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Two Attorneys Named To Lead Investigation Into Andrew Cuomo Allegations; GOP'S Cheney: COVID Relief Bill "A Real Strategy"; CDC Still Warning Against Travel Citing Variant Threat, Past Surges; 3,400 Unaccompanied Migrant Children In Border Patrol Custody; Biden Visits Small Business That Participated In COVID Loan Program. Aired 12- 12:30p ET

Aired March 09, 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]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thank you so much for joining us this hour and joining us today. I am Kate Bolduan. John King picks up our coverage right now.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Hello to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm John King in Washington. Thank you so much for sharing a very busy news day with us a new warning today in the race to prevent another COVID surge.

Yes vaccines are picking up, but travel also up and more states now detecting COVID variants among their new infections. The CDC Director worried states are dropping restrictions too quickly, she says and she frames a tense next 50 days challenge.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: There is so much that's critical that's riding on the next two months. How quickly we vaccinate versus whether we have another surge really relies on March, what happens in March and April.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Already a big test on the southern border. The administration says now is not the time to come. But the number of migrant children in U.S. custody has tripled in the past two weeks to 3000 plus.

The White House says it will not send kids back into poverty but there are no beds and no concrete plan to handle those already here. And first up today the president is on the move this hour. He is about to visit a Washington DC business that stayed alive thanks to a pandemic loan.

President Biden's message that helps us on the way gets the primetime treatment Thursday from the White House. Tomorrow on Wednesday the House takes the final vote on the giant Biden COVID relief plan. A top House Democrat calls it a legacy moment for the president and for his party.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): We promised to put vaccination shots and arms for every single American mission accomplished. We promise to put money in the pockets of everyday Americans who've been struggling through the economic trauma of the pandemic, mission accomplished.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: To begin the hour with us to share their reporting and their insights POLITICO's Rachael Bade and Catherine Lucey of The Wall Street Journal. Rachel Bade let me start with you. You hear her keen Jeffrey's there trying to plant a flag for the Democrats and trying to plant a flag for the new president saying the country needs this and we are doing it.

They'll question right? The House will take up the bill tomorrow; they will try to pass the rule today. Some changes on the Senate side the progressives aren't thrilled with but overall there's no question right? This will be on the president's desk tomorrow.

RACHAEL BADE, CO-AUTHOR, POLICO PLAYBOOK: Yes, absolutely. I mean, this is a big -- they're going to take a victory lap today. They already are. Schumer showed in the Senate that he can keep his 50 members together.

If you would have lost one, this whole thing would change. And you're going to see Pelosi who is sort of known for her iron whip, keep her members together as well as she will get the votes to do this.

I think the biggest win though here is really for progressives. I mean, you did hear some of them squawking over the weekend about some of these changes that Joe Manchin forced in the Senate last week. But those are very small compared to the overall bill.

This is a huge win for the left. And as we wrote in playbook earlier this week, this is the biggest expansion of the safety net since Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s child tax credits, stimulus checks. And this is a big one for the left and you're going to see them touted for the next few weeks to come.

KING: And that's what we expect to see in any moment now Catherine Lucey from the President of the United States. He's going to go to a DC business that got a PPP Paycheck Protection Loan to keep it afloat, to keep it afloat during COVID.

Now here's one way to look at it. I'll show the numbers. This is what's going to happen when the president signs this into law $1400 checks to individuals who make less than $75,000 a year $300 a week and unemployment benefits.

That's a boost through September increasing the child tax credit up to 3600 years for kids, funding for schools funding for states funding for vaccines. So you hear Rachel Bade talk about the victory lap, you see the details there.

What's interesting is the president -- this is a more traditional political play if you will try to personalize it. We can show you all the numbers you want. I'm going to go visit a small business so that somebody can say thank you.

CATHERINE LUCEY, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, WALL STREET JOURNAL: That's right. And we've seen that with this president and this has been through throughout his career. He likes to connect the people and the policy. I think one thing that you're really going to see in the coming weeks from this White House is a real effort to highlight all these components of the bill.

How it's affecting real people, how people are getting checks, what it's meaning to families and communities. I think you'll see the start of that this week with his primetime remarks on Thursday. But we've heard from the president and his White House, a criticism that you know, the Obama administration maybe didn't do enough to sell and explain and talk about their stimulus efforts.

And they want to make sure that people around the country really know what's in the bill, know what's coming, know the kind of impact it's having.

KING: And it's interesting Rachel to watch this an inside Washington conversation, then we'll watch over the next several months now this place outside of Washington, that's what matters most. Do the loans help people?

Do the additional benefits help people does that redound to the president's benefit and the Democrats President, but you see now if Biden's for - we're against deadline from Republicans in Washington. They showed up at their briefing today.

I think we have some pictures we can show them wearing masks, open schools. They are trying to make the case a Republican argument that the Biden Administration is not pushing aggressively enough.

[12:05:00]

KING: There you see follow the science, not the union's. The Biden Administration is pushing schools to open and president can only do so much. Governors make these decisions, local school districts makes these decisions. Mayor's make these decisions.

But you see the politics there and listen to the very different perspectives from a top Democratic, a top Republican on what this COVID relief package is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JEFFRIES: The American rescue plan is transformative. It will comprehensively and compassionately meet the moment as a result of the devastating COVID-19 pandemic.

REP. LIZ CHENEY (R-WY): It's a real tragedy. When you look at that package, we know that the result of that package is going to be middle class tax increases. We know for sure that it includes provisions that are not targeted, they're not temporary. They're not related to COVID. (END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: It is striking several packages were passed during the Trump presidency and they were bipartisan. Here's the first big one out of the gates in the Biden presidency. And we are back to polarization.

BADE: Yes, I mean this is really difficult for Republicans I mean, the package is broadly popular. You see a pull after pull; it's got the support of the American public including a lot of Republicans, Republican voters.

And that makes this a difficult situation for Republican leaders on Capitol Hill who are clearly trying to sort of change the subject. They want to talk about schools. We've heard them talking a lot about the culture wars and Dr. Seuss.

So they're really struggling to sort of attack this bill. Obviously, Liz Cheney there is talking about well, how are they going to pay for this? It's a $2 trillion bill. These were not questions I would sort of ask back when the past two packages were passed through the congress.

And so you know Republicans, they're grappling right now. They're trying to change the subject, but this is vastly popular. And because of that it's problematic for them in terms of how they talk about it on the campaign trail.

KING: Right. And just to that point, Katherine Lucey, Republicans in Washington say no, listen; this is Jim Justice, Republican Governor of West Virginia. He says my status is still hurting. Yes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JIM JUSTICE (R-WV): At the end of the day, I still believe that we needed to go big or not go at all. You know because we still got too many people that are out there across, especially West Virginia that are hurting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: And that's the test that matters no offense to Governor Justice, not so much a Republican Governor. But do the people who vote for Governor Justice, to the people who vote for Republican Governors out there. Do they think the new president you know what he's helping me?

LUCEY: That's right. And that's what the White House is counting on and really trying to point to. They're pointing to comments from Republican Mayors and Governors. But they're also citing public polling that shows that a lot of the provisions in this are broadly popular, as Rachel said, there's bipartisan support for this.

And so I think that's what you're going to hear a lot about in the coming weeks is this idea that there is bipartisan support for this bill and that people are looking for.

KING: And again we're waiting to see the president supposed to visit a small business here in Washington DC, we're keeping an eye on that. Catherine Lucey, Rachel Bade grateful. Great to see you both. And grateful for the reporting and the insights on this day. And up next for us the cost debate over COVID testing in schools.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:10:00]

KING: It was one year ago today CNN began using the term pandemic as the world saw Coronavirus spreading out of control and beginning to up end, daily life. Now here in the United States, three vaccines being distributed across the country right now try to protecting Americans.

But however the CDC Director warning just today, the next two months are critical. Yes, vaccines are rolling out but she says variants are also taking hold. Let's go through the numbers and the challenge of the moment.

And again, you go back one year ago today Coronavirus was just arriving here in the United States. But we were seeing it around the world CNN adopting the term pandemic. And you know the three clients since last spring, the summer and then this winter crime horrific, the third one, the third client the most terrific.

50,000 new infections reported yesterday. Again that number way down, way down from the winter peak, however still at a plateau around 50,000. The public health experts are worried they want to push this down even more with the variants spreading.

If you look at this to again, incredibly sad when you go back in the context of one year ago, up the first hill in the spring, another hill in the summer. Horrifically deadly winter climb there. 719 deaths reported yesterday. Let's hope this is finally starting to come back down.

But this number often a lagging indicator behind cases and hospitalizations were washed out. This is the race. This is the race going on right now. The case count is down from the winter peak but 3000 cases of the UK variant now report in 47 states in DC which means the UK variant is everywhere. It is across America.

That is the race can you get people vaccinated as this spreads and cause new cases. Another variant the South African variant 81 cases in 19 states in the District of Columbia. So not quite as widespread but beginning to take root.

That is the race the CDC Director talks about. A third variant out of Brazil 15 cases across nine states right now so less prevalent but still a concern and that is the race. Can you get people vaccinated before these variants start to spread and cause more cases? Here's the math there.

18 percent of Americans have been partially vaccinated. That means one shot if you're getting the two dose vaccines, just shy of 10 percent fully vaccinated as we start this day, watch how quickly these numbers climb. That is the big part of the race. More success among older Americans among 65 and older 60 percent have

received at least one dose and 30 percent, 30 percent of Americans over the age of 65 are now fully vaccinated. So considerable progress here.

And again you look at the numbers right here. This is the vaccination rate averaging 2.2 million public health experts would love to push this up. They say 3 million would be a better number. The Biden Administration is making some progress.

Just yesterday, new guidelines for what you can do if you've been vaccinated. Yes, if your -- if your friends have been vaccinated yes, the CDC says you can get together in small groups and things like that.

[12:15:00]

KING: But still the advisory is please do not travel the CDC Director explaining here why.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. WALENSKY: We know that right now there are a lot of variants here in this country. Some have brought in from travel, others have emanated from inside the country. We know that after mass travel after vacations after holidays, we tend to see a surge in cases.

And so we really want to make sure again with just 10 percent of people vaccinated that we are limiting travel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: With us to share her reporting and some important insights is our CNN's Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen. Elizabeth when you hear the CDC Director so firm there, there are the new guidelines, it's back to normal at least to a degree if you have a vaccine, but a big please don't when it comes to travel. Why?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. It does seem so curious in the airline industry is definitely pushing against this. The reason why are the variants which Dr. Walensky just talked about. And here's another way and this is even simpler.

If you ask the question, can someone be vaccinated and still have COVID-19 but not know it. So still be infected but not know it and spread the virus to people who are unvaccinated. And the CDC has an answer for that on their website.

They say vaccinated people could potentially still get COVID-19 and spread it to others. Vaccinated people could potentially still get COVID-19 and spread it to others. That's why they don't want you on a plane.

If you're vaccinated and god forbid you're infected and you don't realize it. 90 percent of the people on that plane most likely are not vaccinated. We would hate for that vaccinated person to get the unvaccinated people on that plane sick. John?

KING: And Elizabeth in this race again as the variants spread and the vaccine roll out you have a race. Can you get more people vaccinated in beat essentially the variants as they spread? Scientists are looking at all the questions as the new lab study that shows the Pfizer vaccine can protect against one of the more worrisome variants this P-1 variant out of Brazil, walk us through that.

COHEN: Yes, this is good news. So Pfizer and BioNTech tested their vaccine against the so called Brazil variant. The variant first started -- first spotted rather in Brazil. And so let's take a look at what they found. So they found first of all, we all know this that the vaccine is 95 percent effective against the original so to speak Coronavirus vaccine.

Coronavirus strain -- rather 95 percent effective against the original strain. And they said it works roughly as well against the Brazil variant. And the neutralization and this is important is robust but lower for the South African variant.

In plain speak the vaccine is not working as well against the South African variant when you test it in the lab. So that has led many people to ask will Pfizer will Moderna will Johnson & Johnson start working on boosters against the variant that was first spotted in South Africa.

This seems to be posing not a complete challenge but a bit of a challenge to these vaccines. John?

KING: Elizabeth Cohen grateful as always for the reporting and the important context. Appreciate it very much. Coming up for us Biden in the border. Critics call it a crisis. We do know this the administration right now dealing with a record number of migrant children in border patrol custody.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:20:00]

KING: Welcome back. We should see the President of the United States any moment, President Biden leaving the White House. He's at a business small business here in Washington DC to talk about A, loans that have already helped small businesses and B, his COVID relief package which he should get from the House.

Tomorrow will be additional help. We'll take you live to see the president since we see that event playing out. Another challenge for the president right now. A surge of unaccompanied children crossing the U.S. Mexico border. That leads a list of pressing immediate immigration tests for the new administration.

As of today, look at these numbers. Data reviewed by CNN show there are more than 3000 children in border patrol facilities with just 500 beds to accommodate them as they await placement in shelters. The current surge eclipses what we saw back in 2019 when those facilities were simply overwhelmed. The White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki says President Biden is

determined to be more compassionate than President Trump, especially when it comes to the treatment of migrant children. But she also acknowledges the COVID pandemic adds stress to finding shelter here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The reason we're in this circumstance with thousands of kids coming across the border is because this administration did not feel that it was humane or moral to send kids back on this treacherous journey. We are also in a circumstance where we're dealing with COVID. So a lot of these facilities have smaller capacity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: With us to share their reporting and their insights, Jeff Zeleny, our CNN Chief National Affairs Correspondent and Priscilla Alvarez, our CNN Politics and Immigration Reporter. Priscilla, let me start with you. The numbers are wow, overwhelming, especially when you think of the plight of these children and the lack of facilities to deal with them. What is the administration doing to deal with this problem?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: It's a scramble behind the scenes, John. We are seeing increasingly more children crossing the U.S. Mexico border alone and just not enough space to place them. So they come into these border patrol facilities where they're supposed to be processed.

And then quickly transferred out to shelters that are equipped to care for them and work with them to place them with family in the United States. But there is just not enough shelter space. So to get a good sense of what's going on here, you only have to look at those numbers in border patrol custody.

[12:25:00]

ALVAREZ: We are learning moments ago it is now more than 3400 children in border patrol custody. That's already more than it was yesterday, John.

KING: And Jeff Zeleny the politics of this issue have always been dicey in Washington about legislation is hard to get through. But during the Trump administration it was the Democrats screaming about what they thought was immoral mistreatment of people at the border, particularly children. Now listen here. Two top Republicans saying the new president has a problem.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. CHENEY: Policy has consequences. When you say that you're not going to enforce our immigration laws, when you say that you're not going to build a border wall it has consequences. And we're seeing the tragic consequences of that right now at the border. SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): People who are being lured into a

humanitarian crisis in the middle of a pandemic because they believe this democratic administration just conspicuously turned on a neon vacancy sign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: How does the White House deal with that? They would dispute the tone there; they would dispute the details there. I'm sorry. Let's see. This is the President of the United States. I've paused the conversation you see, he says it's labeled right there for you. W. S. Jenks & Son that is a hardware store in Northeast Washington. Let's listen.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Hey buddy, how are you?

MICHAEL SIEGEL, CO-OWNER, W.S. JENKS & SON: See, we are at DCs oldest hardware is going to continuously operated in this city since 1866. We've moved around a few times. We've been in this building for seven years now.

Like my father was telling you this is actually our second presidential visit. But our first one in this building. So welcome. We're excited to have you here today. And I want -- to Mary Ackley from Little Wild Thing. He has a separate business in our building, what they do is micro greens. And I'll turn it over to Mary who can describe her business a lot better than --.

MARY ANNA ACKLEY, OWNER, LITTLE WILD THINGS FARM: Sure. We moved here a few years ago and we are an urban vertical farm located right next door. We grow salad greens, micro greens and edible flowers. Beautiful salads, we deliver them all over the greater Washington DC area, both to homes and we donate locally here in the neighborhood.

BIDEN: If you've been engaged in a neighbor to your sponsor -

SIEGEL: We do -- we respond for a little league team. We also recently run job fairs for special needs programs to get their students to help them find employment. We've actually hired three people from those from that job program is called project service.

It's a partnership between a nonprofit and the DC government and they do a great job training their students who are special needs and be able to work in environment like this and be great contributors.

BIDEN: Hiring this - great.

SIEGEL: Yes. And Mary participated in our first job fair; we were going to do another one. But obviously the pandemic has halted our ability to do that. But when things go back to normal, we're going to continue to do those jobs there.

BIDEN: Tell me what kind of -- what hits you the hardest on pandemic?

SIEGEL: Right. So the biggest challenge is what we are going to do with our staff. You know, there were so many uncertainties related to what the virus actually did. The first thing that we did was we took all of our at risk employees. We sent them home and we paid them through that entire process.

That first wave of PPP loan was very helpful to allow us to do that. Obviously that was that was not cost effective. But we felt like we had to do that for our employees. You know and we're still -- we're still struggling because we did.

Well, our retail business has actually increased over the course of the pandemic. I think people know there's a little bit of a hardware boom. I think portion of our business is actually government sales and commercial sales.

And for the first four or five months, I mean that was completely gone. And that honestly, usually is about 16 percent of our annual revenue.

BIDEN: And one of the reasons why I changed the rules for 20 days to make sure only employers with 20 or fewer employees could qualify for PV. And the reason for that was 400,000 -- out of business.

SIEGEL: Yes.

BIDEN: We got a line but they couldn't get the help. And we found out that an awful lot of that went to big, bigger business and in fact weren't supposed to qualify. Because they used to be thing called inspector general to see where the money went. And the last administration fired the inspector general.

So a lot of money went to people who shouldn't have gotten help. And it didn't go to folks who would you know, be significant with this new program and we're going to continue this program.

It's not only human only businesses with fewer than wonderful to the -- but now we're going to keep the focus on it because a lot of minority owned businesses, women owned businesses are increased significantly.

[12:30:00]