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Inside Politics

Putin Wishes Biden "Good Health" After Biden Calls Him A "Killer"; White House: 16 Million Vaccine Doses Allotted For States Next Week; Harvard Professor: FDA Preventing New Rapid Tests From Being Approved; Representative Judy Chu: Trump's "Ugly Comments" Led To Anti-Asian Attacks; European Regulator: Benefits Of AstraZeneca Vaccine Outweighs Risks. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired March 18, 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]

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I mean that without joking without any irony. But you know, something - some kind of threat to presume. But in fact you're just talking to that idea that he's all over Russian media that Joe Biden is old and that age may have been behind his comments, Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Great to see you, Matthew. Thank you very much. Thank you so much for joining us at this hour. I'm Kate Bolduan. John King picks up right now.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm John King in Washington. Thank you so much for sharing what is a very packed news day with us.

The Russian president wishes his American counterpart good health "Without irony" he insists. The new comments from Vladimir Putin are in response to an interview in which President Biden said he considers Putin a killer. And Biden promises the Russian leader will pay a price for 2020 election interference.

Here at home today new COVID tremors. 770,000 Americans filed for first time unemployment benefits last week. That is a week to week increase and it is more proof of the pandemics continuing wrath. Plus the case count and its trajectory are again causing alarm.

17 states on the U.S. map now trending in the wrong direction. Air travel topping more than a million passengers for seven straight days the president later today delivers remarks on the vaccine race. One in eight Americans is now fully vaccinated against the virus.

100 million shots in the arm since the Biden inauguration is a goal the president will meet perhaps as early as today without a doubt some 40 days ahead of his campaign promise. So progress yes, but some jitters too.

This morning, the Biden health team warns variants and vaccine hesitancy could pull the country down into another COVID spiral. And there was this listen, a tense fight between Dr. Anthony Fauci and Senator Rand Paul over masks. And if wearing wants still matters once more Americans are vaccinated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: When you talk about re infection and you don't keep in the concept of variants, that's an entirely different ballgame. That's a good reason for a mask - dominant.

SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): Policy based on conjecture.

DR. FAUCI: It isn't based on --.

SEN. PAUL: --variants. So you won't be able to wear a mask for another couple years.

DR. FAUCI: No.

SEN. PAUL: You've been vaccinated and you parade around in two masks for show.

DR. FAUCI: No masks or not theater. Masks are protective.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: You see the fight right there. That is the tension right now, the tension right now. If you look at the numbers though, they back up Dr. Fauci and the other health experts saying let's be cautious at least for a while longer. And let's look at the case timeline right now.

58,480 new infections yesterday, way down from the beginning of the year. You see the big spike January 1 way down but look at that red line. That's your seven day average. It is essentially a flat line. It is a plateau maybe even ticking up a little bit in recent days.

But a flat line at a level the public health experts say is simply too high. If you look at the state trend map again 17 states in orange or red, that's the wrong direction. Orange and red means more COVID infections now than compared to the data one week ago.

17 states heading up, two of them with 50 percent more new infections or higher more new infections this week than last, 20 states holding steady 13 in green trending down. This is not an encouraging map.

It's not horrible, but it is not encouraging. The top five states as you look at it, Alabama up 90 percent this week compared to last week. Delaware up 52 percent Michigan is up, Montana is up, New Hampshire is up. These the top five states in terms of their seven day average of new infections heading in the wrong direction.

The death timeline everyone is horror. But the death timeline trend line is coming down a little bit, 11,073 deaths yesterday. You see the blue line, especially from earlier in the year starting to come down still horrifically high above 1000. Let's hope this continues to come down. The question is how quickly do Americans get vaccinated? As of right

now 12 percent little higher than that fully vaccinated across the United States 22 percent little higher if you do the decimals, partially vaccinated, meaning one shot of the two shot vaccine.

So there is progress being made in part because of this. Go back you see the Biden inaugural beginning of this chart, but 900,000 vaccinations on that day. Up now 2.5 million is the seven day average right now. It is possible that today we will hit 100 million vaccines since the Biden inauguration.

If not today, that will come tomorrow. You see the numbers going up right there. Why are they going up in part because the supply chain has improved? Again, January 26 there were 10 million vaccines going out to the states right now 16 million vaccines going out directly to the states and the tribes.

And there's even a little bit more than that in the pipeline when you look at it this way. The administration says it's also sending 6 million vaccines out to pharmacies, community health centers, other federal supply chain if you will. The rest goes to states tribes and territory.

So this week, 22 million doses out there. So more vaccines, but this morning on Capitol Hill, one member of the Biden team did acknowledge even though there's more supply in the system, getting up the delivery system, how can I get an appointment? Where do I go? Is there somebody there who can give me a shot that Dr. David Kessler says still an issue?

[12:05:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. DAVID KESSLER, CHIEF SCIENCE OFFICER, WHITE HOUSE COVID-19 RESPONSE TEAM: I think we've all been frustrated getting appointments, people staying up throughout the night, refreshing their computers. This was a mad dash getting this out. And what you - what you see is just very real. But there's a real commitment at the state level at the federal level to improving those information systems.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Let's get some insights now. With us to share her expertise Dr. Celine Gounder, an Infectious Disease Specialist and Epidemiologist who advised the Biden team during the transition. Dr. Gounder, it is good to see you.

I want to start by going back to the latest exchange between Dr. Rand Paul - Senator Rand Paul, he's an Ophthalmologist. And Dr. Fauci who for four decades plus has been the nation's premier expert on infectious diseases. Is Dr. Fauci wearing a mask for show, is Senator Paul right or is he dreadfully wrong?

DR. CELINE GOUNDER, INFECTIOUS DISEASE SPECIALIST AND EPIDEMIOLOGIST: Dr. Fauci is not wearing a mask for show. I also have been vaccinated as a health care provider seeing patients at the hospital; I continue to wear a mask.

And that is not for show. We continue to do this because we have seen the rise of these variant strains, some of which are more infectious, some of which are more deadly.

And some of which, while the vaccines do remain effective for now as they continue to - as the virus continues to mutate, that may not remain the case. And so it's really important that we continue to protect ourselves and to protect others.

KING: And so let's walk through some of the other big issues. You dealt with them during the transition. The administration is dealing with them now. One of them is what guidance should you give to schools. There have been studies that show the current guidance is keep students six feet apart in schools.

There have been studies showing that three feet work, especially at the public school level, the administrators say that would be a game changer that they don't have the space to bring all the kids back to school if it's six feet.

Contentious exchange this morning between Senator Susan Collins of Maine and the CDC Director, listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME): When we discussed this issue recently, I really detected a lack of a sense of urgency on your part. We have got to get the schools reopen and you've presented node timeline. This is an urgent issue. I understand the mental health challenges.

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: I understand the educational challenge this food insecurity and we are actively looking at our guidance to update it to address that science.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Even Dr. Fauci said recently that he - you know, the studies look good. CDC has to make the final decision. There does seem to be growing commentary if you will, are they moving too slowly.

DR. GOUNDER: So this past year really has been a crash course and learning about the Coronavirus. And what we have learned is that this is an aerosol spread or airborne spread virus, which means it, spreads through the air. And this six foot versus three foot difference is really about droplets spread.

So droplets do drop down within six feet but if what you're really dealing with is something that spreads to through the air, you don't necessarily want to have crowds of people packed together.

But at the same time, what really matters to prevent transmission at that point is masks and ventilation. And it could be as simple as opening a window. But in other places that might mean air filtration. But that six versus three foot difference really is less important in this context. KING: Another giant question we've discussed it before is more access

to testing, rapid testing, less expensive testing. It's key to getting people back to the office. It's key obviously would help as well with schools is with students and administrators and teachers and everybody in the building.

Dr. Michael Mina at Harvard says yes, it's great that there's a lot more money for this in the American rescue plan, the Biden COVID relief plan, but he doesn't see enough progress in developing the actual testing platforms.

He says you know this isn't going to move the needle. The states don't just need money, the states don't just need advice in the CDC, the states need the test to be available. Is there a lag? Or where is the holdup in getting quicker, reliable, rapid tests on the market?

DR. GOUNDER: Well, another major holdup has frankly been how the FDA approves these tests. And Dr. Mina and others have been very much at the forefront of asking the FDA to create different pathways for approval for a screening test.

So that's just the person who's out in the community who feels well versus what we call a diagnostic test. So that's if somebody feels sick who might be in the hospital. And those are very different contexts in which to be using a test.

And the good news is that this week, the FDA did announce that they are going to be changing the way that they look at these tests. And so I do think that will help open up some of these bottlenecks.

KING: That sounds hopeful on that front. Dr. Gounder as always grateful for your expertise and your insights appreciate it very much. Up next for us the FBI releasing dramatic new video footage from January's capitol insurrection, showing the violence police officers face that day.

[12:10:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: The FBI this morning releasing brand new video from the capitol insurrection that in an attempt to help identify and arrest more suspects. Our Senior Justice Correspondent Evan Perez poring through this new footage, Evan what is we learning?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well John, this is from tens of thousands of hours of video that the FBI has been frankly struggling to get through and to try to figure out and identify some of these people who assaulted police officers who were part of this insurrection.

And so these 10 video clips that the FBI released today show just horrific some of those assaults where they've already arrested 65 and these are 10 additional people.

Essentially they're most wanted that they're still looking for what these videos show is these rioters using everything they had including butanes that they had taken away from officers, shields riot shields that they had managed to wrest away from the hands of these police officers.

[12:15:00]

PEREZ: You see in some of this video, a one riot are grabbing an officer by the helmet and smashing his head repeatedly against the door jamb. You see people using a chemical spray to try to get police away from the line that they were using to protect the people who are inside the capitol, the lawmakers.

And you see fire extinguishers being sprayed on a line of police officers again to try to get them away from the protective line that they had formed to try to protect the people inside the building.

This is a sustained assault that went on for hours and hours began around 1pm. Some of the most horrific assaults you see on some of the video John is from around three and 4pm. So hours of fighting hand to hand with these insurrectionists is what these officers went through.

And so one of the things that we've seen John is sort of a rewriting of what happened on that day. Some of the lawmakers whose lives that these officers were trying to protect have started saying essentially that this wasn't so bad these were people who were you know, love police officers. That's not what this video shows. And I think it's important for people to see that.

KING: Amen to that. It's very important for people to see it and we hope the release of the video helps the FBI. They're still in the search that's going to take weeks and weeks and more Evan Perez grateful for the hustle pouring through those videos for us. We'll stay on top of that story.

And you're absolutely right. It shows the truth, despite what some people are trying to now rewrite. More on that a bit later in the program Evan thank you. And now to Georgia, Atlanta police are calling a series of deadly shootings at local spots there "Despicable acts of violence" but they are stopping short of labeling these murders hate crimes.

Investigators say they're still looking into exactly what motivated a 20 year old gunman who opened fire three businesses killing eight people, six of them Asian women. The gunman has claimed to have a sex addition, he told police the spas were a temptation he wanted to eliminate. But the murders of course come amid a horrific wave of crimes against at harassment of Asian Americans.

And now new information showing that one of the police captains you saw on this program yesterday discussing the arrest at a news conference himself help spread anti-Asian sentiment. CNN's Natasha Chen live for us in Georgia. Natasha?

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well John, we are learning that Captain J. Baker, the spokesperson, the public information officer for the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office allegedly posted back in April of last year on Facebook photos of a customized graphic T- shirt that said COVID-19 imported from China with the word China spelled CHY-NA.

And of course this came at a time when there was a quite a bit of rhetoric from people including the former president blaming China for the virus for the pandemic. And what we saw as a result of that kind of language was really a lot of anti-Asian sentiment, anti-Chinese people, anti-Asian in general.

And so that post really raised some questions. When CNN reached out to Captain Baker, he said no additional comments. And this comes on the heels of some statements he made during a press conference yesterday giving information about this investigation.

Someone asked him at the podium whether in the interview, it seems that the suspect was remorseful or understood the gravity of his actions. And Captain Baker did respond by saying that the suspect seems to be very fed up at the end of his rope.

And was having a really bad day which has garnered some criticism from the public about characterizing the suspect as you know somebody who should be humanized or you know, oversimplifying the motivations behind what he did.

And so there are questions right now. And we will continue to try and reach out to the Sheriff's Office for comment, John.

KING: Natasha Chen grateful for your reporting as we continue to track the horrific case. And now these questions for Captain Baker, very legitimate questions. We'll see if we get the answers. Natasha, thank you.

Those Georgia shootings are getting very high level attention here in Washington today President Biden just moments ago issuing an order for flags to be flown at half staff to honor the eight victims.

Tomorrow the president and vice president will travel to Atlanta for conversations with Asian American community leaders. On Capitol Hill today the wave of hate and attacks directed at Asian Americans is the focus of a House committee hearing.

The Chairwoman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus says Former President Trump's rhetoric about the Coronavirus contributed to the spike.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JUDY CHU (D-CA): Even though Donald Trump was no longer president, I believe the most recent round of anti-Asian attacks are the aftermath of one year of hateful attacks and four years of ugly comments about immigrants and people of color.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Seung Min Kim, the White House Correspondent for The Washington Post joins us now from Capitol Hill. Seung Min, obviously a very high priority for this hearing just to raise this issue to have a national conversation about what is horrific.

[12:20:00]

KING: And is what is not just in Atlanta, it has been going on for months and months and months and months. Are there concrete plans for legislative attempts to do something about it in congress or is the main priority just to make sure people are paying attention?

SEUNG MIN KIM, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: Well, right now that main priority is certainly awareness. Now let's underscore kind of how remarkable this hearing was obviously scheduled before the horrific shootings of Atlanta. But this is the first congressional hearing of its kind since 1987.

So for those in the Asian American community in Asian American lawmakers say this is the first step into really combating discrimination to - to raising awareness to showing and documenting to the world that this is a serious problem, that this is a problem that has arisen for the last year since the pandemic.

But that anti-Asian racism, harassment discrimination has been going on for generations in America. Now the focus is really coming on to this point. In terms of legislation, the House has passed in the last several months, resolutions showing resolutions that condemn anti- Asian discrimination.

But which has also become kind of a - lightning or lightning point or a contentious issue. Over the last several days, a representative Grace Mang the lead sponsor of it has been specifically calling out House Republican lawmakers who voted against that resolution.

So this is a certainly an issue that is you know, coming to the fore in front of this congress. And we'll be watching really closely what President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris say tomorrow on their trip to Georgia.

We've seen so much over the last year particularly at this issue, that words do matter from the President of the United States on down whether it's the rhetoric that was coming from former President Trump and what President Biden has been saying particularly on this issue for the last couple of weeks.

KING: Let's follow up on that point. And let's first show the statistics which are horrific, and you're right, they deserve more attention. More than 303,795 incidents reported of hate against Asian American pacific islanders. Women report hate incidents 2.3 times more than men, businesses are the primary site of discrimination.

California, New York, Washington and Texas the highest states when it comes to incident reports the anti American hate crimes up 149 percent. You mentioned words matter. I want you to listen here to the current president and vice president.

These are comments they've made in the last 24 hours and obviously they will be in Atlanta tomorrow. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I've been speaking about the brutality against Asian Americans in the last couple of months and I think it is very, very troubled.

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We're not yet clear about the motive. But I do want to say to our Asian American community that we stand with you and understand how this has frightened and shocked and outraged all people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Words do matter. You yourself have been subject to this hate in social media and other formats. We have had conversations previously on the program. When the former President of the United States says China virus or says hateful things like Kung Flu, how much does it matter when you hear a president and a vice president A, speaking out immediately? And B, then saying we're going to change our schedule and go to the scene of the crime literally to talk to people about this.

KIM: Well it certainly matters greatly because again, the examples are really set from the top. President or any president of the United States really has a role amongst so many other things and setting kind of the moral tone and the moral standard for this country.

And certainly you have a lot of lawmakers saying and pointing to the rise and the rise in reported crime saying President Trump with his rhetoric about the Coronavirus pandemic has had inspired a lot of this and a lot of this harassment and discrimination over the last year.

So that's why words really do matter. And that's why kind of this show of support immediately from you know, the president, the vice president and lawmakers on down are critical to the Asian American community right now.

KING: Seung Min Kim from The Washington Post, grateful for your reporting and insights. Thank you. Up next for us Vladimir Putin's message to Joe Biden after the American president says the Russian leader is a killer.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:25:00]

KING: This important COVID news just into CNN and go ahead just moments ago from a critical European vaccine regulator that go ahead for AstraZeneca's COVID vaccine. But it does come with a caution.

The European Medicine Agency says AstraZeneca's COVID vaccine is safe and effective 60 percent effective in clinical trials. And the agency says even better than that in its limited real world use so far.

But the agency also says it cannot flatly rule out a link between the vaccine and some blood clot cases that have come up in Europe among several people who did get that vaccine. Several nations paused administering the vaccine because of those cases. Again the emergency - the European Medical Agency saying giving it's

go ahead to resume that vaccine use today this simple wish from the Russian leader Vladimir Putin to President Joe Biden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRES. VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIA: What would I answer him, I would tell him be healthy. I wish him good health. I say this without irony.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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