to go our way."

I do wonder, who is the most effective deal-broker here on Capitol Hill? Is it the president, the speaker or someone else?

FOX: Well, I think it depends on each individual member.

[13:05:01]

Look, Biden was in the Senate. He has relationships with senators. But in the House, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is seen as somebody who can get this across the finish line. She's going to have her first opportunity tonight with her caucus.

This 5:30 meeting is really going to be an opportunity for all the Democrats in the House of Representatives to get together, to air their grievances, and to hear from their leadership that, look, this is about getting something. Even if it's not the perfect bill, even if it's not what you were hoping for, this is an important opportunity to give the president a win, to give our party a win. And when we face reelection in just a little over a year, voters are going to remember, did we deliver or didn't we?

That's going to be the message that the speaker is going to give tonight. That's going to be the message they are going to be hearing from their leadership.

But you heard from some Democrats a little bit of frustration about the fact they feel like the president hasn't spent as much time with them. I talked to one Democrat last week who told me, look, if I were facing the kind of political moment that the president is, I would have wished that I would have invested in some more relationships in the House of Representatives.

Is there time to make that up? I think that remains to be seen, Ana.

CABRERA: OK, Lauren Fox, Kaitlan Collins, ladies, I appreciate both of you. Thank you.

Now, the White House is circulating a memo to Democratic lawmakers highlighting the polling on these two major economic bills he's trying to get past.

So let's dig into those numbers a little more as we await his booster shot on camera.

Harry, I might have to jump away from you here.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN POLITICAL SENIOR WRITER AND ANALYST: I'm going to fast.

CABRERA: You always do.

So, let's get at it. What level of support are you seeing for this pair of key bills?

ENTEN: It's popular. That's the thing that's so important. It's popular.

Whether it's the reconciliation package, whether it's the package that passed the Senate, what you see is basically 2-1 support for it. So they need to pass something. They need to pass something. That's what I would say.

CABRERA: When it comes to the president's accomplishments, fair or not, it feels like it all hinges on this week. Do the polls reflect that?

ENTEN: Yes, I would say that they do.

What we see in the polls right now is, only 40 percent of Americans -- you can see the support right here for the $1.2 trillion and $3.5 trillion packages, 2-1 support. But if we flip to the next side, what we essentially see is that only 40 percent of Americans right now say that Biden's accomplished a great or fair amount, vs. 58 percent who say some or very little.

So Biden needs to get something passed because these numbers are bad for him right now.

CABRERA: It's not just President Biden's political fortunes on the line. Where do things stand for his party, for Democrats?

ENTEN: Yes, what we see in the numbers is essentially that there's a lot of enthusiasm on the Republican side right now. And the choice for Congress, if you're extremely enthusiastic or very

enthusiastic, the Republicans are favored by four points. If you're somewhat are not enthusiastic at all, it's just a six-point Democrat -- it's a six-point Democratic advantage.

So passing these bills could potentially help move the enthusiasm from the Republicans to the Democrats. And the Democrats right now, they do need it, Ana.

CABRERA: All right, Harry, I appreciate you. Thank you.

ENTEN: Got it done.

CABRERA: You managed to get out of done before the president gets his booster shot.

ENTEN: There you go.

CABRERA: And here he comes. Let's listen in.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Did you ever think you would senior press come and watch someone come and get a shot in the old days? Me either.

At any rate, like I did in my first and second COVID-19 vaccination shot, I'm about to get my booster shot and do it publicly. That's because the Food and Drug Administration, the FDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC, looked at all the data, completed their review and determined that boosters for the Pfizer vaccine -- others will come later, maybe, I assume -- but the Pfizer vaccine are safe and effective.

They have had all the data they need. And last week, they laid out who is eligible for those boosters for now. You're eligible for a booster if it's been six months since your second Pfizer shot and if you fall into one of these categories, people over 65, which is hard to acknowledge, adults -- I'm only joking, folks.

(LAUGHTER)

BIDEN: Adults with certain underlying health conditions like diabetes and obesity and those are at increased risk of COVID-19 because of where you work or where you live, like health care workers, teachers, first responders, grocery store clerks.

If you fall under these categories, you're eligible for the booster. Now, I know it doesn't look like it, but I am over 65. I wish I -- way over. And that's why I'm getting my booster shot today.

The booster line is if you're fully vaccinated -- the bottom line is, if you're fully vaccinated, and you're highly protected now from severe illness, even if you get COVID-19. You're safe. And we're going to do everything that we can to deep that way with the boosters.

But let me be clear. Boosters are important, but the most important thing we need to do is get more people vaccinated. The vast majority of Americans are doing the right thing. Over 77 percent of adults have gotten at least one shot. About 23 percent haven't gotten any shots. And that distinct minority is causing an awful lot of us -- an awful lot of damage for the rest of the country.

[13:10:19]

This is a pandemic of the unvaccinated. That's why I'm moving forward with vaccination requirements wherever I can.

On Wednesday, I will be traveling to Chicago to talk about why it's so important that more businesses are instituting their own vaccine requirements. We know that to beat that pandemic and to save lives, to keep our children safe, our schools open, our economy going, we need to get folks vaccinated.

So, please, please do the right thing. Please get the shots. And it can save your life. It can save the lives those around you. And it's easy, accessible, and it's free.

So text your zip code to 438829, that's 438829, or visit vaccines.gov to find a vaccine location near you. We can do this. Get vaccinated.

Thank you very much. Now I'm going to get my booster shot and -- right. Here and the major is going to give me the shot.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you have any side effects for the second shot, Mr. President?

BIDEN: No, I haven't had any side effects the first or the second shot, thank goodness.

I (OFF-MIKE) one now. But we will see. Is that high enough for you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. (OFF-MIKE)

QUESTION: Is the first lady getting hers as well today, Mr. President?

BIDEN: She's going to get one, not -- I think she's teaching. But she's going to get one, yes.

QUESTION: Mr. President, what do you say to the world health leaders like the World Health Organization, who say wealthy vaccinations should help more countries without vaccinations get vaccinated before (OFF-MIKE) boosters in America?

BIDEN: We're helping -- we're doing more than every other nation in the world combined.

We're going to have well over 1.1 billion shots. And we're going to continue going. We're going to do our part. We have also given a great deal of funding to COVAX, which is a vehicle that does this.

So we have plenty, plenty of opportunity to make sure we get everyone in the world to play our part, the largest part of the world, to getting everyone vaccinated? QUESTION: How many Americans need to be vaccinated for us to go back to normal? Well, what is the percentage of the total vaccinations that have to be in place?

BIDEN: Well, I think -- look I think we get the vast majority, like is going on in some of these -- some industries and some schools, 97 percent, 98 percent. I think we're getting awful close.

And -- but I'm not the scientist. I think -- but one thing for certain. A quarter of the country can't go unvaccinated. That's not (OFF-MIKE) a problem.

QUESTION: Any progress on a reconciliation deal today, Mr. President? How close do you think you are?

BIDEN: You know me. I'm a born optimist. I think things are going to go well. People are going to get it done.

And -- but I have meetings tonight, tomorrow and for the next little bit.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: What is at stake you make of your agenda and your presidency with what is happening on the Hill this week?

BIDEN: Victory is what is at stake.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) success legislatively by the end of this week?

BIDEN: Well, it may not be by the end of the week. I hope it's by the end of the week.

But as long as we're still alive, as long -- we have got three things to do, the debt ceiling, continuing resolution, and the two pieces of legislation. We do that, the country is going to be in great shape.

Thank you very much.

(CROSSTALK)

CABRERA: OK. The president just got his COVID booster shot, the Pfizer vaccine.

Lets me bring in CNN's medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen and Dr. Megan Ranney Rain, emergency medical professor and associate dean of public health at Brown University.

Dr. Ranney, first, your reaction to this president getting this booster shot on camera? What's the impact?

DR. MEGAN RANNEY, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: I'm thrilled by this.

Listen, everyone age 65-plus across this country who got Pfizer as their primary vaccine series should be going out and getting a booster right now. And President Biden showing up and doing it on camera will hopefully help encourage folks to do it themselves.

CABRERA: Elizabeth, his message, go get a vaccine now, whether it's a first dose, which he was really emphasizing, or a booster, if you're in that eligible group.

[13:15:08]

He's saying there's nothing to fear. He's playing up the sense of urgency. Are shots readily available for anyone eligible who wants one?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: They are readily available.

I mean, there are plenty sitting on shelves for anyone who needs one, whether it's your first, second or now your third shot. As Dr. Ranney said, this is really important. Americans have not seen their president get a COVID-19 vaccine.

Donald Trump was vaccinated, but not on camera. It's important to build confidence. If he's doing it, it's obviously safe. One out of four Americans has chosen not -- eligible Americans, I should say, has chosen not to even get a first shot.

Doing this on camera, it's to help people get boosters, yes, but really it's to really encourage people to get that first shot. That's even more important.

So let's go back to the boosters for a minute. Let's talk about who is eligible. President Biden talked about it a bit. Here are some more details.

If you are more than six months out from your second Pfizer shot, you're eligible if you're 65 or older, if you're a front-line worker, a doctor, a teacher, a grocery store clerk, an adult living in high- risk settings, such as prisons, or adults with underlying conditions, such as obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes.

You will notice, especially looking at that last category, Ana, that is a huge group of people. That's at least half of the United States that is eligible for a booster. Obesity alone is more than 40 percent of Americans.

So a lot of Americans are eligible for boosters. It's important to get them out. But really, in many ways, what today is about is about getting those one out of four people who haven't even gotten a first shot to roll up their sleeves -- Ana.

CABRERA: And so just to put a button the president here for a moment, I want to bring back CNN's chief White House correspondent, Kaitlan Collins, because, Kaitlan, again, this is such a pivotal time for him.

The whole pandemic is really throwing his administration into a bit of a quagmire when it comes to getting the economy back on track. And he ended on his agenda here saying he's an optimist.

COLLINS: Yes, he was asked about how this week is going to go, because, of course, you have seen Democrats describe this as the week from hell. They have got so much going on, so many deadlines that are facing them.

And you saw the president as he was walking out the door there speaking to reporters as he was getting this third dose of the Pfizer vaccine, saying that there are three things that they need to do this week. And one is raising the federal debt limit. Of course, that is their borrowing limit that they have -- the debt ceiling, I should say.

He also talked about funding the government. Of course, we know that funding is slated right now to lapse midnight on Thursday night. And then he also talked about getting these two pieces of legislation passed. One is that $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan that Pelosi says they will vote on, on Thursday.

The other of course, is the much bigger package that is far from finished. But they are hoping to at least get some kind of agreement where they can say, yes, we do have the commitment from all 50 Democratic senators that they will vote for this.

That is something that House progressives want to see. And that is something that is staring them down. And so President Biden was saying that he is going to be working on this today, tonight, and the rest of this week, though it's not clear they are going to get all of that accomplished this week.

He said he is optimistic about a timeline. But, to be clear, there's a lot to be done between right now and then. But it was funny watching him get that, as he was getting his coronavirus vaccine, still answering these questions about what this agenda this week is going to look like, Ana.

CABRERA: It's all about multitasking, especially if you are the president.

Dr. Ranney, back to the booster questions right now. If you got a Moderna or a Johnson & Johnson vaccine initially, should any of those people be getting the Pfizer booster shot?

RANNEY: No, they should not. There's absolutely no data supporting that Moderna or J&J recipients would do well or that there's safety behind getting a Pfizer shot at this point.

We know we have data around the corner coming on Moderna boosters, which are likely going to be a lower dose than the original Moderna series. We also have a press release about J&J boosters that was really promising.

But the even better news for Moderna and J&J recipients is that there is less evidence that those two vaccines have waned in efficacy against the Delta variant than there is for Pfizer. The last thing, though, is that, even for that Pfizer vaccine, I just

want to reemphasize the point that President Biden made, which is that, if you have received your first few shots of that Pfizer vaccine, you are so protected. You are not back in where we were in 2020, even if you don't receive a booster.

Age 65-plus, please run out and go get that booster, because there is waning immunity for you. But for the rest of us, including for Moderna and J&J recipients, we are in such a better space than we were a year ago.

CABRERA: What if you have had a breakthrough case, but you qualify for a booster shot? Should you go get one now, six months-post vaccination, or should you wait another six months post-breakthrough infection?

[13:20:05]

RANNEY: It's a great question. And it's one of those many COVID questions that we don't have a definite answer for.

In many ways, that breakthrough infection likely served as your own natural booster. In general, we tell people not to get a shot while they're feeling sick. In theory, if you have made it through a breakthrough, you're a couple of weeks out, you're no longer on isolation, sure, you could go get a booster. Is it likely to help you? We really don't know.

CABRERA: Elizabeth, over the weekend, there was this other big news that I want to touch on here.

Pfizer could be asking for authorization for vaccines for 5-to-11- year-olds in just a matter of days. How will that help stem the surge?

COHEN: Oh, that will really make a difference.

I mean, while children, largely speaking, aren't nearly as affected by COVID-19 as adults are, they certainly are. My husband, when our children were little and in day care, we lovingly called them our little disease vectors. And we really didn't mean it lovingly. But children are really great at spreading things.

And so it would really be helpful if children could get vaccinated, so that there's a lower risk that they would then infect their grandparents, say. So that would be really important. So we're hearing that, within days, Pfizer's going to make the formal application.

We should say they have been giving FDA data on their clinical trials, on their studies on children for some time now, but the formal application could come in the next few days. If it's anything like it was with adults, Ana, it will take a matter of weeks for the FDA to consider it.

For adults, it took about three weeks from application to approval. It doesn't mean children will happen in exactly that time frame, but it gives you a rough idea. CABRERA: That is helpful.

OK, Elizabeth Cohen, Dr. Ranney, and Kaitlan Collins, my thanks to all of you.

Meanwhile, in Florida today, the FBI returning to the home of Gabby Petito's missing fiance, Brian Laundrie. What agents left with, and the latest on the search in that massive, swampy land near this house next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:26:20]

CABRERA: New developments in the hunt for Gabby Petito's fiance, Brian Laundrie.

The FBI was back at the Laundrie home in Florida just yesterday. The family's attorney says agents took some of his personal items for DNA matching, all while the search for Laundrie continues into a second week in this swampy nature reserve that's about twice the size of Manhattan, but police say the search will be scaled back and targeted moving forward this week.

CNN's Nadia Romero is following the investigation.

Nadia, what do we know about this latest move by the FBI?

NADIA ROMERO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, we know that this is something different that we didn't see previously.

Now, they had two search warrants so they executed, one just last week. This is the first time that we're hearing about DNA evidence, DNA samples being taken to try to match with DNA. So that is new. We haven't seen that before when it comes to this investigation.

I'm going to take a look behind me, so that you can see. I will move out of the way. So this is the Laundrie parents' home. And throughout the morning, we have seen different people walking by and people starting to protest outside of the home with their bullhorns, yelling at the family. Really, it happens at the top of every hour, so right at 8:00 a.m., 9:00 a.m.

They have been out this morning demanding answers. We also saw a man who came by. He seemed to be delivering flowers. He was asked, who are those flowers, for because there is a small memorial for Gabby Petito on the corner of this property. And he said the flowers are not for Gabby, which enraged some of the people who are standing out here, who are protesting and trying to demand answers from the Laundrie family.

And so we have this new drone video -- video -- excuse me -- over this entire area. So you can see that we're just in a residential neighborhood, and it's really a nice quiet community that has been turned upside down with so much media attention and so much public interest into what happened here. This is the home where Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie lived with the

Laundrie family before they embarked on that trip cross-country to go to Wyoming and Utah and before, of course, Gabby Petito died.

And so people here are asking for answers, demanding answers, really, of the family that we believe is inside right now. They haven't come outside, despite people knocking on the doors. They haven't come outside to pick up the flowers that are on their front porch. We have seen no sign of them throughout the weekend -- Ana.

CABRERA: OK, thanks for that update, Nadia Romero.

I want to get Casey Jordan in here. She's a criminologist, an attorney and a behavioral analysis -- or analyst, I should say.

What does it tell you, Casey, that investigators are collecting Brian Laundrie's DNA from the family home?

CASEY JORDAN, CRIMINOLOGIST: It tells us that they need to establish a DNA profile for Brian Laundrie for probably two different reasons.

I mean, they would have removed items, likely a comb, a razor, a toothbrush, or even used underwear, from the Laundrie home. And it's all about matching that DNA for the purpose of identifying Brian Laundrie if they find him in any state, whether alive or dead.

But,, they need to consider DNA that may have been found at the crime scene or the body dump site of Gabby Petito in Wyoming. And they may have already collected DNA from that. We don't know if the body dump site was, in fact, the crime scene. It could have been the white van.

So they are combing through all of this and gathering DNA. And if there is DNA that they have found that doesn't belong to Gabby, they need to know who it belongs to. The trick is that it could belong to Brian because of the nature of their relationship.

But if it's found at the body dump site, and it matches Brian Laundrie, this is going to be very incriminating evidence that they are going to need to build a case for murder.

CABRERA: And yet we don't know where Laundrie is.

In fact, it's been almost two weeks since he went missing. That's a long time, Casey, to be without a phone and without a wallet.

JORDAN: Oh, if we believe that he really doesn't have his phone and a wallet.