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Inside Politics

Biden Backs Off Demand That Two Infrastructure Bills Be Tied Together; Five Dead, 156 Still Missing In Florida Condo Collapse; Trump Spouts Old Election Lies In Return To Rally Stage; Justice Department Sues Georgia Over Its New Voting Law; Murder Rates Surge In Cities Across Country; America's Vaccination Divide. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired June 27, 2021 - 08:00   ET

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

(MUSIC)

[08:00:30]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN HOST (voice-over): Bipartisan breakthrough?

JOSEPH R. BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Neither side got everybody everything they want in this deal. The heart of democracy requires consensus.

SEN. MITT ROMNEY (R-UT): America works, the Senate works and we can work together.

PHILLIP: But the infrastructure deal may already be in danger of falling apart.

Plus, violent crime on the rise across the country. Republicans see a midterm message.

SEN. TOM COTTON (R-AR): Democrats have more sympathy for criminals than for innocent victims.

PHILLIP: And the latest on the condo collapse in Florida. Rescue efforts continue, but dozens are feared dead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got to have -- we're doing everything that we can to bring your family member out alive.

PHILLIP: INSIDE POLITICS, the biggest stories sourced by the best reporters, now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIP (on camera): Welcome to INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY. I'm Abby Philip.

It has been a head spinning 72 hours here in Washington. On Thursday, a rare moment of bipartisanship. President Biden struck a $1 trillion infrastructure deal with a group of senators from both parties, but then confusion when President Biden seemed to threaten a veto on that deal that he had just made unless Congress also passed a bigger Democrats-only bill with more of his priorities.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: I'm not just signing the bipartisan bill and forgetting about the rest that I proposed. If only one comes to me, I'm not -- this is the only one that comes to me, I'm not signing it. It's in tandem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Then came the anger from Republican negotiators who said that was never the deal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): That has turned everything upside down. We thought we had a commitment from the president to take this up, to encourage Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi to take it up. But now he's making it conditional. So frankly, Peter, I have to see how that plays out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And then perhaps the most extraordinary thing yet, contrition from President Biden, a 600-word statement backing off of his statement earlier in the week.

He said: My comments created the impression that I was issuing a veto threat on the very plan I had just agreed to, which was certainly not my intent. I fully stand behind it without reservation or hesitation.

But he said that he still expects Congress to pass a bigger bill, too, even without any Republican support.

Joining me now with their reporting and their insights, CNN's Phil Mattingly, Brittany Shepherd of Yahoo News, "The Washington Post's" Seung Min Kim, and Molly Ball of "Time Magazine".

Wow, Phil. I mean --

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIP: When I saw that 600-word statement in my inbox this morning, I was like, wait, what's going on? Six hundreds words from President Biden is rare or any president is rare. But the walk back seemed to signal that the White House was truly worried that something -- that maybe this whole thing would blow up in their faces.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I think there is valid reason to be concerned. Look, this was kind of a 72-hour period where watching the White House operate on this was fascinating, because at first, they didn't think it was a huge deal. They knew the president went off script saying he wouldn't sign the bill if the second measure didn't come.

They thought maybe some of the Republican outrage was a little bit fake, was a little unnecessary, driven perhaps by senators who weren't involved in the agreement whatsoever, and then they had their top officials reach out, the president reached out to the top Democratic negotiator, Kyrsten Sinema, and they realized this was real. Even when they reached out behind the scenes, and try to assuage some of the concerns, it was made very clear, the president needs to say something here and the president needs to say something publicly.

And for a president to come out three days after the fact when his aides were trying the better part of 48 hours to claim it wasn't that big of a deal, the outrage was manufactured, and put out a statement explicitly walking back in very clear detail what he had said and acknowledging that Republicans were right in their frustrations is a very, very big deal in the middle of everything that was going on.

PHILLIP: And he was making that clear privately as well in phone calls to Republicans. So, this whole deal kind of hinges on these 11 Republican negotiators who were supposedly in support of this deal, but shortly after President Biden's statement put out a series of their own statements, kind of indicating that they weren't necessarily sure where this was going next.

Senator Moran says he's wavering in support of it, an aide to the office, according to "Bloomberg". Mike Rounds said the outcome has not yet been decided, we're entering this in good faith. And Lindsey Graham being Lindsey Graham says, no deal by extortion. Where do we stand now?

I should note Senator Portman put out a statement after Biden's statement. He's still behind it. He still thinks Republicans should support it, but where do we stand on the rest of them.

SEUNG MIN KIM, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: That's a really good question, something we're going to try to get a sense of the next couple of weeks. The 11 Republicans, so the five who made the agreement and the six who signed onto the framework as it stands actually held their own phone call talking amongst themselves Friday morning where they were really irritated and frustrated with how far the president had gone in his veto threat.

I actually find it interesting how in a statement, I didn't mean to create the impression. He literally said, I would not sign something that is a veto threat.

Back to the Republicans, they did say, look, this is not good, and I'm sure they are happy with how the president clarified his comments. But some people on the call said, let's focus our attention on Manchin and Sinema. Those two moderate Senate Democrats who've been really invested in this deal, really invested in this concept of bipartisanship and try to convince them that this partisanship deal matters.

And I think that's been kind of the story of this year. Those two senators really matter here. And that's why I think it was really significant that Biden, President Biden reached out to Kyrsten Sinema personally and the White House put out a detailed statement about the call. So, the clean-up duty is happening, the clean-up duty will continue in

Wisconsin on Tuesday when President Biden travels there. But it will be interesting to see how it shakes out.

PHILLIP: So, what about the progressives? They were actually thrilled about the veto threat. This is a game of whack-a-mole for the White House. They have to keep the progressives happy while trying to hold onto this bipartisan deal which realistically might be the one that's leaving the train station.

MOLLY BALL, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: That's right, and I think what you saw in the statement and elaborateness of the statement, it was really an acknowledgment of how fragile all of this and how conscious that the president is, particularly as someone who knows the Senate as well as he does, how conscious he is of how different sensitivities are still in play and how little has still been decided.

I mean, as Seung Min was saying, we are not totally clear what has been agreed to and by whom. In addition to those 11 senators we're talking about, there are 89 other votes in the Senate and the votes aren't there for the bill until the votes are there for the bill. At this point, there isn't even a bill.

So there are miles to go. The case for optimism is this thing has already been declared multiple times, and there were a lot of doubters it would get to this point at all.

PHILLIP: Yeah.

BALL: On the other hand, we just had this cycle where things very much did look like they were falling apart, so we don't know.

BRITTANY SHEPHERD, YAHOO NEWS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: What's interesting to me is the progressives are already pissed because of the things Biden promised to them, child care, more elaborate climate change money is gone in this bipartisan skinny infrastructure deal. And finally, they think, hey, where is this fight been, not just on infrastructure, but voting rights and so many other progressive agenda they feel they had to sacrifice at the altar of bipartisanship?

They think, screw that, the Republicans voted on the January 6 position, they aren't on our side with anything. We can't go it alone with the president.

I think, right now, they're thinking if we can't trust the president to get our agenda done, we can't get it done alone, we have to go through the states. There is already some kowtowing in states where there is nothing to do. The anger is very, very sharp.

PHILLIP: I mean, on the infrastructure front, I mean, progressives are frustrated, but they are also proposing their own, you know, their reconciliation bill that would require only Democrats, but when you look at the details of this, first of all, it comes up with a $6 trillion price tag.

Secondly, it has -- I mean, I would describe this as the kitchen sink of Democratic priorities, expanding Medicaid, subsidizing child care, universal pre-K, higher taxes on the wealthy. It's all of the things. That is what they want, but how realistic is that?

MATTINGLY: Well, it's realistic to the extent you can get 50 Democratic votes. What we're looking at on the screen what Senator Sanders and their team put together in the draft budget proposal is not realistic to get 50 votes.

And I think important -- the context is important, right? Senator Sanders knows that. The White House knows that. They know they need 50. And they want to start big to make clear this is what we're going for with the expectation that they're going to have to pare back.

This goes into the high wire act going on. That's why he wanted to keep the bipartisan deal intact, because you can't get what you're doing in the second bill if he don't have Senators Manchin and Sinema. You need Senators Manchin and Sinema who need the bipartisan deal.

So, there is all this back and forth going on. You talk about whack-a- mole. But essentially, it's a hire wire act for every single piece of this needs to stay in line and that's what they're in the midst of.

PHILLIP: Right, to that point, look, this is going to be a long hot summer of negotiation and, you know, to understand what we're talking about here, Biden and the Democrats are basically setting up a two- track system.

[08:10:09]

In July, they have to try to start the process for this reconciliation bill, you know, turning the bipartisan bill also into legislative text.

They've got to pass a budget resolution for reconciliation. They've got to pass the bipartisan bill in the Senate, pass the budget resolution in the Senate. And in August and September, then you have to try to get both of those bills through at the same time.

I mean, the Biden administration says they want to do both things at the same time. It's going to take months, at least three months it sounds like, and they have to happen almost simultaneously. How hard is that?

KIM: It is really, really hard. Just because of the procedures you have to go through in each chamber, particularly the Senate, because you're talking -- remember, we as nerds love the word vote-a-rama. That is a late night series of late night votes. It's a grueling taxing time for senators and their aides.

This is a very arduous and complicated process you have to go through to get this done and that's just on procedure. We're not even talking -- that's not involving --

PHILLIP: Not even the politics, policy or politics, yeah.

KIM: -- policy or politics of all this. So it's a really complicated process that Congress and the White House is going to be -- have to be going through for the next several months.

PHILLIP: Yeah. Well, stay with us.

Coming up next, it's been more than three days since the horrific condo collapse in Florida, and rescue teams say they are not giving up on finding survivors. We'll have the latest coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:15:52]

PHILLIP: Another body has been found in the rubble of that Miami condo that collapsed this week, bringing the confirmed death toll up to five. Rain and fire and smoke have hindered what authorities say are an aggressive search and rescue effort, but there are still 156 people unaccounted for as of this morning. Their families are pleading with authorities to find them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm a mother. I don't know the best way to go about this, but it's impossible that in four days nobody has emerged dead or alive. Please don't tell me about the two people I know about. It's not enough.

Imagine if your children were in there. You're going to leave here and you're going to take a nice picture, and I know you're doing everything you can, but it's not enough. You gave us a promise and you're not fulfilling it and you can fulfill it. Red tape (ph) is important that my daughter is dying.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: An incredible amount of pain in Surfside this morning. But we are also wondering what caused this horrific event. Investigators say it may take months to find answers to that question, but CNN did learn that this weekend that structural engineering firms found significant cracks in the concrete and structural damage to the building all the way back in 2018.

You can see there what remains of that building that collapsed, pancaked so suddenly.

Rosa Flores is joining us from surfside, Florida, this morning.

Rosa, what is the latest on the search and rescue operation? These families are waiting, and it seems like their patience is running thin.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, according to fire officials, one of the things that had been complicating the search was a smoldering fire that was so deep in the rubble that they couldn't get to that.

According to fire officials, that fire has been contained. That's the good news. That is definitely happened because it allows men and women that are risking their lives to try to find signs of life in this rubble to move a little more easily through that rubble.

According to the fire chief, they're using a grid-like pattern to search this pile. They're focusing on the debris field, the pile that we've been seeing from the air and from the ground. In a process called de-layering, it is a task that requires them to peel these layers of concrete and debris to try to find signs of life.

I can tell you, Abby, that at this hour, the death toll is at five. The number unaccounted for is at 156. But that number of deaths could go up. The mayor of Miami-Dade stating yesterday that remains were found, and those remains have not been identified, but she did say that there are DNA tests that are happening on scene, so we'll wait and see what else we learn today, Abby.

PHILLIP: Awful, awful news for those families. But as we wait for word on what those searches are turning up, what is the latest about what caused the collapse of this building? It seems like such an unfathomable thing to have happened seemingly out of the blue.

FLORES: You know, we're seeing signs of how investigators are working alongside rescuers. So even though we've been focusing on the rescue efforts, because that is the focus now to save lives, we learned from the Miami-Dade Police Department that homicide detectives and members of the medical examiners office embedded with these rescue teams, this is part of the collection of evidence to figure out what exactly happened.

According to the police department, homicide detectives, whenever a body is found, whenever remains are found, photographs are taken of the scene.

[08:20:00]

DNA samples are taken. And then the body and the remains are transported to the medical examiner's office. But it's important to note that the DNA samples that are taken, Abby, they're so important because we know that the families have provided DNA samples, and so what's happening right now is the comparison of that DNA.

And so, as time goes by, we will find out who those remains belong to. According to the mayor of Miami-Dade, they have a 24-hour DNA test that they're working on. We learned about the remains yesterday. We're hoping to learn more today.

PHILLIP: Before I let you go, Rosa, take us to where you are. What is the scene like around you? How is the community handling this tragedy?

FLORES: You know, Abby, the pain is palpable here. Just a few feet away from me there is a wall with the faces of the missing. At any point in time, when you go to this wall, there are members of loved ones that add pictures to the wall. They, of course, a lot of the times very emotional.

And so, you not only feel the pain, but you also see the dedication of the search and rescue effort. You see this in tandem, this goal and hope to find signs of life under the rubble. But the pain can be felt here on the scene. You can feel it.

And I'm not even at the reunification center. I'm closer to the site, the collapsed site, but you can still feel it. It's all around us.

And so what this community is asking for is prayers, prayers for this community and, Abby, it just makes me think of everybody who is watching right now who does have their family members around them. It's a great time to tell them I love you. Hold them a little closer, and pray for the families here in Surfside.

PHILLIP: Life is incredibly precious. Thank you, Rosa Flores, for all your hard work down there.

We'll be following that story here on CNN all day.

But coming up next for us INSIDE POLITICS, scenes from the first big rally president Trump has held since he left office. The objective? Revenge.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:26:55]

PHILLIP: Five months after leaving office, President Trump was back on the campaign trail last night and he was in Ohio to campaign against a Republican congressman who voted to impeach him after the January 6 insurrection.

But, of course, Trump showed no remorse, instead pushing the same election lies that led to violence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The 2020 presidential election was rigged. We won the election in a landslide.

Ballots were wheeled into back doors in swing states days after the election.

All of the dead people they're finding, these are dead people.

They used COVID in order to rig the election and in order to steal the election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: I should say that it goes without saying that none of that is true, but I guess we do have to say that these days because there were quite a few people in that crowd who were convinced that Trump is actually already the president, still the president.

But beyond the diehard supporters, Molly, I mean, is this a message that is resonating beyond, you know, just Trump being fixated on the past?

BALL: Well, I think we don't know. He still obviously has the ability to draw a very good crowd, right, a respectable turnout for this rally and cheers for the old hits. It has the sort of stream of consciousness, quality of his old Twitter feed, right?

And you can tell there are a lot of things he wants to express, wants to get off his chest, wants to express to a crowd. It's just funny with him not being president any more, all of this hits a little bit differently, right? It doesn't hit these people any differently, though. And you know, not only are there people in the crowd who still believe it. Apparently, Marjorie Taylor Greene still believes this whole election was stolen stuff.

PHILLIP: It feels very back to the future.

BALL: It is. But it's happening and he -- you know, the question is going to be what is he doing with this? This is supposed to be about taking out Congressman Gonzalez in Ohio, and it wasn't particularly tightly focused as Trump's rallies often are not.

PHILLIP: Which is interesting in and of itself. The whole point of that was for him to get revenge. First of all, is that a real strategy for winning a majority in 2022? But did he even execute on that?

SHEPHERD: Well, I don't really think former President Trump is concerned about strategy as opposed to score settling here. This is a man obsessed with loyalty in almost a pathological way. We see it play out on stage again and again and again.

So much so that he can't even knock an attack against Gonzalez because he gets sidetracked, just like Molly was saying.

[08:29:43]

SHEPHERD: I think -- I'm really, really curious how this is going to play out in this critical midterm elections. I think just a couple of months ago, (INAUDIBLE) about 60 percent of Republicans believe that the election was stolen from Trump in some way. That's not a non- insignificant number.

This is not just a Marjorie Taylor Greene problem. She walks out. She got a standing ovation.

These are voters who really care. And energize voters show up at the ballot box by -- I think that at least for something that Team Trump knows that apathy -- trying to tamp down apathy is the way to go.

PHILLIP: Yes. I mean look, this was as we pointed out a lot of the greatest hits. But there was something last night that I think was a little bit beyond the pale.

This week we saw Republicans in Congress on cable television doing something that I think we would consider to be really unusual, which is attacking the military itself. And here is President Trump last night doubling down on what seems to be a growing strategy in the conservative movement right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You see these generals lately on television? They are woke. They are woke.

Our military will be incapable of fighting and incapable of taking orders. The military brass have become weak and ineffective leaders and our enemies are watching and they're laughing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: But Phil, he's reading that from a teleprompter. So is this the message?

MATTINGLY: It is one of the messages. I don't think there's any question about it. Look, cultural issues -- made very clear by kind of a pretty prominent section of the Republican Party. Or something that they want to campaign on, that they want to focus on.

And I think that this idea of woke culture has clearly been an animating feature for this subset of the Republican Party for a better part of the last several years now but certainly over the course of the last several months.

I think the fascinating thing for me is if a Democrat had gone after a military general, they would be kind of targeted and tethered (ph) because how dare they possibly attack the military.

And I also think that the former president of the United States talking about how probably the most lethal and powerful military in world history is now weak and incapable of fighting. It is mind boggling to me.

It goes in line with the idea that like the Capitol police don't matter but we back the blue -- that stuff.

And nobody ever gets -- they never get called out or they never actually care about the contradiction that is just so viscerally apparent and everything that there's --

PHILLIP: It is a real shift for a political party that has made its bread and butter being, you know, pro-military, pro-police.

I do want to get at something that happened on Friday. The Biden Department of Justice is now pushing back on these voting laws that are a result of the big lie.

It seems like we are on the verge now for the first time, a two-front wars. Republicans are pushing voter bills. The DOJ is pushing back. Where do you see this all going?

SHEPHERD: Well, it's clear that the DOJ has an upward -- an upward fight to climb. What we are seeing in Georgia particularly is targeting black people in the suburbs around churches. I believe the drop box number, if the Georgia law passes, goes from 200 to 20, something egregious.

And it is clear that the White House is saying, ok well, if we can't fight this in Congress though Democrats are saying well, we could fight this if you actually show up for once. We have to fight this through the courts.

It's going to be very, very messy and very, very difficult. So much so that I think a lot of progressives and a lot of boots on the ground -- organizers feel really, really, really lost. And I think Democrats are going to have a hard time notching a win which could mean you see a loss in a lot of seats critical to them.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIP: We do need to talk though, just before you jump in about Congress' role here. I want to play what Merrick Garland said which seem to be directed squarely at Democratic leadership on the Hill.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MERRICK GARLAND, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: In March of 2021, Georgia's legislature passed SB202. Many of that law's provisions make it harder for people to vote. The complaint alleges that the states enacted those restrictions with the purpose of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race or color.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: He also made it clear that he wanted Congress to deal with the part of the Voting Rights Act that was gutted eight years ago this past week that Congress could fix if they prioritize that and they haven't so far.

SEUNG MIN KIM, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, "WASHINGTON POST": Right and that is the piece of voting rights legislation that has seen some Republican support for at least taking up. Lisa Murkowski, Republican from Alaska has said she would work with Democrats on what had been called the John Lewis Voting Rights Act which is restoring the (INAUDIBLE) provisions that were struck down by the Supreme Court eight years ago.

But again, no appetite from the rest of Republican leadership or other Republicans to take even that piece of legislation. So in terms of legislative action on voting rights, one of the reasons why you are seeing the Justice Department and the focus shift to that is that is one of the few remaining levers that the Biden administration has because of the failure of voting legislation in Congress.

And again, you know, Brittany described it well but the climb for this lawsuit is very high in terms of just timing alone. I mean I believe this Justice Department lawsuit is already -- there already are about half a dozen other lawsuits pending in the Georgia courts over this -- over this -- over the Georgia law.

[08:35:01]

KIM: So you've got -- you know, a lot of other lawsuits pending before a Trump-appointed judge. So this is -- this is something that we're not going to see the results for, for a while. PHILLIP: Yes. And you know, just to double down on this, Merrick

Garland was very clear this Georgia law would not exist if the Voting Rights Act were fully enforced. It is not right now.

That is sitting in the hands of Congress. The House has dealt with it. The Senate has not. And -- I mean we've got other laws all across the country being passed just like that. None of that is going to be resolved until there is some kind of legislative action on some front.

But we'll have much more for you coming up for us. A surge in violent crimes had the White House searching for more solutions.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:39:55]

PHILLIP: Law enforcement officials across the country are warning that a violent summer lies ahead. Most America cities, both large and small, have seen their murder rate rise this year.

Crime is a kitchen table issue for most American families and Republicans are moving swiftly to make it a political liability for Democrats. Just this week President Biden scrambled to mount a response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: These merchants of deaths are breaking the law for profit who are selling guns and are killing innocent people. It's wrong, it's unacceptable. This is not a time to turn our backs on law enforcement or our communities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: So President Biden is clearly responding to this because they think that it is a problem at the White House. But he also is dealing with a political party that is focused on reform.

Some members of that party want -- they do want to defund the police although that is clearly not Biden's position. So where does that leave him? How do they, you know, tread this line?

SHEPHERD: Clearly dancing on the back foot. The worry in the House when you talk to aides is very real about the surge in crime because they're -- they're trying to catch up with at least half a year of Republican messaging in suburbs that Joe Biden is the party of Antifa, regardless if that's true or not. And it is not true.

So they're thinking which ways can we tackle crime. Apparently it's not legislatively. We know these two gun laws sit in the House and Senate's limbo. We've talked about how it's pretty much dead on arrival unless something happens to the filibuster or a lot of Republicans change their minds.

So they try to go through executive actions on guns thinking that at least some message will resonate. We talked to them about if Harris is going up to the Hill and their messaging and engagement on police reform. Republicans, particularly focusing on Tim Scott's role (ph), say actually it's very difficult to strike a deal when there are folks worried about crime.

The White House is saying those two things publicly are not in conference (ph) with each other. The aides privately are very worried how to thread that needle because Democrats will not sign onto a bill that does not have some kind of qualified immunity and that's still being hashed out. We do not see the -- we're only seeing a framework -- we are not seeing actual text of this bill on (INAUDIBLE).

PHILLIP: Democrats are also, some of them not even convinced that this is a real surge, you know. Part of it is because I think they believe that in some ways it is being used as a political tool.

Here is AOC just this past week explaining her skepticism of that whole idea.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): We hear on the news and media, they perpetuate this idea of crime wave, crime wave, crime wave, right. And so this idea that a lot of us are panicked, thinking that we are at some unprecedented level that we have never seen before when the levels were like this in 2013. The headlines were that this was a record low.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: So I mean yes, it is not, we are not at record level of crimes for sure. But if you are Joe Biden and the Biden White House, you recognize that when people feel like things are different now than they were before, you might get blamed for it.

Biden has experience with this with the '94 crime bill. I mean how does that playing into how he addresses this current situation?

MOLLY BALL, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "TIME MAGAZINE": Well, there is a fight going on behind the scenes among Democrats. And you do have one faction that says this is a kitchen table issue. We need to get out in front of it. We cannot let the Republicans polarize these issue into either you're for reform or you're for the police because most Democrats believe they lose that messaging more.

On the other hand, you do have a faction which AOC is expressing quite succinctly that is saying this isn't a real problem. This is something being ginned up by the media. We're, you know, allowing Republicans to make us play on their turf if we sort of fall for it.

And so -- but you see with the White House, you see with the New York mayor's race that politicians who are the most successful are the ones who are validating voters' fears on this issue and are trying to say that they're doing something to address it.

But you don't have Joe Biden doing back to the 1994 play book of being tough on crimes and talking primarily about criminals and victims of crime.

Instead you have Democrats talking about gun control and wanting to spend money. Both of those two very safe things for Democrats to be for. The question is are they going to be forced into this conflict where they have to resolve that tension?

PHILLIP: Are Republicans really, you know, reliable negotiating partners on a policing bill when they clearly want to use policing and crime as a political cudgel against Democrats.

KIM: It depends on which Republican. I mean I think everyone regards -- you know, Democrats and Republicans regard Senator Tim Scott as a reliable negotiator in these policing talks.

But Republicans who are not in these negotiations have told me privately that look, it's going to be a problem for a guy to sign on to policing legislation that could be seen as, you know, relaxing sort of law enforcement regulations or taking tools away and power away from the police especially when this is going on.

[08:44:58]

KIM: So if and when there is an actual deal on paper, and again that's a big if. You know, we went into this Senate recess without any sort of real resolution on those tricky fronts (ph) that Brittany mentioned earlier.

That's going to be a question that a lot of Republicans ask among their members. Can we support this when this is going on?

PHILLIP: There is potentially -- I think some Democrats are saying a third way.

Here is Eric Adams, who could very well be, we don't know just yet, the next mayor of New York, explaining why his way is the future for the Democratic Party.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC ADAMS, NEW YORK CITY MAYORAL CANDIDATE: I have this unique combination of the justice we deserve, the safety we need. And that resonated with voters. The countless number of children and families that are losing their lives to this gun violence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: There is a lot about Eric Adams that resonates for this White House, the Joe Biden White House, that you know, they push aside the Twitter conversation. They were squarely focused right in the middle. Are they kind of learning from what's happening in New York?

MATTINGLY: I don't know that they would say they're learning.

It's important contextually to think this is one race. This is not the grand kind of direction of where the Democratic Party is going, where politics are going particularly heading into a midterm year. But it is indicative of where things stand in a pretty large city in a message of particularly Democratic City.

I think what you saw from Eric Adams is to some degree what White House officials Eric Adams aside think the president can bring to the table here. Obviously when you go back to his time in the U.S. Senate, he's not a senator who is considered soft on crime. He makes very clear, he's opposed to defunding the police, something I think that some White House officials think helps give front line Democrats their wings every single time he says I oppose defunding the police.

That said, he has moved to become a little bit more reform-minded (ph), certainly through the campaign since then and so they feel like he can walk that line.

If there's going to be a messenger on an issue that is becoming a problem for the Democratic Party as they move into a midterm here, White House officials think Joe Biden is the guy to put out there. He can find that balance. He can walk that line.

We'll see whether that's sustained because, you guys know, obviously from a legislative perspective, nothing major is going to happen save for maybe police reform which is pretty complicated, and their ability to make this entirely about a gun issue certainly that's right in big cities.

Is it right more broadly across the country? Not quite. So will that stick and can they maintain that over the course of the couple of months. It's a really big question.

PHILLIP: I think everybody who looks at this issue recognizes multiple causes will require multiple solutions. But now we are in this incredibly partisan framing of crime, it is hard to get any sort of progress on any of those crimes.

But coming up next for us, America's vaccination divide. With a dangerous new variant spreading, huge pockets of the country remain vulnerable.

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PHILLIP: With a week to go, it looks all but certain that the U.S. will fall short of President Biden's July 4th vaccination goal. 66 percent of adults have received at least one shot, just shy of the 70 percent goal set by President Biden.

And today, about 300 people are still dying of COVID, nearly every single one of them is unvaccinated.

Missouri for example, has one of the lowest rates of vaccination in the country and is also reporting the highest rate of new cases.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) STEVE EDWARDS, CEO, COXHEALTH: There's a lot of kindling with low vaccination rates, so it's spreading very rapidly and we're seeing this sort of unexpected increase in cases. We've never imagined this big of an increase.

Almost all of our cases are unvaccinated. People that have, in my opinion, put themselves in harm's way during this pandemic.

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PHILLIP: Phil is still with us and we're joined by CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner.

Dr. Reiner, what does this mean for the rest of us. If we have a situation where, you know, this new variant is affecting people who are unvaccinated, can we put this virus to bed?

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: It's going to be much harder to do that. And what's infuriating about this is that it didn't have to be this way. These vaccines are phenomenally effective. They work better than we could ever have hoped for.

If you look at the numbers in May, 99.1 percent of the people who died from this virus in May were unvaccinated. So we're at the point where the only people dying are unvaccinated. This is completely preventable.

But going forward, the more this virus hangs around, the more opportunity this virus has to mutate. Right now, you know, the two mRNA vaccines work very well against this variant. But if the virus stays around longer, we can have a mutant which evades our vaccine.

PHILLIP: Right.

The more time that goes on, the easier that becomes. And so from the White House's perspective, you know, take a look at this map here.

You can see why this is so hard. When you look at the states that are having the hardest time vaccinating their population, they are geographically in places where people are not listening necessarily to President Trump.

In the south; in parts of the west, the southwest -- it's becoming this sort of red state, blue state dynamic. And how is the White House approaching solving that problem.

MATTINGLY: You know I think --

PHILLIP: You know the July 4th deadline, aside.

MATTINGLY: And the July 4th deadline is kind of off the table, right. They've acknowledged they're not going to hit the 70 percent. They've kind of changed the metrics. We hit it for 30 and over -- we're very happy where we are. 65 and over, we have a lot to do -- a lot of work to do with younger people. We certainly have a lot to do from the White House's perspective of work to do down in the south and south east in particular. It's why you saw the president go down to Raleigh, North Carolina. He's obviously targeting younger people, targeting minority communities, but targeting the south as well, as you've seen the first lady, the second gentlemen, Dr. Fauci, everybody kind of really kind of narrow their focus on that.

Look this is a reality that I think people have been cognizant of for the better part of the last several months. There is just segment of society and it does happen to break down largely along party lines of people that have been hesitant or completely unwilling to get that vaccine and I think it underscores kind of the moment the White House is in.

They are in a grind right now. No longer mass vaccination sites, no longer vaccinating three or four million people per day. They're trying to grind out hundreds of people, thousands of people -- reach them at their doors.

It's kind of turned into a campaign, that situation, right?

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PHILLIP: -- knocking on people's doors.

MATTINGLY: Door knocking, you're using incentives to try and drive it, not expecting a major uptick but trying to get one by one, trying to beat the variants, trying to beat the recognition.

And then this late summer, early fall, this could become very problematic for these communities, these specific areas if not contained (ph).

PHILLIP: Right. I want to get to some new reporting in the "Washington Post" based on a book that's coming out soon about what happened with President Trump when he was sick. It says that, "Trump doctors threw everything they could at the virus all at once. His condition appeared to stabilize somewhat as the day wore on but his doctors still fearing he might need to go on a ventilator, decided to move him to the hospital.

[08:54:59]

PHILLIP: At least two of those who were briefed on Trump's medical condition that weekend said, he was gravely ill and feared that he would not make it out of Walter Reed."

Not only did they take him to the hospital but they threw all of these experimental treatments at him all at once, incredibly unusual.

What does that tell you, Dr. Reiner?

DR. REINER: It tells us that they were worried that the President was going to die. What we know is that they were fearing for his life but what we don't know is frankly if he was really that sick. Because the President recovered at a pace completely unexpected for someone who really was gravely ill.

So my sense from looking at the data in real time last fall and now looking at this, is that that president's doctors overreacted and they panicked and then they threw the kitchen sink at him.

PHILLIP: Yes. I mean how dangerous is that? I mean we're talking about -- one of the points the story makes is that there is sometimes a sequencing of these things. They did it kitchen sink all at once because they were, to your point so panicked.

DR. REINER: Right. And they gave him a combination of drugs I think perhaps never used in any patient anywhere. He got monoclonal antibodies. He got Remdesivir and then the next day, they gave him steroids.

What really bothersome to me about this is that the president's physicians -- to say that they weren't forthright is being generous. They deceived, you know, the country. They declined to tell the country that the patient was -- that the president was receiving supplemental oxygen. They took a day to tell the country that he was given a steroid. They really went out of their way not to tell the country how worried they were about their patient.

PHILLIP: Leads to a lot significant questions I think down the line for future presidents.

Dr. Reiner, thanks for being with us. Phil as well.

And that's it for INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY. Join us back here every Sunday at 8:00 a.m. Eastern time. And the weekday show as well at noon eastern time.

Coming up next, "STATE OF THE UNION" with Jake Tapper and Dana Bash. Jakes guests this morning are Senator Mitt Romney and the Biden White House senior adviser, Cedric Richmond.

Thank you again for sharing your Sunday morning with us. Have a great rest of your day.

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