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Dems To Split Up Legislation Into Smaller, Bipartisan Proposals; Warming Planet Adding To Skyrocketing Lumber Prices; Virginia Deputy AG Resigns After Facebook Posts Emerge Of Her Praising January 6 Rioters. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired February 11, 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: It was just shy of 3,000. So in terms of your day to day experience, completely better or still some question marks out there.

DR. ALI RAJA, EXEC. VICE CHAIR, MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL. EMERGENCY MEDICINE DEPT.: Still some question. It's all relative John, like you said, we're down from the peak of 3,000. But 1,000 is still while not completely overloading the system. It's still stressing the system. And remember, this is the middle of winter when we're seeing everything from ski accidents to heart attacks with people shoveling snow. And so the hospitals, my hospital in particular, but all the hospitals are still very full. We're not where we want to be with COVID hospitalizations, but the trend is definitely in the right direction.

KING: So help me with this one. I'm going to put up some vax. This is a vet -- these trend lines here show you vaccinations. The orange line is partially vaccinated Americans. The gray or blue line is fully vaccinated Americans. Down here this green line is boosted, Americans who've gotten their booster shots as well. The CDC says this is essentially flat line the rate of growth in among booster shots is now slowed to the pace goes back towards September when all the data says if you get boosted, even if you get COVID, you're probably going to stay out of the hospital, you're definitely going to stay alive. Why is that flat lining?

RAJA: That's so frustrating, John. I mean here's the thing. I think the thing that we are doing right now is we're yo-yoing, right? We're going from being for having lots of mask mandates to opening up completely potentially. And what we all need to remember and I think we do when we really think hard about it, but it's easy to forget is that, it's things like vaccinations and things like testing that are going to keep us from having to keep yo-yoing back and forth.

The fact that vaccinations is flat line means that people are thinking that just because hospitalizations in case rates are coming down, they don't need to get boosted. That's just not true. The way we prevent the next surge is by getting vaccinated and making sure that we have enough tests. And we're not focusing enough on that.

KING: Well, we'll keep trying to focus on it here, Dr. Raja, with your help. Appreciate very much. Thank you.

RAJA: Thanks, John.

KING: When we come back, Democrats try to salvage some of their policy agenda and something novel. They're trying to find a few bipartisan wins.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:36:41]

KING: Some new CNN reporting now on the Democratic effort to engineer a midterm election year reboot, the idea is to set aside that giant social safety net plan they failed to pass last year. Instead, Democrats do hope they can break that up and pass several smaller pieces of it. And as that debate over which pieces to try to pass goes on, we are seeing a new push for some bipartisan measures. Let's get to our congressional correspondent Lauren Fox, she has more. Bipartisanship, what a novel idea.

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Especially nine months before the midterms, John. Democrats changing their focus here from Build Back Better to what can they accomplish in the next several weeks and months ahead of this midterm. And already this week, you saw a lot of action. First on the floor, they passed this force arbitration bill that would revolutionize the way that companies can handle sexual assault cases within their workplaces. There's also an effort underway. This week, they introduced the Violence Against Women Act that comes after three years of negotiations, this bill expired three years ago, John.

So it shows you what a monumental moment that was, for members of both the Republican and Democratic Party, you also have efforts to reform the post office potentially passing in the Senate next week that already passed the House of Representatives. And there is an effort ramping up again, to try and revolutionize and change the way that the Electoral Count Act is initiated here on Capitol Hill. That is overseeing how you count the votes from fair and free elections.

But I'm talking to lawmakers who say the hope right now is the Democrats can change the conversation from what they have failed to do to what they can actually accomplish. And there's also a little bit of hope from some of Joe Manchin's colleagues, that if they find a way to pass a couple bipartisan bills, maybe Manchin would come back to the table on Build Back Better, although I asked Manchin about that. And he said, I'm going forward and I'm not looking backward. John?

KING: We'll see how that one plays out. We had a year of that. Lauren Fox, appreciate the new reporting up on from the Hill. Let's bring it back in the room with our great reporters. Manu, let me start with you. These things just becoming ripe now and that's why a bunch of bipartisan things happen, or is this a bunch of bipartisan things that actually help people, important changes that could have been passed last year but we're just tell that because Democrats were so busy debating and infighting over their agenda? MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the latter for the most part. I mean, look, that effort to try to pass Build Back Better took all the oxygen out of the room. Joe Manchin was consumed with negotiations over that, as were most Democrats trying to get this together. There are so many meetings, so much effort going on, and there are people only have so much time in a day, especially critically lawmakers who are only in town for -- half the week. And, you know, and then they're on recess for several weeks. And they don't have real negotiations until they actually sit down and talk.

They're sitting down and talking about something that didn't go anywhere, with things that could actually pass go by the wayside. There's also a calculation in Washington to try to do the harder stuff further away from an election year, which means the first you have a new president, and then do the easier stuff or more politically charged messaging votes that won't actually become -- actually pass have that on the floor on an election year. So in some ways, it's following the formula and the formula here in Washington is you can't really walk and chew gum at the same time, even though they say that.

KING: Which is why everybody watching out there gets frustrated because every American family has to do many things at once especially in the middle of this pandemic with all the disruption in Washington says one thing at a time. To the point Lauren, close with which is maybe if we do a few bipartisan things Joe Manchin will come around. Joe Manchin will be willing to come back to the table and pass not all, but some of the pieces of that social safety net plan. Listen to Senator Manchin on the radio yesterday, West Virginia, I will take this one, as I told you so.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[12:40:20]

SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D-WV): I've been ringing the alarm bell forever, I mean for the last year about inflation, nobody has been listening. Now we're seeing a basic threat. It's a 7.5 percent tax on everybody, on every product you buy. It's just unbelievable. So it's time for the Federal Reserve to tackle the issue head on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: So he says Federal Reserve should deal with this. He's made clear he's not interested in most of what was in Build Back Better reconciliation, wherever you want to call it. But you had a conversation with the President's Climate Advisor the other day, who believes she can get Joe Manchin on some of the climate stuff. Is that one of the pieces? Is it realistic? Is that one of the pieces they think they can get through the Senate?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, it's the piece -- one of the pieces that for Biden's, for President Biden's goals of reducing emissions to even be met, the administration needs to see that realized. And so and it really only can be through this legislation. Manchin has expressed some support for it. So the White House is still really hopeful that he can maybe come to the table on it. But right now, all indications, I know Manu who talks to him almost every day, Manchin keeps telling reporters on the Hill, I don't want -- I'm not even negotiating on Build Back Better.

And I asked Gina McCarthy, have you spoken to Manchin? She hasn't spoken to Manchin, but she said conversations between the White House and him are continuing and that they are talking about Build Back Better, the elements of it that they think that they can maybe get him on.

KING: All right, we'll see if that one plays out. And the big, you know, Senator Manchin said I told you so essentially. I've been talking about inflation for a long time. President Biden has been talking about inflation for a long time. And in this interview with Lester Holt, you know, he gets, you tell me the word after Lester Holt reminds him, he once said it would be transitory and the President has a wisecrack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LESTER HOLT, NBC NEWS ANCHOR: Back in July, you said inflation was going to be temporary. I think a lot of Americans are wondering what your definition of temporary is.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, you're being a wise guy with me a little bit. I understand that's your job. According to Nobel laureates, 14 of them that contacted me and a number of corporate leaders, it's odd to be able to start to taper off as we go through this year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Not happy, he was reminded of what he said that turned out to be just simply not true. Not even close. But the optimism at the end there, the confidence, the Nobel laureates, this is going to get better. That essentially is the defining question of the midterm election year, isn't it?

AYESHA RASCOE, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, NPR: It is. And I think we call that ornery, right? Like the President gets a little ornery sometimes. But, no, I think that, you know, he obviously hopes that inflation goes down because his fate, the fate of Democrats in the midterms is completely tied up in that, right? I mean he doesn't have a whole lot of control over inflation. He can call on the Fed to take action. But so he has to really just act like he's working that act, but show that he's trying to do things that he's trying to address the concerns that people have.

But other than that, he has to hope that inflation comes down, because you cannot message your way out of higher prices. If people feel like they cannot, you know, go out and buy groceries, they have to spend all this money on gas and groceries, there's no messaging that's going to fix that.

RAJU: And John, I talked to the Democratic senators who are up for reelection yesterday about this issue about whether they have confidence in the President's handling of this. And virtually none of them said they did. They recognize this is going to be a central issue in their campaigns that CNN poll just out, said 55 percent of voters view this is extremely important to them as they vote this fall. And the Democrats recognize that even though it's not clear exactly how they can actually deal with it on their own.

KING: Right. It's just that it's that quote that ends up in the ads, the President saying it's going to be transitory. That's not but you're dead right. There's not much a president can do. No president has the lever to control inflation the Fed can help. We'll see what happen, put that on the record, now it's in a campaign ad. We'll watch from there.

[12:44:00]

Up next for us, the climate crisis impacts most everything, including it turns out the price of a new home.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: If you happen to be buying a new home or doing significant repairs on your existing property, guess what, it will cost you more because of rising lumber prices. The old law of supply and demand, yes. But CNN's Bill Weir explains here, the supply side of the equation in this case, another giant impact of our climate crisis.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If the definition of inflation is too many dollars chasing not enough goods, well, this is what happens when too many houses chase not enough wood.

(on camera): How would you characterize the price of lumber today?

JOHN RIDDLE, HOME BUILDER/VP, TURNING LEAF CUSTOM HOMES: Volatile. Yes, it is up and down. It got to the point we were just adding 20 to 30 percent just because and hopefully that will cover it.

WEIR (voice-over): It's all they can talk about at the National Association of Homebuilders Convention in Orlando this week, starting with a sticker poll.

JERRY HOWARD, CEO, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF HOME BUILDERS: Down here is one person who said it's been by 75 percent. At a normal time, if the cost of a building material were to increase by 75 percent people would be coming on glued, but look what it is. Most of them are 200 percent or more.

WEIR (on camera): Right.

(voice-over): There are a few reasons why but the problem begins in the Canadian Rockies. This source of almost one in every three boards hammered into American home. And we're a plague of beetles arrived with the power to kill 100,000 trees a day, so many you could hear them over the phone.

[12:50:10] JANICE COOKE, FOREST BIOLOGIST/PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA: And you could actually hear the beetles underneath the bark. He says, I'm listening to my trees being killed.

WEIR (voice-over): Forest biologist Janice Cooke has studied the invasion of mountain pine beetles for decades, just one effect of an overheating planet.

COOKE: Warmer over winters and hotter, drier summers, we saw those populations not only rise to epidemic levels, but in some areas what we call a hyper epidemic.

WEIR (on camera): Mountain pine beetles attack a seagull tree like an invading army and to defend itself the lodge pole pine fills its cracks with this sticky chemical compound we know as pitch. Well this turns out to be highly flammable. So in the end, if the beetles win, you've got a 50 foot fire starter. Beetle kill forest help accelerate those Western mega fires. And altogether, 50 million acres have been lost up here an area the size of Minnesota.

COOKE: We have more than 30 mill closures in the interior of D.C. alone. Mills are not running 24/7 anymore.

WEIR (voice-over): In the meantime, there is the 40-year-old trade war with the United States and based on an old formula, tariffs on Canadian wood automatically doubled recently. Joe Biden could dial those back. But like Canada, he's also protecting more federal trees, especially the old growth stands in places like Tongass National Forest.

HOWARD: The Biden administration has cut back on the harvesting of timber on our federal lands for environmental purposes. And so we need more lumber from outside. The Biden administration, it has not gone to the table to negotiate a long term deal with Canada. So once again, we've got to look somewhere else. In fact, we've opened up discussions with the German government about bringing in more from Germany.

WEIR (voice-over): And more builders like John Riddle in Winter Park, Florida are finding lumber alternatives. By injecting these stackable foam molds with concrete, he says he creates walls 50 percent more energy efficient and 100 percent more fireproof.

(on camera): This seems to me as we watch zoning regulations change in California due to wildfires --

RIDDLE: Yes, yes.

WEIR: -- like amazing solution.

RIDDLE: Yes, that doesn't burn.

WEIR: Right.

RIDDLE: Concrete won't burn.

WEIR: Right. RIDDLE: Yes, now, in my mind, there's no reason why this is not more prevalent in our country.

WEIR: Why do you think it isn't?

RIDDLE: You know, builders like to do what they always do.

WEIR (voice-over): But the housing crisis is growing at the same time as the climate crisis. When science says we need all the mature forests we can possibly save.

COOKE: This is the business case for considering our forests and our trees and our forests for their entire ecosystem services and not just the price of a two by four.

WEIR: Tariffs on Canadian timber were actually higher under President Trump and he dialed them back. So President Biden has that option. But that only affects prices maybe 5 or 10 percent at the most long term experts say, Canada just can't fill the American appetite for new housing starts and whether it is trees or avocados or coffee beans or chocolate. This is a reminder that when supply can't meet demand due to climate, climate inflation is the next step.

Bill Weir, CNN, Vancouver, British Columbia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING: Appreciate that from Bill Weir.

[12:53:42]

Up next for us, the top state official in Virginia now resigning after images emerged of her praising the January 6th rioters.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Topping our political radar today, a deputy attorney general in Virginia, whose duties included overseeing elections has resigned that after Facebook posts emerged of her praising the January 6th rioters. In this Facebook post published in "The Washington Post" Monique Miles who goes by Monique Miglia on Facebook says quote, Newsflash, patriots have stormed the Capitol. No surprise, the Deep State has awoken the sleeping giant.

Congresswoman Nancy Mace wants you to know she was with Donald Trump before that was the cool Republican thing to do. She wants you to know that because Trump this week attacked her and endorsed the Republican primary opponent. Mace responded with a videotaped outside the Trump Tower.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY MACE (R-SC): I'm in front of Trump Tower today. And I remember in 2015 when President Trump announced that he's running. I was one of his earliest supporters. I actually worked for the campaign in 2016. I worked at seven different states across the country to help get him elected.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Trump is mad at Congresswoman Mace now because she did blame him for the January 6th insurrection. She was the only Republican from South Carolina to vote to certify the 2020 election results.

President Biden today signing an executive order allowing $7 billion in frozen assets from Afghanistan Central Bank to go to some of the victims of the 9/11 attacks. Also half will go to humanitarian relief in Afghanistan. Those funds held here in the United States were frozen when the Taliban took over running Afghanistan.

And some sad news today to finish the program, "Fox" announcing today its former anchor and correspondent Jim Angle passed away this week. Jim was 75. He originally joined the network back at nine 1996 as senior White House correspondent. I covered the White House starting in 1997 for CNN. It was a pleasure and honor to work with Jim. He's a Texas native. A long career that included stints at CNN, ABC, and at NPR. A good man, a very funny man. We will miss him.

[13:00:15]

Thanks for joining INSIDE POLITICS today. We hope you have a safe weekend. Ana Cabrera picks up right now.