Return to Transcripts main page

Inside Politics

Navalny Shouts Down Prosecutor, Calls Putin "The Poisoner" During Chaotic Court Hearing For Russian Opposition Leader; Democrats' Impeachment Filing: Trump "Threatened The Constitutional System"; Trump's January 6th Speech Sets Up Arguments Over His Intent; Biden's Push For Bipartisanship Faces Early Test With COVID-19 Relief; White House COVID Response Team Holds Briefing. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired February 02, 2021 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The one last thing, we asked Kremlin about this, they say that Vladimir Putin is not paying any attention to this trial today. Kate?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: Hard to believe that one. But thank you Fred, really appreciate the reporting. Thank you all so much for joining us today. I am Kate Bolduan. John King picks up our coverage right now.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Hello, everybody. Welcome to "Inside Politics." I'm John King in Washington. Thank you for sharing a very busy day - a very busy hour ahead for us. We're just moments away from what the Biden White House says is a very important Coronavirus response update.

And CNN is told the administration now plans to start shipping vaccines directly to retail pharmacies. This move, the announcement of this briefing coming not long after Pfizer told investors it expects to deliver 200 million more vaccine doses by May that would be well ahead of the previous schedule.

Also a first look this hour at the legal road maps now for the second impeachment trial of Donald j. Trump. A new brief from House Democrats says the former president holds "unmistakable responsibility for the capitol insurrection", that Mr. Trump's post election rankings prime the country for violence and that it was "obvious and foreseeable" that his remarks on January 6th would lead to that riot and disaster at the United States capital.

The president's new legal team faces a noon deadline meaning right now to file its response. Impeachment and the COVID update are just two developing storey lines in the busy Biden Washington reset. This afternoon the president signs executive orders focused on immigration including a new White House task force to reunite children separated from their parents during the Trump Administration.

President Biden would also like major congressional action on immigration, but that's a steep Hill and it's down the road a bit anyway. Priority one is COVID relief. And a Monday night meeting between the president and ten Republican Senators, nine in the room at the Oval Office was cordial, but did little to narrow the more than one trillion-dollar gap between what Republicans say they're willing to spend and what the president says is necessary.

Consider that a green light for Democrats and congress to go at a loan on COVID relief. And today this new data point in the Republican fracture over the direction of the GOP. "Loony lies and conspiracy theories are cancer." Those are the stern words of the Senate Republican Leader, Mitch McConnell as he makes clear he sees no place for Marjorie Taylor Greene in the Republican Party.

Of course, she has a place as a member of congress and she has the backing of Donald Trump which complicates things for the House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy as he now deals with a Democratic ultimatum to strip the congresswoman of her committee assignments.

A lot to discuss as you can see. First were impeachment and the new details of the Democrats case against the former president. Let's go straight up to Capitol Hill and CNN's Manu Raju. Manu, the brief has been filed by the prosecutors. What jumps out?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they're dividing the argument up into several different areas. One about the run-up to what happen on January 6th, the deadly day of the deadly riot here when pro-trump supporters came into this building and they're blaming it exclusively on Donald Trump and his actions saying he intentionally riled up his supporters.

So they're breaking it down into what he said before the election alleging there's going to be mass fraud, suggesting he wouldn't accept the election results. Everything that he did also after the election. And what he did to promote the so called save the steal rally, the promoting of the disinformation, the efforts to pressure election officials locally and at the state level to overturn Joe Biden's win.

And then culminating on January 6th when Donald Trump went to the ellipse, just steps from the White House told his supporters to go to the capitol, leading to what we saw here on the day of horrific violence.

Now this is what they say in this brief. It says he insisted that the election had been rigged and stolen and that his followers had to fight like hell and fight to the death against this act of war since he can't let it happen and won't take it anymore porting him there.

They also say it was obvious and entirely foreseeable that the furious crowd assembled before President Trump at the save America rally on January 6th was primed and prepared for violence if he lit a spark. Now, the last part of the argument that they're making in this extensive brief, John, is that this is in their view a constitutional case.

They say that there is no reason to say the Senate does not have the authority or the jurisdiction to try a former president because we have heard the president's team, we've heard also Republican senator after Republican senator say, and the Senate has no grounds to try a former president. They're arguing absolutely the Senate does. So that's going to be a

central case going forward. So they're making a procedural and constitutional argument, but also the factual argument in their view the president needs to be held accountable and also never hold office again. But of course, you need 67 senators in the Senate to convict and then a simple majority to bar him from holding office again. At the moment those 67 senators aren't there, John.

KING: They aren't there, but the filing of this briefs a reminder the trial begins next week. And we are waiting this hour to see the president's defense team file, let's brief Manu Raju; I appreciate that on Capitol Hill. Come back if we get more information.

With me now to share the reporting and some important insights are CNN Legal Analyst Jennifer Rodgers and CNN's Jeff Zeleny. Jennifer, I want to start with you. I'm going to read a little bit from the House brief and then pick your brain as a prosecutor, former prosecutor.

[12:05:00]

KING: It's unthinkable the House Democrats argue in their legal brief that the Framers left us virtually defenseless against a president's treachery in his final days allowing him to misuse power, violate his Oath and incite insurrection against Congress and our electoral institutions simply because he's a lame duck. There is no January Exception to impeachment or any other provision of the constitution.

That is essentially their way to say sorry, this is the only weapon we have against a president whether he is in his first day or his last week refuting the constitutional argument we expect the president's team to make. As you read this brief, what jumps out most to you?

JENNIFER RODGERS, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Well, that's right, John. They spend about 40 pages; about half of this very long brief making that argument that it is constitutional and they do it very effectively. I think they do a great job. They go through history from British to early American times; they talk about all the impeachments that are relevant. They talk about the text of the constitution, commonsense. They hit it all. So I think they're right.

I think the problem is this is a foregone conclusion and these senators are looking for a way out where they don't have to grapple with what President Trump actually did. So I hope that in the presentation as opposed to the brief they spend more time on the facts. Because now at this point it seems to be more about educating the American public about what happened and setting down the historical record.

And for that they need to not get bogged down in this procedural argument and instead focus on the direct line between Trump's actions and the insurrection on January 6th.

KING: It's going to be critical to see which evidence they bring forward to do that. Looking back to that just a second, but Jeff Zeleny to the point that Jennifer just smartly raised in the sense that we know the math is against the prosecution right now that we see five or six Republican Senators possible, they would have to get 17 or 18 to get there.

This is one of the president's new attorneys. Again the president has his own problems here. He had five attorneys who quit because they refused to go to the floor of the Senate and argue about election fraud. This is David Schoen last night; try to make this point that if his take of what the president said at the rally before the insurrection is you can't blame the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID SCHOEN, TRUMP IMPEACHMENT LAWYER: We know now apparently that Mr. Swallow and the other managers tend to show videotapes of the riots. Read the words of his speech, calls for peacefulness. This had nothing to do with President Trump and the country doesn't need to just watch videos of riots and unrest. We need to heal now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Well, we could use to heal, but we also need to be truthful and factual. Mr. Schoen there saying the president said be peaceful. He did say be peaceful but he also said other things. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: You'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength. And you have to be strong. I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard. We fight like hell and if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: That essentially the dilemma, the paradox we're about to get that the Democrats will say no, there is a lot more muscular language than there was peaceful. Republicans will say, and he said be peaceful and patriotic.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: And that was the end of what he said. But what's also going to be presented is the 77 days from Election Day through January 6th. And what the Trump campaign, what he was doing on Twitter, and other matters, what led to that point. So, first of all, the president - the former president was looking for a TV lawyer.

That's exactly why he dismissed his South Carolina team of respected lawyers for someone who would go on Sean Hannity and argue just that. Now we'll see how that defers on the well of the Senate, the Senate floor.

But the reality here is that the facts are known, but it is going to be a very stark reminder because even though senators were all sitting in the chamber moments before it was invaded, they didn't necessarily know what was leading up through the month of November through the month of December. So that is what this case is also going to go through and litigate.

And it wasn't very organized effort here by many of the president's campaign aides, supporters to get to this point. Was he calling for the specific type of violence? Not necessarily but he was calling for his supporters to come out and do something. So that is what is going to be litigated.

But the question is that he said the number of votes. They can look into a crystal ball across the capitol into the House side just to see what is happened to the Republicans who voted for this. And Liz Cheney is exhibit "a" for if you're a Senate Republican, why take the risk.

KING: You say, why take the risk and Jennifer Rogers to that point, as the prosecutor, if you're going into the room knowing the jury is stacked against you, you unlikely, you hold out the possibility but you're unlikely.

You're still doing this for the history books; you're still doing this if you're the House Democratic prosecutors, the managers for the idea that perhaps Donald Trump will try a comeback in politics years down the road.

So when you went through this brief, here's the case laid out in the brief. And it's an extensive brief as you noted, it's very well done. So here is the brief. The question is, who would you call, if you were trying to take this brief and bring it to life, who do you think the witnesses the managers would most definitely need?

[12:10:00]

RODGERS: Well, I think they certainly want witnesses if they can get them to give the narrative that they have in the brief. Starting from before the election as Jeff said all the way up to the events on January 6th about this was a constant drumbeat what the president was doing trying to overturn this election, and it wasn't just this effort, it was all of the frivolous lawsuits, it was going to the Supreme Court.

It was trying to influence state election officials et cetera. But then the ones I really want to see that aren't so well covered in the brief are I would love to see a witness from inside the White House on January 6th covering what the president actually did as he's watching on television as these people are breaking through the barriers, beating capitol police, yelling for blood from Nancy Pelosi and Mike Pence.

I want to see someone who can tell us how delighted the president was. Because that's really important. And I think the American people will want to see that as they consider whether or not perhaps down the road they want to elect this president again.

KING: And one of the arguments, Jeff, you make a key point, the prosecutors; the managers will make their case. And the question will be to watch the Republicans. We'll listen to the president's lawyers, but what will Senate Republicans do in asking their questions and giving interviews during the trial. Listen here, key Trump ally and the Senate, this is Lindsey Graham,

who was the chairman of the judiciary committee. That now passes in the Democrats as the balance of power ships. Listen to the argument he makes. He doesn't make the case here that the president was perfect, that the president did everything right. It's a little different.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): And there's mounting evidence that the people came to Washington pre-planned the attack before the president ever spoke. So I'm confident of the outcome here that we're going to have more than 45 votes for motion to dismiss on the idea that this is unconstitutional impeachment pursuing somebody out of office.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: This is where; again, selective memory comes into play. Lindsey Graham says it was pre-planned; therefore nothing the president said at the rally could have affected the conduct of what happened at the capitol. Because the people came here that way. Again some of that is laid out in this prosecution brief, the managers brief.

But that is the challenge for the prosecutors and the managers to make that case. It was the president who called his supporters here on that specific day knowing the Electoral College machinery was happening in the congress that day. There are other tweets and emails and fund- raising emails from the president. And as you mentioned, campaign supporters, campaign aides and others helping to organize.

ZELENY: Right. The speech at the ellipse there was the cherry on top of all of this. This was the final piece of the strategy here. That is part of the evidence here that the House managers will have to try and prove. There's been a lot of good reporting in "The New York Times" and elsewhere in here on CNN about just specifically what happened in those 77 days to lead up to this.

But we know now the president's own political advisers knew he lost the election in November. We got a look at a memo overnight that his re-election advisers released that he lost because of the pandemic. He lost because of a fall - a white voter's men and women.

So he knew he lost. His advisors knew he lost. He kept this big lie alive, "A," to raise money and "B," to keep stoking this fire. So that is the point here. So I think Senator Graham, yes, he makes the point that people came to Washington for this reason, but that is the point. And the president was giving the final order there on the ellipse.

KING: That is this point. And one of the things that will come out, you mentioned all his fund-raising, Trump supporters out there, he lied to you to raise all that money saying it was to challenge the election. He took it all with him. Most of it with him. Senator - Jenifer Roger, Jeff Zeleny, grateful for the reporting and the insights. Jeff is going to stay with us for future conversation to the COVID relief debate now though, and a reminder yes, looks can be deceiving. After the last four years these image you see right here are a big

deal. The President of the United States meeting with senators from the other party for detailed policy talks that stretched on for two hours. That never happened in the four years of the Trump presidency. Respect and cordial conversation are important and they are most welcome in Washington. But do not confuse polite with progress.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): It set the stage for going forward.

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME): It was a very good exchange of views. I wouldn't say that we came together on a package tonight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: The Republicans in that meeting, they came to that meeting saying they're open to spend about $620 billion in new COVID spending. President Biden wants more than three times that. Ballpark $1.9 trillion.

And one of his senior advisers put it this way to POLITICO, while President Biden will continue to reach out to Republicans and Democrats on this emergency package, there's as much pressure on Republicans to work with the president as there is on President Biden to work with Republicans.

With us to share her reporting, Laura Barron-Lopez, the White House Correspondent for POLITICO and Laura it's a key point in your piece there from the White House saying, hey look, everyone keeps asking how much President Biden is willing to give.

Their argument is he won the election, then they won the two Georgia Senate races that he has the upper hand here. The question is more will Republicans come up and make it worth actually saying, OK. Let's have bipartisan conversations or was last night we're not going to agree, let's just - I am going to go forward with the Democratic plan.

[12:15:00]

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, POLITICO: Yes, all of the messaging coming out of the White House John publicly and privately is that they are moving ahead with this big Coronavirus package. And Democrats in the Senate are clearly setting up and in the House are setting up to have the resolution moved through so that way they can start the process for that $1.9 trillion package.

But in yesterday's meeting, Biden was attempting to show that he wants to be bipartisan and that he is going to talk to Republicans in a way that the former president didn't talk to Democrats. But even though he wants to be bipartisan and lots to bring some Republicans along, the White House doesn't want to have to wait and have drawn-out negotiations.

You have a lot of Obama alumni around Biden and they are a bit - they have a lot of scar tissue from the Obama years when Republicans drew out negotiations and Democrats didn't ultimately get as big of a stimulus package as they want or had to wait longer on ACA negotiations. And so they don't want to have to go through that again.

KING: Right, and to that point of not having to go through that again, Senator Chuck Schumer making clear this morning and the House Democrats are doing this as well, if they're prepared to use this process, the budget rule called reconciliation, where you can do it with majority support in both the House and the Senate.

And some Republicans are saying hey, you shouldn't do that. Hey, that's proof you're not being bipartisan to the new president and leader Schumer this morning on the floor rightfully so citing history telling Republicans, really? You guys did this a few times during the Trump Administration. Don't point fingers at us. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): The former Senate majority, I heard the senator from Texas crying crocodile tears about using reconciliation. But just a few years ago he was an active participant in using it twice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Today we're told the new President, Joe Biden, his Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, will join the Democrats weekly luncheon up on Capitol Hill by video to come in. Are there concerns among the Democrats? Some have said, OK, Mr. President, fine.

Meet with Republicans as much as you want, but they're not going to come your way. We're going to have to do this all on our own. Do Democrats feel the president has their back if they go ahead with this all-Democratic process?

BARRON-LOPEZ: So far it appears that they do despite the meeting yesterday; the White House came out of the meeting saying that their top line number hasn't changed.

And even in the meeting Biden, with Republicans, Biden was saying - was talking repeatedly about reconciliation, was talking about PDW, about his experience with, was making that point that even if they go the route of reconciliation, which it appears there going, then Republicans can still ultimately vote for the bill if they want to.

Biden expressed potentially some interest our sources told us to in a more targeted stimulus payments to lower income earners, which is something that Republicans and a few Democrats have said that they want, but that doesn't change the top line number. So Democrats in the Senate and in the House are telling us that they feel as though they're in sync with the White House right now.

KING: And one of the challenges in Washington always at this moment is if you have a train leaving a station that you expect to make its final destination, every interesting congress wants to add their piece to it. There's a big debate that Republicans say was the minimum wage raising the federal minimal wage going to do in a COVID relief package.

That will be litigated. Among the Hispanic caucus in the House there was some hope they could get at least some pieces of immigration reform attached to this. Hispanic caucus tweets coming out yesterday, Hispanic caucuses disappointed that the House COVID-19 budget reconciliation blueprint doesn't include protections for essential workers, dreamers, TPS holders, we will not give up.

We'll continue to make a push for a path to pass immigration reform. But you have these competing pressures because this bill, the COVID relief plan is expected. Democratic votes in the House and the Senate to get to the president's desk some Democrats say I want to add my piece to it.

BARRON-LOPEZ: Yes. The Hispanic caucus members really wanted some kind of language in there that would have shielded, that would have provided a pathway for essential workers. The dreamers, TPS recipients, DED holders, and even put in a broad language in terms of who qualifies as an essential worker, hoping to provide legal status for even more than just dreamers and TPS recipients.

But there's no indication that Democratic leaders want that in there because they want to be able to move this quickly. They don't want to get it bogged down. And it looks as though other Democrats like Senator Dick Durbin who leads the judiciary committee is going to try to move individual pieces of immigration reform through his committee.

They want to keep those things out of the reconciliation COVID bill to begin with. But Democrats may have a second bite at the reconciliation apple, you get about two per year and so they could potentially add different things to a second reconciliation bill if they go that route later on in the year or during summer or fall.

[12:20:00]

KING: Bigger picture, we talk about the president has the meeting last night with the ten Republicans. He wants to show his - sorry, but we've got to go straight to the White House, Jeffrey Zients, the White House COVID Response Director.

JEFF ZIENTS, WHITE HOUSE COVID-19 RESPONSE COORDINATOR: And the CDC will monitor the data on an ongoing basis to make sure that pharmacies are efficiently and equitably administering vaccinations. This initial phase of activating local pharmacies will get more shots in arms and will ensure that pharmacies have the infrastructure and the experience they need to scale up when vaccine supply increases in the months ahead.

Eventually as we're able to increase supply, up to 40,000 pharmacies nationwide could provide COVID-19 vaccinations. These are places ranging from local independent pharmacies to national pharmacies and supermarkets. This is a critical step to provide the public with convenient, trusted places to get vaccinated in their communities.

Importantly, pharmacies are just one part of our overall effort, which also includes mass vaccination sites, mobile clinics, community health centers and other providers that Americans count on each and every day. Finally, central to our strategy is to make sure states, tribes and territories have the resources they need to turn vaccines into vaccinations.

That's why at the direction of President Biden FEMA has increased its support. On his second day in office President Biden directed FEMA to fully reimburse states for the cost of National Guard personnel and other emergency cost. Today we're announcing that we will go even further.

We will fully reimburse states for the eligible services they provided back to the beginning of the pandemic in January 2020. That means the states will be fully repaid for things like masks, gloves and the mobilization of the National Guard and they can use the additional resources for vaccination efforts and emergency supplies moving forward.

This reimbursement is estimated to cost a total of 3 to $5 billion and it is only a small share of the resources that states need to fight this pandemic, including for testing, genomic sequencing and mass vaccination centers. So to fully support states, tribes and territories needs to contain the pandemic and vaccinate their population, President Biden is requesting $350 billion from congress in the American rescue plan.

As the president has said, this is a national emergency and we're treating it as such. We're bringing the full force of the federal government to partner with state and local leaders in these efforts. We are giving Americans the facts they need and we're working to ensure our response is fair and equitable. We're doing all we can, but it is critical that congress does its part as well.

We need congress to quickly pass the American rescue plan. It give us the funding we need to continue to scale up our vaccination program and to provide the resources that state and local leaders need to protect their communities and fight the pandemic. And with that, I'm happy to take a few questions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you everybody for joining. We have time for a couple of questions from Jeff today. First we will go to Carl O'Donnell with Reuters.

CARL O'DONNELL, REPORTER, REUTERS: Hi. This is Carl O'. Thank you for your time. So, I guess what would be helpful would be just to understand first of all, you know, you mentioned 6,500 pharmacies in the program originally. How many vaccine doses do you think you're going to be pushed through that on a weekly basis?

And also just want to confirm for that 3 billion to 5 billion, does that require the congress to pass any legislation allocating funds or is that something FEMA can do from its existing funding. Thank you.

ZIENTS: So, a million doses will be allocated next week to those 6,500 pharmacies. So that's in addition to the 10.5 million doses that are going to go to states, tribes and territories. That's the first phase of the pharmacy program. And we'll phase up, as I said, as supply increases. On your FEMA question, no, that does not require congress acting. That's a decision that the president has made, and we will reimburse states that 3 to $5 billion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Next we'll go to Kaitlan Collins with CNN.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Thank you very much. I have two questions for you. One on this rollout, given you just said this is in addition to the 10.5 million that you're already sending. So where are these vaccines coming from, this 1 million that you're going to start sending out?

[12:25:00]

COLLINS: What allotment is this coming from that you have? And then secondly, you said to make sure that you can meet the eligibility guidelines before you go to try to get a vaccine at these pharmacies.

A lot of states are in different phases of distribution. So is the federal government recommending that those states open up their eligibility, so it's the same across the board and therefore a little less confusing for people?

ZIENTS: So first of all, Kaitlan thanks for the questions. Good questions. The additional 1 million on top of the 10.5 million is consistent with Moderna and Pfizer scaling their operations. We're doing all we can to monitor and help the manufacturers produce as much vaccine as possible.

So the increase of over 20 percent, that's happened since the beginning of the administration. That's going directly to states, territories and tribes, plus this 1 million to pharmacies directly as all result of the manufacturing scaling up. And we hope that we can do all we can and we will do all we can to continue that scale up to make more vaccines available.

Your second question was on states. Each state does have its own policy. And individuals should check their own state policy for eligibility. You will recall that President Biden a couple of weeks ago did call on states, territories and tribes to move as quickly as possible to make all people 65 and over eligible in their states.

And more than half of the states have done so. That's an important population. More than 80 percent of the over 400,000 deaths that this country has suffered had been in people that are over 65 years of age.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Next we'll go to Zeke Miller with AP.

ZEKE MILLER, AP: Thanks for you on the call. Jeff, on the pharmacy allotments, can you speak to how those million doses per week will be distributed across the country? What metric will be used to sort of endure equity and distribution will be population based?

And then on the president's call for congress to pass legislation, how much quicker would the pace of vaccination be with additional congressional funding and conversely how much slower would it be without congressional action?

ZIENTS: Thanks Zeke. And again, good questions. On the pharma allocation, it's allocated the same way we allocate to states, tribes and territories based on their populations. However the centers for disease control, which has quite a bit of experience working with pharmacies, is making sure that we are picking pharmacies in that first phase that are located in areas that are harder to reach to ensure that we have equitable distribution of the pharmacy doses.

And across the board, as you know, equity is foundational to everything we do. On the American rescue plan, we're doing all we possibly can with the resources we have. And we will continue to do so. The faster congress acts, the faster we can scale vaccination sites, mobile units, we can increase testing, we can increase emergency supplies.

So given this pandemic, it's important that congress act as fast as possible so we can scale our efforts and fight the pandemic as efficiently and effectively as possible.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. We have time for a couple more questions; we're going to go next to Elizabeth Weise with "USA Today."

ELIZABETH WEISE, NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, USA TODAY: Hi, thanks so much for taking my call. A question about production. The states report that they get fluctuating amounts of vaccine every week even though they're ordering the same amount each week. Is it that production coming out of the Pfizer/Moderna plants varies by week or what is causing that fluctuation?

ZIENTS: Well, Elizabeth that is one of the messages we heard loud and clear through the transition was that it was very hard for states to plan to most effectively vaccinate their populations without a better sense of what their shipment was likely to be the following week. And that's why since we've come into office we've given a minimum of three weeks of visibility.

So this morning when I was talking to governors about 10.5 million doses being distributed, that's not only for the next week, but it's for the next three weeks. And that allows them to plan accordingly to know what staffing to have, what centers to open. So I think historically there had been fluctuation.

We are very tuned in to not having that fluctuation. And we are guaranteeing minimum levels of distribution to the states of doses for the next three weeks. And we started that last week with 10 million. We moved that up to 10.5 million for the next three weeks. So it's really important that states know what's coming and as production increases we hope to increase those minimums across time.