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More Than Half of U.S. Reported Less Than 500 New Cases on Thursday; CDC Chief: New Mask Guidance a "First Step" About Empowering People; CDC Change to Mask Guidance Hints At Return to Normal; Trump Ally Rep. Stefanik Replaces Ousted Cheney After House GOP Vote; House Strikes Deal to Create Independent Jan 6th Commission. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired May 14, 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 ANCHOR: You have been such an amazing - partner and friend in a wild new cycle that we've covered over these past years. Thank you so much. You will absolutely be messed; you're seeing pictures of him and his wife Jessica, who's also a dear friend.

Good luck to you guys on your next adventure. Thank you so much. We're going to be miss you buddy. Thank you all so much for joining us. John King picks up right now.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Hello everybody and welcome to Inside Politics. I'm John King in Washington. Thank you for sharing a very busy news day with us this morning. Republicans complete a party purge at Elise Stefanik is the new Republican House Conference Chair.

She replaces Liz Cheney who was dumped because Donald Trump doesn't like the challenges his lies. Stefanik reports to Kevin McCarthy but immediately made clear that she sees as boss.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ELISE STEFANIK (R-NY): I believe that voters determine the leader of the Republican Party and President Trump is the leader that they look to. I support President Trump. Voters support President Trump.

He is an important voice in our Republican Party and we look forward to working with him. The Republican voters are unified in their supports and their desire to work with President Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Smokes and sirens and few signs of truth and overnight escalation of violence in the Middle East Israel, firing tank shells into Gaza and amassing troops on the border. Hamas rockets aren't around the clock threat to Israelis, Jewish and Arab mobs now clashing on city streets.

We'll go live to the region a bit later in the hour, but first, a page turning life changing moment in the COVID pandemic. The CDC now says that if you are fully vaccinated, you can ditch the mask or at least put it in your pocket or your purse.

The president celebrated this moment Thursday on the White House at the White House as evidence of what America can do when it comes together. And he framed it as a ticket to normal part of a push to convince vaccine hesitant Americans to get their shot. The President CDC Director this morning echoing that if you don't want to wear a mask, then get your vaccine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: This was the first step in our guidance. And what we really need to do now is look at each of our individual guidance for each of these individual settings. And say in a setting of schools or childcare centers are the workplace is the appropriate thing to do given all other parameters.

What we're really doing is empowering individuals to make decisions about their own health. So if you are vaccinated and you are making the decision to take off your mask, then you've made the decision to get vaccinated and you're safe. If you are unvaccinated, then you have made the decision to take that risk.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: The CDC director says this big decision is possible because of falling case counts and rising vaccination levels across the United States. Let's walk through the latest numbers. The case timeline is quite dramatic.

You see now the current seven day average below 40,000. 35,384 is the current seven day average of COVID cases. See that brings the timeline down here. The average is 183,000 cases a day when Joe Biden took office. January 2, the peak of the horrific winter search it was 300,000.

So from 300,000 at the beginning of January 183,000 January 20 to below 40,000 at 35,000 today that is why the data is headed in the right direction. The CDC says it can start changing the recommendations.

If you look immediately nine states pretty quickly following the CDC saying we will take this federal guideline and we will change our state policies all of these nine states with democratic governors moving to change their in state masking policies after the CDC.

As you see this is a big story in every aspect of our culture really. NASCAR no longer requires masks at racetracks mass no longer required at Myrtle Beach city office building. The casinos in Los Vegas remove mask policy, Texas rangers you go on the ballgame, you don't need a rep mask anymore.

In Miami, you see some of the splits still in place not required at Miami Dade libraries still mandatory on the metro. This is what every community now goes through that they have these new guidelines. Let's look at some of the numbers. One of the reasons this is possible. Nearly 120 million Americans are

now fully vaccinated. One of the numbers we must never forget 584,000 Americans have died in the last 14 months of this COVID nightmare. 34,000 remain hospitalized now this number though also down from the horrific part of the summer.

So what's fascinating here is to watch remember, when the Biden team took office caution was the rule of the day. As the rules change, so have the views and the optimism of the CDC director.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ROCHELLE: I'm going to reflect on the recurring feeling I have of impending doom. We have so much to look forward to so much promise and potential of where we are and so much reason for hope. Right now I'm scared.

The increasing trends and cases, hospitalizations and deaths are very concerning and they threaten the progress we've already made. Although we are seeing progress in terms of decreased cases, hospitalizations and deaths, variants are a wild card that could reverse this progress we have made and could set us back.

I am cautiously optimistic that we are seeing this great, great endpoint in sight. But I think we really do have to be humble and say that this virus this pandemic has given us twists and turns, so we can't keep our eye get our eye off the ball.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:05:00]

KING: On that point can't keep your eye on the ball. Let's bring in Jennifer Nuzzo. She's a Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Jennifer grateful for your time on this important day.

They obviously would not do this at the CDC, if they did not believe the data supported it. When you look at the numbers, you hear over the past couple of months Dr. Walensky worrying about variants, worrying about the pace of vaccinations in some states.

Are you convinced that not that COVID is gone, but the COVID is now shoved down so low with the vaccinations coming up that it is manageable?

JENNIFER NUZZO, SENIOR SCHOLAR, JOHNS HOPKINS BLOOMBERG SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: I think it is. I mean, I you know, looked at those rising case numbers, you know, amount of months ago with a little bit of worry, I wouldn't have described it as impending doom. But we're in a much better place now.

And we're so lucky that we have these incredibly effective vaccines, that is really a game changer and so I think while it's important to remember that the fight is very much over, particularly looking at the rest of the globe. We are certainly in the United States quite fortunate and in a much

better situation than we were even you know, a month or two ago.

KING: As you know, you've lived through this with us over the past 14 months or so. There's a debate among all Americans, sometimes there's even a debate among well intentioned public health professionals. Listen here to Dr. Paul Offit, a guest on this program frequently.

He's a vaccine expert. And he's been a voice of reason throughout this, and he says he's gets it, but he's still a little nervous.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. PAUL OFFIT, MEMBER, FDA VACCINES ADVISORY COMMITTEE: There's still tens of thousands of cases a day, there's still hundreds of deaths a day. And I think if when those numbers come way down, I guess I'll feel a little more comfortable. But you know that there's a variant out there, you know, that no vaccine is 100 percent effective.

And so, so until that we get there, I'm still going to wear a mask in a public place where I don't know whether or not those who aren't wearing a mask are vaccinated or not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: That's the key point, I think, a challenge for everybody, all of us as individuals and for any institution, who do I let in the door? Do they have to require a mask? Is that - it's an honor system largely, isn't it? People say, oh, I'm vaccinated. Do you require them to prove it? Or do you take their word?

NUZZO: Right? Well, I think some people are viewing differently, what CDC guidance actually is. It's not policy; it's not regulations, with the possible exception of interstate travel, that's really the only place that CDC can have more of an effect or arm.

It really is just describing what the scientific underpinnings of policies and regulations should be. And so I don't necessarily anticipate that public settings can nor should necessarily just blanket lift mask guidance. That's not actually what the CDC said.

They said that if you are fully vaccinated, you don't need to wear a mask. But it doesn't mean that all the grocery stores that have no way of being able to establish whose vaccinated or not, will lift mask requirements and ignore the operational challenges.

But the guidance does provide some benefit for say employers who are wondering, they've got all these vaccinated employees that are coming back to the office and do they need to make them wear masks? And the answer is no.

The people that write me all the time asking, you know, I'm fully vaccinated, what can I still do? This is a very helpful signal to them that now that they are protected from vaccines. They can make the choice not to wear a mask. Some people will have a higher concern about you know; they have a

lower risk tolerance and a higher concern about getting vaccinated. And they may choose to continue to our mask that's absolutely within anybody's individual, right to decide.

But some people I know, because I hear from these people are many people have been hesitant to get vaccinated because they simply don't perceive vaccines to be much of a game changer, when in fact, they change everything. They make everything you do safer.

So I think it's really important for us to continue to distinguish that being vaccinated does make everything that you do safer, and to paint that path to freedom more clearly in our language about what vaccines do for us.

KING: Amen. Jennifer Nuzzo, grateful you put it so clearly and concisely there at the end. I think you make the most - the most valid point we can make get your vaccine things get better. That part's simple. There should be no dispute about that.

Jennifer thanks so much with me here in studio to share their reporting and their insights, CNN's Dana Bash and CNN's Jeff Zeleny. I just went through the numbers, President Biden comes into office are averaging 183,000 cases a day, you're down at 35,000 cases now.

They believe they have this turning point. So you're the President of the United States. And you have watched this during the Trump age where yes, you had a different president, a different team, I would say in attention or ignorance to the threat of the pandemic.

But you still have to be worried even as you tell Americans and even as he and the vice president walked in, otherwise in the White House crowds yesterday without masks. You have to be worried at this delicate moment, don't you?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Very worried, especially given how incredibly cautious this president and his team have been not only with how they are communicating all of these guidelines up until now but even how they act.

You know, personally we know we've watched the president be in situations like when he address congress where he was in a place with largely vaccinated people, very careful to wear a mask the vice president sitting behind him very careful to wear a mask.

[12:10:00]

BASH: And this is such a leap in terms of again, not just guidance, but also you know, monitoring and mentoring if you will, how, how people should be acting. And I feel like it's going to be a big change for them. And as it is for everybody in America and it is, look, it's scary.

It's very scary, because as hard as it was for us to all as a society, socialized to being distanced and being home, it's just as difficult maybe even more difficult to come out of that for a lot of people. KING: The previous president was part of a political dynamic in the

country, which was doing tell me to wear a mask. Masks became a dividing line in our politics during the Trump presidency. And he was part of it without a doubt, because he didn't want to wear a mask.

Now you have a President of the United States, listen here saying, don't get mad at those who even though the CDC now says if you're fully vaccinated, especially if you're outdoors, take it off, the president says don't get mad at those who are reluctant to do so.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: You know, some may say, just feel more comfortable, continue to wear a mask, they may feel that way. So if you're someone with a mask, you see them, please treat them with kindness and respect.

We've had too much conflict, too much bitterness, too much anger, too much polarization of this issue about wearing mask, let's put it to rest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: I'm going to guess that's wishful thinking. Let's put it to rest in the short term anyway.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: No question. I mean, this is already so steeped into just our psyches. And the reality is the rest of the country. Large swaths of it as I travel around the country, they are ahead of the president on this, the head of the white house on this.

You know many states red and blue, largely red, have, you know, stopped wearing masks and other things. But we take stock of this moment, it is a huge moment. This is what Joe Biden won the presidency on.

This is what sparked the beginning of his presidency and how this decision goes will determine what the remainder of his presidency is going to be. I mean, this certainly sets the stage for the rest of his economic agenda, which is built entirely on the inequities that really came to the fore because of this global pandemic.

So I think it is not just taking off the mask just so much more than that, but it's a bit of a risky move. But when I've been talking to White House officials, I said why did it come so fast? Because it seemed you know, they've been cautious about everything.

And then suddenly yesterday afternoon and it surprised a lot of people. They did not people I talked to at the White House did not expect when they walked in the building yesterday to be able to walk out not wearing masks.

And they did finally the pressure was clear in those hearings on Capitol Hill. Senator Susan Collins, really aggressively a questioning of the CDC Director, Dr. Walensky that was part of it. And it was also just a sense of you know, they have a lot of incoming on a lot of fronts and this is something that they thought it was time to do it.

So the science is there, but it was a little bit more than the science. It's clear that they're leaning into this for other reasons to try and get their agenda going forward as well.

KING: Right, just some quick poll numbers on that point. Do you approve or disapprove how Joe Biden is handling the Coronavirus? Nearly half of Republicans approved 47 percent six in 10 Independents approved 96 percent of Democrats approved.

So the president is riding high on this particular issue at the moment. We shall see if those numbers if they sustain themselves. We go forward a quick break for us. Up next the newest member of the house GOP leadership says former President Trump is their north star and Kevin McCarthy borrows a birthday song and ducks a question.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): I want to wish our policy chair right here, happy birthday. You all remember the birthday song. There we go. Hey, all right, everybody have a good weekend.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:15:00]

KING: House Republicans picked a new member of their leadership team this morning elevating Trump loyalists Elise Stefanik to replace Trump nemesis Liz Cheney. Unity is why most Republicans say this change was needed.

And Stefanik is the new House GOP Conference Chairwoman because she understands how the man who matters most defines unity.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MCCARTHY: I want to congratulate Elise Stefanik and welcome. Welcome her to the leadership team. We've got a lot of work to do in this leadership team. We got a lot of work to do in this conference.

REP. STEFANIK: I also want to thank President Trump for his support. He is a critical part of our Republican team.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: CNN's Dana Bash, Jeff Zeleny still with me. Number one, it is an important job. I know for most of America, they're like what is the House Conference Chair do it's a very important messaging job. But this is today is Donald Trump gets what he wants when it comes to House Republicans period.

BASH: Period, he got what he wants in terms of the person he wants in there somebody who has been really courting President Trump and his supporters since President Trump was on the scene. And somebody who as you said, understands how to speak Trump ease, how to speak his language.

And this is about one thing and one thing only in the short term 2022. It is about these Republican leaders wanting to not be minority leaders, but be in the majority and one of them perhaps to be speaker of the house.

And they fundamentally believe that the only way this happens given the makeup of house districts across the country is to stick with Trump and embrace him wholeheartedly. And with Elise Stefanik it's so fascinating because she is Exhibit A of Trumpism and what it is done in some of these districts that she is trying to keep on the Republican side.

Before Trump was on the scene it was a democratic district in northern New York. Since Trump has been on the scene and on the ballot, he has won big time in her district in New York. That is why she is where she is personally well, politically and now in the leadership.

[12:20:00]

KING: But the strategy here, if you want to call it that, is we got to get Liz Cheney out of this job because she keeps saying things that make our job complicated. As the - as a member of the leadership team, she keeps telling the truth. That's her crime that Donald Trump keeps lying about the 2020 election.

So they say now we have a new leader. We're done. We're good. We're unified again. However, you see right there on your screen. If you're watching at home, Liz Cheney is going to be on this network later today. We can show you some headlines in New York Times what voters back in Wyoming think about this.

CNN, Trump allies search for viable Cheney phone Wyoming fight. Liz Cheney says she's not running for president. She went on Fox News.

You see the bottom line, she went to Fox News and tongue lashed Fox News on Fox News about its role in spreading and supporting the big lie. So she's not going anywhere. She may not have the title anymore, but she's not going anywhere.

ZELENY: She has a different title. And she has the freedom to say whatever she wants, not that she's been holding back necessarily. But the biggest message from today, I mean, yes, this is the message of position of House Republicans, they craft the message.

But the message is like we are chained to former President Donald Trump, what she didn't say the former; she is, you know, they are so now in lockstep with him. We will see where that goes.

Maybe it will be an advantage in the midterms, maybe it will not be what is his state of being going to be like over the next year? Is he going to, you know, face indictment; there's a criminal case and investigation. So they are now unable to distance themselves from the former president.

But I think the biggest takeaway of this is the biggest point is this is the, you know, he got a scalp the former President Donald Trump got a scalp and Liz Cheney. She's not going anywhere.

And there are Republicans out in the country who agree with her point of view, it's the minority of them, no question about it. But this is an over and for Liz Cheney, she has a huge runway now to say whatever she chooses.

KING: Right, their calculation is that the structural advantages for Republicans when it comes to redistricting, when it comes to house races means we need to stick with Trump, that messing with Trump would mess up our structural advantage when it comes to the midterms.

That's the thing today; we don't know what the climate will look like when we get to the midterms. I would just want to look at this week for the House Republican leadership because it has been a dramatic week.

Number one, knowing what was about to happen to Liz Cheney and I'll come back to this in a second. Adam Kinzinger, one of her allies said at the beginning of the week that he called Kevin McCarthy and said look, the things we keep saying that you keep saying Trump keeps saying and you Mr. McCarthy keep saying about the big lie, there's going to be violence on geriatrics.

He says he was ignored that McCarthy - then you see these other weeks of Cheney officer from the leadership house members playing down the insurrection some of them outright denying it was an insurrection.

McCarthy says no one is questioning the legitimacy of Biden's way in which his horse - a lot of Republicans, including Donald Trump continue almost every day to question it. I just want Elise Stefanik elected today. That's a big move. I want to come back to this.

On this day, as they elected this new leadership there was also a bipartisan agreement struck to have the January 6, independent commission. Now leader McCarthy, his title is Leader McCarthy. He says I haven't read through it, I didn't sign off on it.

One of his members cut this deal. I haven't read through it. I didn't sign off on it, if this commission is going to come forth to tell us how to protect this facility in the future. You want to make sure the scope it goes on and so forth.

I've looked at the documents about the Democrat and the Republican instructed deal it is limited in scope. It looks at January 6, its independent members appointed by the speaker and Mr. McCarthy, they get to ask questions.

One of the witnesses is certain to be Kevin McCarthy, because he is the one who spoke with the president that day. If it models the 911 commission, they can get the cell phone records, they can get the documents. Mr. McCarthy might have a problem.

BASH: Yes, he might. But what that Republican who cut this deal Congressman Catco did which seems to be very, very strategic and just doing it. Clearly he is somebody that we know that he is somebody who supported

Liz Cheney, even though at the end this week, he said he was going to support Elise Stefanik, we kind of know based on his history, what he wants.

And what he wants is the truth. This is a Republican who wants the truth. So the fact that he cut this potentially making it as much as a fait accompli as possible without the leader, making it hard for the leader to stop is very, very interesting.

The fact that it is limited to where frankly it should be, which is what happened on January 6 and cutting out the garbage, which is the possibility that an TIFA or other Black Lives Matter we're involved in that is really, really important.

Because they can limited in scope like Liz Cheney asked for and like a lot of people who just want to get answers to what happened and why.

KING: It proves - I just want to go back to the old. Kinzinger says he warned the leader. What we're doing is reckless. We need to clean up our language not Kinzinger himself, but he says what McCarthy said.

So that will come out right what were they saying the commission will gather that. You had at this hearing the other day, multiple house members downplaying it should be a stronger word denying - saying it was not an insurrection.

[12:25:00]

KING: If you get the 911 commission report is one of the most valuable historical documents you can read because it is so damn well put together and exposed as if this is done right. Number one, you talked about the Republicans think they have an advantage going to 2022. If you have a report that makes clear what happened on January 6, these clowns look even cloudier.

ZELENY: Without question and the reality is this is all backward looking for this Republican conference. And one thing not on the list or being talked about is Joe Biden's agenda.

I mean, that is what always, you know, hurts the president's party during midterms for every midterm cycle going back for the last few decades, with the exception of 2002 after 911, the president's party loses seats in the midterms because of his agenda.

So if this conversation is about president, former President Trump and other things, you know, Democrats feel headwinds, but they also see this, you know, that this is still the Trump party, which they believe is good for them. We'll see.

But if it is a big a serious commission, like 911, I think that is still a big if. There was, I mean, we all remember it, there was huge, I mean, some serious players, you know, former senators, former governors, serious lawyers on this, we'll see how if this is serious.

But you listen to those police officers who came out again on our air and elsewhere this morning, Officer - last night, you know, really, I mean, there'll be witnesses as well.

KING: Yes, there'll be witnesses as well, if it has leeway similar to the 911 Commission, so will a lot of people who work for Donald J. Trump at the White House on that important day, who can testify? Why was the vice president, not the president talking to the Pentagon Chief? Where was the president? What was he doing? Did he show any concern?

BASH: These are important questions that we really haven't gotten real answers to. And you're exactly right, with subpoena power, with the power to talk to people effectively under oath.

We are going to hopefully get answers to this the difference between the 911 commissions and now are that to state the obvious is that the 911 commission was about stove piping in the intelligence communities, which was very political at the time.

But not as political as politicians being involved right now elected officials who are, by definition, political so it's going to have a whole different flavor and it will be a lot more difficult to be as bipartisan, isn't that 911 commission --?

KING: And I share the - let's see what happens as it goes forward. Congressman Catco, cut this deal. The leader says he wasn't part of it. So we'll watch it as it goes forward. But at least they're trying to make progress on a critical issue. When we come back Israel masters ground troops near its border with Gaza and it unleashes artillery.

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