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Fast-Spreading Omicron Now Dominant COVID Strain in U.S.; Democrats Furious While Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) on Defense After Thwarting BBB Bill; Day Two of Jury Deliberations Underway in Trial of Ex-Cop Kim Potter. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired December 21, 2021 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:03]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN NEWSROOM: What we do know is this, getting vaccinated and boosted still a very strong defense against severe illness and death.

Right now, the CDC says omicron accounts for more than 73 percent of new infections. Look at how quickly that happened. All that orange there, that was delta. Just in the last couple weeks, the purple of omicron rising from a fraction to now three-quarters of cases. The CDC predicts we will see more overall cases than we have with previous peaks.

Overnight, Texas confirmed the first death from omicron here in the U.S., a man who, we should note, was unvaccinated, also had underlying health issues, also previously had COVID-19, died after contracting omicron.

In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio says the city is now testing more people than ever at any point in the pandemic, but increasing demand, and take a look at those lines, is putting a real strain on the supply chain of tests.

Just a few hours from now, President Biden will address that issue. He is expected to announce the purchase by the U.S. government of more than half a billion at-home rapid tests. The administration says it will send those for free to anyone who requests one.

CNN White House Correspondent Jeremy Diamond has been following. So, Jeremy, as we noted earlier, Biden is not going to stand up on the podium today and say, I'm shutting the country down, right? There had been general fear of that or even small-scale shutdowns. These are targeted responses particularly on testing. What else is his plan?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's exactly right, Jim. President Biden will announce several new steps to tackle this surge of coronavirus cases fueled by the omicron variant, but no shutdowns or lockdowns. Instead, this half a billion free at-home coronavirus tests that the president is purchasing and will ship to Americans free of charge who request them via a website, that begins next month, though. So, there will be a gap of a couple of weeks here. And then he's going to be improving access to testing by setting up federal testing sites, including one in New York City beginning this week, new vaccination sites across the country, and also preparing to mobilize a thousand military service members to help overburdened and overwhelmed hospitals in key areas where they're experiencing a surge in cases across the country.

But the president will be delivering two clear messages, one to the unvaccinated, warning them of the serious risks that they face of sickness and hospitalization as cases surge across the country over the coming weeks, and also a message of reassurance to those vaccinated Americans, particularly those who have gotten a booster shot already, encouraging them to continue with their holiday travel plans if, indeed, they have any, as long as they continue to practice these commonsense public safety measures.

But omicron is having an impact here at the White House. President Biden, we are now told, is, indeed, considered a close contact of a midlevel White House staffer who tested positive for coronavirus on Monday morning. President Biden also received a PCR test yesterday. That test was negative. He will have a test once more tomorrow to see if he is, indeed, still negative. Jim?

SCIUTTO: An interesting living, what are the new CDC guidelines, right? Being just a contact is not automatically leading to quarantine. Wait for the tests and we'll see what those later tests show.

DIAMOND: Yes. As long as you're vaccinated, that is indeed the guidance from the CDC, and so that's what the president is following right now. Jim?

SCIUTTO: Jeremy Diamond at the White House, thanks so much.

CNN Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen with us here now. I mean, listen, we did know omicron was going to take over. I don't think anybody predicted how quickly. Even the CDC, it seems, was saying last week, it was about 3 percent, and then like, well, actually, it was more, we're now at 73 percent. Wow.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Jim, it is a wow. I mean, you and I were sitting here. It wasn't not even a month ago that omicron was even named. It hasn't even been with us for a whole month. And take a look at what's happened in the past two weeks. If you look at the week ending December 4th, omicron was only 0.7 percent of all new cases in the United States. Most of the rest was delta. December 11th, it crept up to 12.6 percent. Then the week ending December 18th, 73.2 percent. That's a huge jump in just two weeks.

And it's even more than 73 percent in certain parts of the country. If you look in the northwest, as well as the southeast in 12 states, it's more than 95 percent. That's just how highly transmissible this variant is. Jim?

SCIUTTO: All right. A big question has been does the country, do the agencies, the CDC, et cetera, change the responses to this new outbreak given that we have so many more people vaccinated? And Dr. Fauci said this morning an interesting possibility here, reducing the length of isolation for people who have received a positive COVID test.

[10:05:00]

Tell us what he's talking about and the impact here.

COHEN: Right. So, Dr. Fauci says that this might change. He says it's under review. Right now, you are supposed to stay isolated from ten days after you get a positive COVID test. But with omicron, many vaccinated people hardly feel sick at all. Some of them I've heard are -- you know, I've heard from friends that they just were doing fine and they got themselves tested for travel or whatever. And all of a sudden, they had omicron, they didn't even know it.

So, what Fauci is saying is maybe we don't need to isolate health care workers for those full ten days. In other words, if you've got a health care worker who feels fine but is positive with omicron, maybe there's a way to protect them, put them in full PPE and N-95 masks and maybe they could go back to work. Of course, you don't want them to infect patients, but those are valuable health care workers as we're starting to see a surge in hospitalization numbers. Jim?

SCIUTTO: Yes. And we talked to a hospital in Michigan earlier who said they're worried about this very shortfall. Elizabeth Cohen, thank so much.

So, as the Biden administration tries to get a handle on this new surge in COVID infections, they're also regrouping on the president's broader legislative agenda, the Build Back Better plan. Now, the nation's largest coal mining union is calling on Senator Joe Manchin to change his mind about supporting the bill. Fellow Democrats also turning up the heat on the West Virginia lawmaker for effectively, at least for now, killing the legislation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-WA): It's unfortunate that it seems we can't trust Senator Manchin's word. I said that to him, and, look, he has a different characterization of things, but we have spent months, months waiting, negotiating, getting to an agreement, what we thought was an agreement.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): What bothers me is that we have people like Mr. Manchin turning their backs on the people of this country, allowing the big money interest once again to prevail and basically saying that if I don't get everything I want, I'm not going forward. That is not acceptable to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: CNN's Manu Raju joins me now from Capitol Hill.

Manu, you've seen different approaches here, to be frank. You have Sanders and Jayapal, progressives here, full frontal assault. But I spoke to Dean Phillips yesterday and he said, listen, we can't attack this guy. I mean, we do so at our own peril. What is the party leadership doing here and do we expect it to have impact on Manchin?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: At the moment, it seems unlikely that Manchin will be swayed, even pushed to get a scaled-back bill would be difficult to accomplish in the New Year and for variety of reasons, one of which is Manchin himself. He has indicated publicly and privately that any scaled-back plan should go through the committee process, that means it takes some time, take weeks, months to sort it out, try to get Republican support, which we know Republican is not simply going to happen. And any effort to try to put a bill directly on the floor will get Manchin's opposition.

And that's exactly what the Democratic leaders plan to do. Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, indicated to his colleagues yesterday that he does plan to still try to push forward on that first procedural vote to open debate on the $1.75 trillion plan. Manchin says he is a no, and one Democratic defection is enough to thwart the entire effort. But it's going to take some time even to get to that procedural vote. Then they're going to have to worry about plan B.

Now, Manchin privately, with the White House, did discuss something that potentially he could be open to. He did float the idea of $1.8 trillion price tag. He has been open to provisions dealing with universal pre-K. He' has also suggested some efforts dealing with climate change. But one thing that he has not been open to is the extension of the child tax credit. That was one issue that I am told has been a major sticking point between the White House and Joe Manchin, and not extending the expansion of that child tax credit by the end of this year means that it could go away for millions of families and have a significant impact.

And there's no way this would get done by the end of this year, or it could even get done next year. But, Jim, I can tell you, in talking to Democrats, the real concern, particularly in the House, as they're looking at a very bleak electoral landscape, is they voted for this bill. They won't actually campaign on it, but they may have nothing to show for. Jim?

SCIUTTO: Manu Raju on the Hill, thank you.

So, joining me to discuss the way forward, Congressman David Cicilline, a Democrat from Rhode Island, also vice chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, also sits on the Foreign Affairs and Judiciary Committees. Congressman, thanks so much for taking the time this morning.

REP. DAVID CICILLINE (D-RI): My pleasure.

SCIUTTO: All right. Folks can hem and haw all they want. They don't have the votes yet on BBB, right? They need Joe Manchin. He's offering pre-K, additional ACA funding, and hundreds of billions of dollars for climate change, set aside the child tax credit for now. He has some other thoughts there. Should you take that deal to get something rather than nothing? CICLLINE: Well, look, I think we have been very clear that the president's agenda was really predicated on three important achievements, first the American rescue plan, which we enacted, two, the bipartisan infrastructure bill, and third, the Build Back Better Act, so that the economic recovery that comes can be felt by everyone and not just a subset of the population.

[10:10:15]

And that's the president's vision. We passed it in the House. There was an agreement on the framework. And I think everyone was quite surprised to see Senator Manchin change his position, but we're not giving up. We're obviously not going to -- but we're not -- the point is the vision that the president articulated that was passed by the House, that was negotiated over many, many, many months.

SCIUTTO: I know.

CICILLINE: To lower costs from everything, from prescription drugs to health care to child care. It's fully paid for by making sure the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations pay their fair share. It cuts taxes for middle-class families. Those are all wildly popular. And we're going to keep fighting until we get that bill passed in the Senate.

SCIUTTO: But how do you do it? How do you get Manchin's vote? You don't have it yet.

CICILLINE: We try to get -- we have to get Manchin back to his original position was accepting that top-line number and figure out what we need to do to get his vote. We have to get his vote. I think most of the constituents in his home state will benefit from the provisions of Build Back Better. This is urgent.

I mean, we are now confronting another surge, and so many of the provisions of Build Back Better are going to help families get through this pandemic. To get through it, be sure they have money in their pockets, be sure they can afford prescription drugs.

I think we're going to keep making the case and he's going to continue to hear from his own constituents how important this is. And we're going to find that compromise that will get him back to yes because it's too important. It's really the president's agenda.

SCIUTTO: Could -- I just want specifics here, because would you be willing to separate out the child tax -- trust me, I know how central that is to the Democrats' platform here -- separate that out for now, in effect, negotiate that later. He's got ideas about means testing forward, et cetera, so you at least get pre-K, ACA, climate change now. Would you be willing to do that? Are you saying they're all wedded together?

CICILLINE: Jim, the -- no. I mean, Jim, the challenge is we had an agreement. And so it's very difficult to, in the public, have a new negotiation. We have to have some comfort that Senator Manchin is going to get to yes. And I know the White House is going to continue their negotiations. Our House leadership will do the same.

But we cannot fail. This is about really supporting American families, working families, to help them get through this very difficult pandemic and also for strong economic recovery. It's going to have an impact on our economy long-term, whether or not we make these kinds of investments in working families.

So, look, I think there's a willingness to get Senator Manchin back to yes, but I don't think we can start picking off, what about this, what about this, because we had an agreement. I think the president was under the impression, as were the House Democrats, that we already had reached that agreement, we had already compromised and negotiated for many, many months.

SCIUTTO: Do you worry when you hear some of the more critical comments from your colleagues, Congresswoman Jayapal, Bernie Sanders in the Senate, Chuck Schumer saying he wants to bring this to a vote to get Joe Manchin on the record as a no here, that you end up alienating the vote you need here? Dean Phillips, one of your Democratic colleagues in the House, said the Democratic Party does so at our own peril. Do you agree with him?

CICILLINE: I think the important thing is we have to get Senator Manchin to yes. We have to pass the Build Back Better act. It's going to have a transformative impact on the lives of working people in this country. And, of course, there's a lot of disappointment. There's even anger from some of our colleagues, particularly people who negotiated for many, many months, we had many, many conversations with Senator Manchin.

So, I understand that anger and that frustration, but I think everyone is committed to making sure that we get this done for the American people. It's not really about us and our frustration about Joe Manchin. It's about whether we're going to deliver for working families in this country, and that's where all the focus has to remain.

SCIUTTO: If come November 2022, it hasn't worked out, are you in trouble as a party?

CICILLINE: Well, look, I think we have achieved great things with the American rescue plan, with the bipartisan infrastructure bill. This is the third part of it. And, certainly, we want this done because it will make a real difference in the lives of the American people. But we've done an enormous amount of work already. And with the president's leadership, we've had tremendous success in many of these areas. But this is the final piece of it.

And so it will be much better for the country, much better for all of us if we are facing midterm elections having delivered on this really bold and visionary piece of legislation, and that's why we're going to get it done.

SCIUTTO: Congressman David Cicilline, we wish you luck, also wish you and your family happy holidays.

CICILLINE: Same to you. Thanks, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Still to come this hour, could the omicron variant force some students back into virtual learning? We're going to ask the secretary of education coming up. You'll want to hear this.

Plus, just a troubling trend for Democrats. Now, 23 members have decided to retire from Congress.

[10:15:01]

Could their exit signal what's going to happen in the midterms? We'll see.

And the fate of former Police Officer Kim Potter is now in the hands of jurors. We're going to discuss which side made the more compelling closing arguments in her trial for manslaughter in the fatal shooting of Daunte Wright.

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SCIUTTO: Just minutes ago, jury deliberations resumed in the manslaughter trial for former Police Officer in Minnesota Kim Potter. They deliberated about five hours yesterday. You'll remember, Potter claims she accidentally grabbed her firearm instead of her taser and she then shot and killed Daunte Wright during a traffic stop. He had a deodorant on his rearview mirror.

[10:20:03]

Prosecutors say she was negligent. Defense argued, quote, mistakes happen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIN ELDRIDGE, ASSISTANT MINNESOTA ATTORNEY GENERAL: This was no little oopsie. This was not putting the wrong date on a check. This was not entering the wrong password somewhere.

EARL GRAY, KIM POTTER'S DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Even though she didn't know she was using it, she had a right to, and that's what the law is.

Everybody makes mistakes. Nobody's perfect, ladies and gentlemen. And this lady here made a mistake, and, my gosh, a mistake is not a crime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: We're joined now by Criminal Defense Attorney and CNN Legal Analyst Joey Jackson.

I want to zero in on that defense argument there, arguing she had a right to use deadly force even if she didn't know she was using deadly force. She thought she was using her taser. What does the law say on that defense?

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes. I think it's pretty problematic. I think the essence, Jim, Good morning to you, is that defense is going for jury nullification. If you look at the defense that they're using, particularly when they put her on the witness stand, she admitted to all of the essential elements of the offense. She admitted it was a mistake. She admitted she didn't mean to use deadly force. She admitted that if you could do otherwise, you certainly would have. And so you're admitting to recklessness.

Guess what? That's manslaughter in the first degree, punishable by 15 years. You're admitting to being careless as it relates to the use of a firearm. Guess what? That's culpable negligence. That's guilty by ten years.

So, I think what defense is doing is asking the jury to nullify. What does that mean? It means if a jury can relate to you, they believe you're contrite, they really think that you really made a mistake, the jury can lawfully say, you know what, you're admitting to the elements but we're going to give you a pass.

And finally, Jim, to make the argument that, you know what, she could have used deadly force anyway, that really contradicts what she's saying, was that it wasn't reasonable in my view to use deadly force, I wasn't meaning to use deadly force, and I happen to use deadly force by accident. And so I think that's their argument. We'll see whether the jury accepts it or rejects it as they deliberate.

SCIUTTO: And on the tape there after the fatal shot, you hear her panicking, right, about the consequences for herself.

All right, I don't want to read too much or too little into the requests you get from juries during deliberations, but during day one, the jury asked a question about an interview Potter discussed in court on Friday, this interview with a defense expert witness, Dr. Lawrence Miller, who is an expert in forensic psychology, frequently testifies on behalf of police departments. You spend a lot of time in courtrooms. Is there a significance? Can you read something from them reaching out on that particular testimony?

JACKSON: So, you can. And, obviously, jurors, you don't know whether one or two or more are concerned about it, and you never want to speculate as to what jurors are believing. But Let's hone in on it. We saw there was an expert that was called by the defense. We saw that the expert spoke to the issue of mistakes that can reasonably and legitimately be made by individuals as we look at the expert there, and their mistakes that happen every day of the week and twice on Sunday, even by those who are skilled.

And so what I think the jury is looking at, because you have such a vast distinction between a gun and a taser with regard to weight, with regard to how the handle is, with regard to where it's on the dominant side or non-dominant side is could this have been a psychological error she made as that expert witness explained? And in the event that she made such a psychological error, as the expert explained, can we give her that pass?

So, I think they're focusing and honing in on that specific issue of whether they want to excuse her negligent or reckless conduct, which the jury certainly has the authority to do. SCIUTTO: Listen, it's fascinating to watch these things but it's also fascinating to see where the law in the country stands. We'll see. Joey Jackson, thanks so much, as always.

JACKSON: Thank you, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Still ahead, the highly contagious omicron variant is prompting concerns and questions over what happens to students in the classroom. Should they be wearing masks? Should they be tested? What about remote learning again? We're going to ask all these questions of the secretary of education. That's next. You're going to want to hear his answers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:25:00]

SCIUTTO: In just a few hours, President Biden will address the nation on his plans to fight the incredibly rapid spread of the new omicron variant. The highly contagious strain is prompting new concerns among parents about how to keep kids safe as they return to school particularly after the Christmas break.

Joining me to talk about a whole host of questions is the United States education secretary, Miguel Cardona. Secretary, thanks for taking the time this morning.

MIGUEL CARDONA, EDUCATION SECRETARY: Thank you, Jim.

SCIUTTO: So, as you know, some parents are worried that they're going to see remote learning again. And, by the way, some public school districts have been doing that, at least around the holidays. You're seeing some private schools as well. Will the administration recommend today that students stay in school for in-person learning?

CARDONA: Let me be very clear, student safety, staff safety is the number one priority, but, yes, our children need to be in school. We know how to keep them safe.

[10:30:00]

We have a year's worth of experience. We have vaccination efforts happening for children ages 5 and up. We have better testing. Our students deserve five days a week, in-person --