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Vaccine Mandate Protests Spread Across Canada; Stacey Abrams Slammed For Unmasked Photo At GA School Event; Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo Says He Regrets Resigning In New Interview. Aired 12:30- 1p ET

Aired February 07, 2022 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

WILLIAM HASELTINE, INFECTIOUS DISEASE EXPERT: No more mask, no more controls at all. So we have to watch the infection rates by area. One thing I've always said is that understanding the risk of COVID very much like understanding the risk of weather. You have to know what's happening in your area.

Is there a thunderstorm? Is there light rain? Is it a sunny day? You should know what's in your area. And that should determine your response. Do you wear masks? Do you restrain your activities?

If like in New York City, it's pretty low now. Right down close to baseline, things are ready to hit pretty much back to normal. But if you're in that red state, I think it's red dry, not that, just at the right back COVID. I think it's time to still be careful.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: And so what would you be looking for national guidance now? You make a very key point 50 states, will have 50 plans, will have 50 different, you know, case counts and if you will, hospitalizations. But I know you talk, you mentioned this death count.

We're still averaging 2,462 of our neighbors, friends, and neighbors and fellow Americans dying from COVID yesterday. You and I have something in common. I've got -- already have a fourth shot, a fourth shot because I'm immunocompromised. You got a fourth shot. You think the White House should be doing more to promote fourth shots for which vulnerable populations?

HASELTINE: Well, first of all, I think from the very beginning, they should have had the third shot the moment the Israeli data came in. And the reason I got the fourth shot probably you did it too is we're in very vulnerable groups. And I saw the data. I actually saw the data from Israel for people who aren't so vulnerable after the third shot for Omicron.

This was decided to be to get it, I think the government should make those shots available for people on demand. I have friends who've gone to the pharmacies to get their four shot and turned away because they can't say they're immunocompromised. If they want a four shot, I think they should be able to get it.

KING: William Haseltine, appreciate your insights on this important day, sir. Thank you very much.

HASELTINE: You're welcome. Thank you.

KING: Thank you. A state of emergency in place in Ottawa where the police chief says COVID protests are a quote nationwide insurrection driven by madness. Thousands of Canadians, you see the pictures, they are protesting vaccine mandates. It started with a so called Freedom Convoy led by truckers protesting a new mandate requiring vaccines in order to enter the country. CNN's Paula Newton live for us now in Ottawa with the latest. Remarkable protests, Paula?

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely remarkable. I mean, just think of the language. I know it sounds familiar to you right, a threat to democracy and insurrection, sedition. I want to be clear things have quieted down a bit. But that does not take away from the basic trucking, right, the sit in, that's going in right in front of the national parliament.

And as you said, this started as the freedom convoy it rolled right from the west to here in the east, spread on the weekend to several cities and towns, things have quieted down substantially. And yet what lingers are very persistent protesters here saying that, look, it's not just about a vaccine mandate and being able to cross the border in your truck. No, it's about all of it.

The mask, mandate, the restrictions, everything they want it all gone. And here as in the United States, right, United States, it's up to states. Here, it's up to the provinces. The Prime Minister Justin Trudeau remains in isolation at an undisclosed location. He and his children had COVID.

And he's saying look, this isn't about me or the federal government he calls these a fringe minority. John, I also want to point, sitting senators, sitting -- at least one sitting governor are supporting these people from the United States. The police chief has a message for them, don't. You are supporting unlawful behavior.

KING: Paula Newton, appreciate the live update. We know you'll keep an eye on that one. It's remarkable when you see it all around the world including right there and our neighbor.

[12:33:43]

Up next for us, take a look this photo Stacey Abrams visiting children at school now deleted because she was not wearing a mask. She says there's a good explanation, her critics say it shows COVID hypocrisy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Stacey Abrams, now the latest Democrat to take heat for ignoring COVID restrictions. Here's the photo at issue. Abrams, you see maskless at a Decatur, Georgia Elementary School. And as you can see, all the students are wearing masks.

Abrams, who is running for governor was there for a reading event honoring Black History Month. Melanie Zanona, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, back with me to discuss. Number one, if you just put the tweet back up there for one more second, the picture or the photo on the screen for me, it's just a total unforced error by a candidate. It's not her first run for office and by a staff member who would not say, oh, my candidate does not have a mask on and everybody else does.

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: No. Absolutely, I mean, you would think, look, you have to be aware that this is something that your political opponents are going to seize on as well. That's one thing.

You know, if you're if you're running this campaign, and you're any staff member, if you're Stacey Abrams, as well, you know, and you're getting ready to do this, you know that this is going to be something that Republicans will seize on. And two, it's also an opportunity to encourage mask wearing at a time where we're still in a pandemic. You have all these students behind you as well. And that's something you should want to encourage.

KING: Right. And she manage -- as you jump in, I just want to show that one thing she did manage to do is unite Brian Kemp, the incumbent Republican governor and David Perdue, the Trump endorsed primary challenger, they both tweeted essentially, you know, saying that she was being a hypocrite. I'm paraphrasing of their tweets, but, you know, the other two -- you're right it was a gift to the two Republicans.

MELANIE ZANONA, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORTER: Right. And the way it was handled was done so poorly, they deleted the tweet and then she put out a statement sort of dismissing the attacks as silly. The broader challenge for Democrats right now is they don't seem to have a good rebuttal or counter message to what Republicans have been seizing on. They've been positioning themselves as the party of parents. They're leaning into educational and parental issues leaning into the culture wars.

[12:40:19]

And that has been an effective message for them. It's really resonating in suburban battlegrounds, ahead of the midterms. And Democrats, there's plenty of things they could say, they could say Republicans, the reason why we're still in this, why our kids are still wearing masks as Republicans have undermine efforts at every turn to combat the pandemic, but Democrats have not had a good counter message thus far.

KING: Right. And she says that she took her mask off only when she was speaking so that children watching remotely could hear her and for a couple of the photos. But again, if your messages masks help, why wouldn't you want your mask on? Why did someone on your campaign staff say, you know, but there we go.

But this is proof this is going to play out throughout the midterm election year. Here's a very different example in the Commonwealth of Virginia. On Saturday, a 17-year-old young man who is a Democratic activist tweeted a story from a public radio station, essentially critical of Governor Youngkin. Governor Youngkin's campaign staff didn't like that.

And they fired back with this showing young Ethan Lynne, he's 17 years old. Again, you can debate whether that's too young or a lot at home, showing Ethan with Ralph Northam and then making point of Ralph Northam had the blackface scandal or controversy in there.

And then this caused a whole brouhaha. Why is the campaign of a man who already won and is in office as the governor of Virginia getting into a fight with a 17-year-old boy? Well, the Governor tweeted this morning on Saturday night, and an authorized tweet came from a campaign account. I regret that this happened it shouldn't have. I've addressed it with my team.

We must continue to work to bring Virginians together so much more that unites us than divides us. So the governor is trying to clean it up today. Ethan Lynne is not accepting that quite yet, which again, he's a Democratic activist. The Governor's team should have taken their fingers off the phone. And he's saying he acknowledged the situation. Governor Youngkin did not apologize, did not condemn what happened, and he wants to keep this going.

ZANONA: Yes.

KANNO-YOUNGS: The issue is the last line here. You know, in the governor's response, there's so much more that unites us than divides us. You know, at this point, you have to it calls to question you're using the resources even in this limited instance. You know, is that really encouraging unity or is it sowing division.

And there is a connection here between what we were just talking about with political debate over mask wearing, whether it be attacking or criticizing a high school senior, whether it be what we see the divisions in the halls of Congress stretching to school board meetings, as well as, you know, pandemic restrictions on the local level.

You know, at this point, there's many, you know, on both sides of the aisle, they are calling for these political leaders to not to use some of their resources for some of these different political fights. This probably many would agree this falls into that category.

ZANONA: Yes, I mean, this is just like a perfect example of the desire to own the lives getting you in trouble, leaning into the culture wars and for what, such a fun, unforced error. He didn't need to do this. He's already won his campaign. And he's also trying to position himself as again party of parents. He was like the dad next door, why are you going after a 17-year-old.

KING: Right. You won. You won, you're in office, you can have a longer leash, for getting angry about people trying to provoke you on Twitter.

[12:43:02]

Up next for us, the 135-year-old Electoral Count Act, just might get a makeover. Donald Trump's effort to steal the 2020 elections is, yes, producing a very rare bipartisan moment here in Washington.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: A rare bipartisan legislative effort is gaining some momentum, a group of senators now working to rewrite the 135-year-old Electoral Count Act. That law guides how presidential elections are certified. It is a project born of Donald Trump's last resort effort to get Mike Pence and allies in Congress to ignore the electoral votes of battleground states that Trump lost.

That effort, of course, failed back on January sixth, but two senators involved in this reform effort, say clearer rules and legal language are necessary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D-WV): I think absolutely, it'll pass. Now, there'll be some people saying it's not enough. There'll be other people saying that it's more than what we should do, or we don't need it.

SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI (R-AK): We're going to take the Goldilocks approach here. We're going to try to find what's just right.

MANCHIN: Exactly.

MURKOWSKI: And it's not going to be just right for everybody. But will it be, will it be a step ahead? Will it be important for the country? Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Just for those of you at home who want to know all the details, the Electoral Account Act, I say it half-jokingly, but it is important. The process for tabulating president's election votes, described as almost unintelligible and arcane, the language written in the 135-year-old law.

And it was, of course, the centerpiece of what Donald Trump tried to get Mike Pence and a handful of Republican House allies to do back on January 6th. This one looks like it might actually get to the finish line. My question is, is can Murkowski really get to 10 Republicans?

ZANONA: That is the big question. Right now, there are nine Republicans involved in this effort that is one short of what they need to overcome the filibuster. And keep in mind, Donald Trump came out and put out a statement against this. So that could also be a roadblock. My question is, how hard does

Joe Biden lean into this? Does he start working the phones? Does it start hauling people in? I mean, it's not just Republicans. He might also have to sell his own party on this because they wanted something much more comprehensive than what they're doing now. So far, though, he's giving them space to get a deal. It's the same way he treated the bipartisan infrastructure negotiations.

KING: It's an interesting perspective, though, from the Democrats perspective that you will find a Democrat who says, you know, there's anything wrong with this. They think it's necessary would update the law fix the arcane language, but it's the, we didn't get, you know, the expansion of voting rights and they're not going to in this. The question is, can they find one or two little things maybe working progress and get it wrapped into this?

KANNO-YOUNGS: Right. And is this enough? Is what's being discussed right now by Senator Manchin and this potential bipartisan compromise, will that be enough? I mean you could go back to last month as well. And the choice by Democrats, as well as the White House to kind of go down swinging on advocating for some of the legislation, those two bills, that voting protection bills that we knew were not going to get passed. But you still had the President go to Atlanta, and frame this as a existential threat to democracy, these local voting restrictions that are being passed by state legislatures.

[12:50:31]

Well, now you're going to have to sell your base as well as the Democratic Party, that this is enough to defend against that threat, what you framed as a threat to democracy at this point. And just from some of the conversations that I've had with some of the leaders of voting rights activist groups that have met at the White House, that, you know, we're down there with the President in Georgia as well, at least last month, some of them were saying that this movement, which at that point was mainly being pushed by Republicans was, in a way a distraction from those two other pieces of legislation. So it'll be very interesting to see just how far the White House goes to back this.

KING: Right. And so, you know, editorial boards love it, because you have, again, I sound a little snarky there. But it's rare that you have Democrats and Republicans actually working together in the same room on something that's important.

The New York Times Editorial Board, noting this, the current push to reform, the Electoral Count Act is worth the effort, not only because it will help protect the integrity of presidential election, but because it may well be the only reform with enough bipartisan support to pass in this polarized moment.

So number one, they like the substance of the bill. Number two, it's nice to see people actually working together. But the math gets interesting, because of the disappointment among progressives, that the bigger voting rights bills were not passed, Nancy Pelosi has only a handful of votes to spare in the House. So it's not just getting 10 Republicans in the Senate and keeping all the Democrats on board, if a half dozen House progressive said, I have nothing against that bill, but I'm just mad that I didn't get anything else.

ZANONA: They're going to have to turn that around and say, this is the incentive why we should do this, because we weren't able to get the other things done. We exhausted all of the other options. It's clear, it's not going to get done in the Senate. So take it or leave it. I mean, if they want a victory, especially out of the midterms, or even ahead of Joe Biden State of the Union on March 1st, this might be their only option.

KANNO-YOUNGS: They're going to have to compete at that point with also some of those that argue that yes, this would add protections for the one way and leader of a voting rights group framed it to me is this address is almost the finish line, you know, of the of the election process. And what some of the --

ZANONA: There's also election assistants we should point out for election workers, which is huge as well. I mean, that's a huge piece of that.

KANNO-YOUNGS: No, absolutely, absolutely. And it really does come down, as you were saying to not just convincing Republicans but his own party at this point.

KING: You raise a key question of when will the President if and when the President gets more active in that. We will see. Both of you, thanks for coming. Nice to have people back at the table.

Ahead for us, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo looking toward his political comeback. Yes, he is. He says it could come soon. Some new reporting, a brand new interview just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:57:27]

KING: Topping our Political Radar today, a new interview with a defiant Andrew Cuomo, the former New York Governor telling Bloomberg News, he wishes he hadn't resigned. This interview coming as two sources tell CNN Cuomo considering a political comeback as early as this coming election cycle. You heard that right. CNN's Brynn Gingras joins me now with more. Not going quietly?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Certainly not going quietly. But we knew that, John, right? And if you talk to the people that are closest to Andrew Cuomo, they're almost laughing about all this speculation and what's being reported out there but sources are telling us and also other publications as you noted Bloomberg News that a comeback is not only, you know, possible, it's almost likely going to happen for the former governor of New York. I want to read an excerpt of what was written in Bloomberg News with an interview with Andrew Cuomo recently.

He said, I never resigned because I said I did something wrong. I said I'm resigning because I don't want to be a distraction. So interesting words there, of course, we know he resigned last August after that scathing Attorney General's report came out, accusing the former governor of sexual harassment of 11 women, including some of his former aides.

And since that time, he has been pretty quiet, letting his personal attorney Rita Glavin really do the speaking for him coming out in press conference after press conference, rebutting basically not only the statements about him, not doing those allegations against him, but also just saying that that Attorney General's report is flawed. So John, we know he has a lot of money in the piggy bank of more than $16 million. We know that he feels that he's been vindicated according to this most recent reporting, especially because many district attorneys in several counties of New York have decided not to pursue charges against him. But this is definitely going to be, oh, we shall see. John?

KING: We shall see. And just for the record, decided not to prosecute is not necessarily vindication. But we shall see. Brynn Gingras, grateful for the updated reporting there.

President Biden will visit Israel later this year. The White House announcing that after a call with the Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett yesterday, the two leaders also talked about the need for stability in the Middle East about Israel's iron dome defense system and the successful U.S. Special Forces right in Syria last week that led to the death of the ISIS leader.

Get this reporting, Donald Trump improperly removed several boxes of documents from the White House that from "The Washington Post." The boxes were retrieved from Mar-a-Lago by the National Archives last month. The items said to include correspondence with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, as well as a letter left for Trump by Barack Obama, President Obama on the way out, according to two people familiar with the contents. Trump advisors denied any bad intent.

This reporting comes of course just days after the National Archives said staffers there had to tape together some ripped up Trump White House documents before turning them over to the January 6th congressional committee.

[13:00:12]

Thanks for joining us in INSIDE POLITICS today. Don't forget, you can see our podcast, download it wherever you get your podcast. Ana Cabrera picks up right now.