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CA, OR, NJ, DE, CT Lifting Mask Mandates Indoors Or In Schools; Biden Vows To Shut Down Nord Stream 2 If Russia Invades. Aired 12:30- 1p ET

Aired February 08, 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]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: First this map, you see five states here. And you're seeing this in local communities and more as well, dropping either indoor mask mandates or in most of these cases, California is an indoor mask mandate. These other states also putting on the calendar, dropping school mask mandates as well as we move forward.

Now, why are they doing this? They're doing this because of this, our Omicron peak was 803,000 new infections a day. You see now we're down to averaging 266,000. That's still a high number. But you look how quickly it is coming down and it continues to drop. So, listen to two public health experts here. They say yes, this is a good time for state, local, and the federal governments to think about rolling back restrictions. Just be careful.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. PAUL OFFIT, DIRECTOR, CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA VACCINE EDUCATION CENTER: Independent of whether there's mandates or not, I think people should reasonably wear masks when they're indoors for the next few weeks until we're far, much farther down than where we are right now. We're almost there.

DR. TOM FRIEDEN, FORMER CDC DIRECTOR: The states that are saying that sometime March, mid-March, end March, that makes a lot of sense to stop them next week, California's rate is twice what Connecticut's rate is. So I think you've got a little bit of a problem there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: With us to share his insights and expertise Dr. David Kimberlin, he's the co-director of pediatric infectious disease division, University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Kimberlin, grateful for your time on this day. You just heard Dr. Offit, Dr. Frieden there. I want to bring in this new statement from more than 1,100 medical professionals who say children's schools, athletics, and activities should be restored to their 2019 norms.

Masks should become optional in U.S. schools, they suggest by the middle of the month, and we can also return to pre pandemic norms for quarantines. If you're sick, stay home. Do you believe, sir, based on what you see every day that we are at this point that we can go back to close to normal? DR. DAVID KIMBERLIN, CO-DIR., UAB & CHILDREN'S OF ALABAMA PEDIATRIC INFECTIOUS DISEASES DIVISION: But probably not quite yet, I do think there is optimism on the horizon, I think that we can anticipate a continued drop in the number of cases. But as you pointed out, John, 200 plus thousand is a very high number still.

And so I think even when we do get to the point, and we will get to the point of mask mandates dropping away, the burden really is no longer on the governmental agencies to tell us what to do. Rather, the burden is on each one of us to know what the rates of the viral transmission is within your community, your county, whatever the most granular level you can get to, and then follow the recommendations, that sliding scale recommendation so that if you're in substantial or high areas, everyone wear masks indoors.

If you're in low or moderate areas, then if you're vaccinated, you don't have to wear a mask. That is going to be our reality for the next, you know, at least months, if not years. And we just need to do that whether it's a requirement or not.

KING: Well, that requires number one, constant public health communication. Number two, something we've talked about quite frequently, Doctor, is the sense of having some trust in that information and following it. Let me ask you the context of this, when you hear so many schools saying it's time to drop the mask mandates, right? If you look at the percentage of children fully vaccinated, a little more than half, 55 percent of those aged 12 to 15, those 16 and 17, about 60 percent.

Younger students still only 23 percent at ages five through 11 vaccinated. So some people will say well, wait a minute, if the vaccination rates are not where they we would like them to be, at least the public health experts would say that, is it safe to drop the masks in school? Is there a connection? Do we have clear data? Or is this still a question mark. Is a mask on a student in a school make a difference?

KIMBERLIN: Absolutely it does. We have those data. They there have been recent reports released from CDC, very well done studies that show that wearing masks in school, decrease the amount of virus in the school and decreases transmission in the school decreases number not only its students but also of the adults in the school system, and the school building getting sick. So they do work.

Now, we will get to a point. I mean, at some point, we got to get to a point where the virus is so low in a community that that's no longer needed. But I would stress again that, you know, whether there's a requirement for it or not, we need to do the right thing. We need to follow the metrics. We need to follow the data, and then respond according to what those data show. And until we're willing to kind of take that burden on ourselves. I fear that we're really going to just continue to have this yelling match at one another.

KING: Well, we don't -- hopefully we can get past the yelling map. I don't know why I would be optimistic about that. But I'm going to try to be an optimist and stay an optimist, Dr. Kimberlin. I'm showing the map again of the states that have done this. We saw yesterday Democratic governor of New Jersey, Democratic governor of Delaware, these are all democratic run states here. But these are governors who are essentially getting out ahead of the federal government and saying we think it's time in our state to ease the mask mandates or get rid of the mask mandates. Do you think, is the CDC federal guidance is it behind here? Is it where it needs to be? Or should this just be a local decision anyway? Forget Washington.

KIMBERLIN: Yes, I'm in Alabama. So it's been a local decision for a long time now, down here. And so I think for me personally, it really is more of the state and local call. I would love to see CDC guidance and I think it's there and I think that they will be looking further as to whether and when the right time is to drop recommendations for masking indoors but keep in mind I mean the federal mandate and the CDC mandates are not, you know, forcing people to do things. It's the state level and the local community level where that can occur.

[12:35:20]

And I'll circle back to where I was before, even if people are being required, quote, unquote, to do that, if they're not paying attention any longer than the mandate itself. I think you can, you could ask questions about, it's irrelevant, though, because ultimately, if the viruses in the community whether there's a requirement to do a certain thing or not a requirement to do a certain thing, it is in all of our personal interests, to mask if it's substantial or high levels of transmission in your community.

KING: Dr. Kimberlin, as always, thank you, sir. Appreciate it.

KIMBERLIN: Thank you.

KING: Up next for us, the Ukraine crisis and its unity challenge President Biden, the Germany's new chancellor say they're on the same page, at least where it matters most. And the French president Emmanuel Macron continues his firsthand diplomacy. As you can see, he's in Ukraine today.

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[12:40:47]

KING: French President Emmanuel Macron today urging patients in the Ukraine crisis. He's voicing confidence diplomacy can work but also making clear he thinks it could take considerable time. President Macron met with the Ukrainian President Zelensky earlier today in Kyiv, you see the pictures there. Both leaders saying the urgent immediate need is to de-escalate tensions.

Here in the United States, President Biden's focus is making clear that Russia would pay a devastating price. He met with Germany's new chancellor Monday and vowed a pipeline project critical to the Russian economy would be shut down if Russia invades. CNN's M.J. Lee is at the White House for us and Melissa Bell is in Kyiv. Let's start with you Melissa Bell. President Macron sounds optimistic that's what you want to do to keep diplomacy going. Is there any substance behind the optimism?

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, he says John that he's extracted two key promises from Vladimir Putin and after that more than five hours of talks that the two men had in Moscow yesterday, namely that Vladimir Putin, he says has vowed not to be behind a further escalation. Also that he said that he will withdraw his troops from Belarus once joint exercises just across the border from Russia have finished on the 20th of February without providing an exact timeline.

Now Emmanuel Macron is saying that that is some progress that is something to be celebrated. And essentially what he's done is say look, we're going to focus coming -- upcoming discussions both on the frontline that exists still in east of Ukraine, but perhaps more importantly, opened up a new dialogue with Moscow on a new treaties, new security guarantees that can be found between Europeans and Russians going forward. Now, that's been one of the key demands of Moscow and by taking a step towards him, Emmanuel Macron feels that he's made some progress.

Now perhaps the real test is how the President Zelensky received it. He was all for it. After all, Ukrainians have been saying throughout this, John, that they want the rhetoric dialed down and that they want any chance for dialogue there might be as well you might if you find yourself more than 100,000 Russian troops on your doorstep, John.

KING: Understandable indeed. Melissa Bell in Kyiv, thanks so much. Let's get to the White House now at M.J. Lee. M.J., the President's focus seems to be number one, I'll keep in touch with Macron. I hope diplomacy works. But number two, if it doesn't, I want to prove the allies are united.

M.J. LEE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. I mean, we are seeing this week how much President Biden wants to stress that message. But despite the emphasis that we saw yesterday, both from President Biden and his German counterpart, talking about the strength of that alliance and the unity there, there are some major outstanding questions. One key major sticking point is this Nord Stream 2 pipeline. We saw yesterday, President Biden explicitly saying if Russia were to invade Ukraine, that pipeline would be dead, but the German Chancellor not willing to make that same commitment.

So John, in terms of what is next for the White House on this foreign policy front, they are waiting and they're monitoring President Biden said yesterday that he does believe Vladimir Putin does have the capability to invade, but he doesn't know what he's going to do. And as far as today, President Biden is going to try to make a pivot to his domestic agenda. He should be speaking about the issue of manufacturing later this afternoon, John.

KING: M.J. Lee live at the White House. Appreciate the update. Thanks so much.

[12:43:49]

Up next for us, young voters in President Biden, they are a critical, critical piece of the Democratic coalition. And at the moment, they are not happy.

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KING: Motivation is a word you will hear a lot this midterm election year. Turnout tends to drop from presidential level so both parties look for ways to gin up interest and to gin up intensity. For Democrats, younger voters are one big challenge. They're a very important piece of the Democratic coalition. But there's clear evidence, they are disillusioned, at least at the moment. Let's get some insights and perspective from CNN political commentator, Republican strategist and pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson. Welcome. That's great to have you.

KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Thanks for having me.

KING: So let's start the North Star in the midterm election year as presidential approval, President Biden's numbers are down. Democrats think they're about to come up. But look at here. This is just among 18 to 29 year olds, back when he was inaugurated 57 percent approval rate, that's pretty good, now down to 35 percent. Why? Why are younger voters -- what is it disillusioned grumpy looking for something they didn't get yet? What is it?

SOLTIS: I think it's all of the above everything that you just said. They're disappointed. I think young voters we know were not big fans of President Trump. And so when Biden comes into office, hey, maybe this will be something different a turning of the page but ultimately, I don't think that Biden has necessarily delivered on say that economic recovery that young voters were hoping for, it still feels like we're stuck in this COVID mess. And that's a frustration you feel across all generations. But young voters in particular, they're less allied to particular parties. So if you don't deliver, they're going to tune out.

KING: So let me ask this then. If they're tuned out, are they just tuned out or are they changing teams? If we look here at voter party preference look at 2018, look at 2020, you know, above -- you see overwhelmingly Democratic voters in 2018, 67 percent of these younger voters went Democratic. It was a little less 62 percent in 2020. But this is a Democratic group. Are they switching teams or they're just sitting at home saying, I don't like what I see?

[12:50:19]

SOLTIS: They're sitting out. And for a long time, over a decade, I have studied young voters, what the Republicans need to do to win them over. That's not what's happening right now. They are not switching and becoming Republican voters, their views are still very much progressive, particularly on social issues, the issues they care about, like climate change, et cetera, are ones that they tend to trust Democrats on more. But that doesn't mean that they are feeling enthusiastic about what they're seeing Democrats do. So I think it's unlikely we'll see young voters slip and vote for Republicans out, right? It's much more likely that they will simply stay home in this midterm. KING: But the math of staying home could be enormously consequential for Democrats in the sense that if we just look at the breakdown of voters by age, in 2018, you see the gold there. In 2018, these voters 18 to 29 year olds were 13 percent of the coalition presidential year more of them are about to turn out to participate. It goes up to 17 percent.

If you're the Democrats, you want to keep it there. You're trying to you're trying to get something close to presidential turnout, because history is in your face. And, you know, the poll numbers for the President right now don't look great, plenty of time to turn them around. But at the moment they don't, if you were table topping the election today, President Biden and more importantly, Democratic candidates need them to turn out, will they?

SOLTIS: At this point, their enthusiasm is pretty low. And you already know that in these midterm years, as you just mentioned, they're much less likely to turn out at a presidential year, there's less hoopla around it, there's less of a push to get young people to the polls. So the electorate is always older in the midterm. But for Democrats holding on to at least that 13 percent of the electorate being under 30 is pretty important to them, they might be lucky to achieve those kinds of numbers this time around.

KING: So I know you were a partisan head for Republicans. But if you were in a Democratic meeting right now, and they said, what is the one issue, we need to motivate these voters, we need to convince them we care, we're on their side, we need you to vote. What is it?

SOLTIS: It's all about cost of living. And that's not just for young voters. That's for everybody. But young voters in particular, are really feeling the pinch, many of them just starting off in their careers, wages maybe haven't been going up as much as a lot of the essentials that they need to buy, the rent that they need to pay. And so the ability to make ends meet is huge. And if people feel like they're struggling and can't, they're going to hold those in charge responsible.

KING: So if you are a Democratic candidate, you might want the President for example, to forgive student debt, something he has resisted doing so far.

SOLTIS: It's something that's certainly popular in the polls, but then you get into a whole bunch of complications about how do you pay for it that opens a whole new can of worms when it comes to young voters.

KING: Yes, how do you pay for it? We went through that last year. I suspect we'll go through that a little bit as we go forward to as well. Thank you for coming in. Appreciate it. Great to see you.

Coming up for us, what climate change has to do with the snow at the Winter Olympics?

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[12:57:24] KING: You can't have a Winter Olympics without snow or can you? Virtually all of the snow at the Beijing Winter Olympics is artificially made and that's in part because of climate change. Officials say relying on natural conditions has become much more difficult this year. Only 10 percent of the snow at the Beijing Olympics is real. The International Olympic Committee estimates enough water and ice to fill, get this, 3,600 backyard swimming pools will be needed to make fake snow for the Beijing Games.

Topping our Political Radar today, Senator Raphael Warnock out with his first T.V. ad of the 2022 election cycle as he tries to hold on to his Senate seat in Georgia. Senator Warnock's message to voters, I feel your pain.

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SEN. RAPHAEL WARNOCK (D-GA): People are tired. People have seen what they work their entire lives to build turned upside down at a moment's notice. They're wondering when things will get back to normal. What I want the people of Georgia to know is that I see you. I hear you. I am you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: A vacancy at the White House, President Biden's top science advisor resigned. Eric Lander apologized for speaking to colleagues in a quote disrespectful or demeaning way. The White House investigation found he violated President Biden's workplace policy of treating everyone with respect. POLITICO was first to report that important investigation.

The President announcing his intention to appoint John Jack McCain, the son of the late Senator John McCain, served on the Board of Trustees at the U.S. Naval Academy. McCain is a naval aviator in the reserves. He tweeted his quote incredibly honored by the appointment.

The Labor Secretary Marty Walsh taking a swing, you might say, look at that five at Major League Baseball's lockout, the former mayor of Boston originally from Dorchester like me, he's a longtime Red Sox fan, well, Secretary Walsh says he spoke with both the Players Association and the League about helping with the stalled negotiations. Spring Training supposed to start this month but without an agreement soon that lockout would delay the start of the season.

The Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin today says he thinks Donald Trump violated the law. When? Back during the Trump presidency, he tore up documents in the White House but Senator Durbin says quote, it's not likely the former president would be prosecuted for violating laws designed to protect presidential records.

This quick programming note Presidents Day weekend, CNN premieres a brand new original series focused on the life and the presidency of Lyndon Baines Johnson. President Johnson passed major legislation like the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. But his decision to escalate the conflict in Vietnam overshadowed his legacy. See how his presidency was as complicated as the times he served. LBJ Triumph and Tragedy premieres February 20th, 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time Here on CNN.

[13:00:01]

Thanks for joining us today hope to see you back here tomorrow. Don't forget you can also listen to our podcast download INSIDE POLITICS wherever you get your podcasts. Ana Cabrera picks up our coverage right now. Have a great day.