Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Biden Honors 500,000 Americans Who Have Died from Coronavirus; Garland Expected to Receive Bipartisan Support for Attorney General. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired February 23, 2021 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Half a million now dead in America.

[06:00:03]

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We've done worse than most any other country. The kind of disparate responses of states rather than having a unified approach.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have to resist becoming numb to the sorrow. We must do so to honor the dead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Merrick Garland making it clear the Justice Department he runs will be different from the one he will inherit.

MERRICK GARLAND, ATTORNEY GENERAL NOMINEE: I can assure you, I'm not the president's lawyer. I'm the United States' lawyer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You will make the decision based on the advices given and on the facts of the law, without regard to the political consequences.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It's Tuesday, February 23, 6 a.m. here in New York.

Half a million American lives lost to coronavirus. It's a monumental loss made all the worse by knowing that, in the United States, it didn't have to be this high.

This morning, flags are flying at half-staff at the White House after an emotional ceremony there last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC: "AMAZING GRACE")

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: President Biden, Vice President Harris and their spouses marking the somber milestone with 500 candles representing the lives lost.

This morning, we too remember the loved ones and friends who died in the last year. President Biden imploring Americans, quote, "not to become numb to the sorrow," drawing from his own experience of grieving and imploring the rest of us to honor those lost.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, the first congressional hearing on the Capitol insurrection. Key testimony from officials who have not spoken publicly until now.

This as there is growing revisionism among some Republican senators -- Ron Johnson comes to mind -- and also on opinion television, questioning whether the insurrection actually happened. Despite the fact there was pepper spray and flag polls and shields and projectiles used as weapons.

Folks like Tucker Carlson suggest it was not an armed insurrection on his show, "Fantasy Island," last night. Carlson also absolved white supremacists of a role in the attack.

Today confirmation hearings for two more of the president's nominees even as one nomination appears to be on the brink of collapse. We have new reporting on that this morning.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond for us first, live at the White House-- Jeremy.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

As the U.S. crossed that grim milestone of half a million deaths from the coronavirus just yesterday, we saw something at the White House that we haven't seen over the last year of this pandemic: a president leading a nation in mourning.

President Biden yesterday drawing on the -- on the personal tragedies in his own life as he helped a nation grieve, empathizing with that moment of grief. And he also promised better days ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DIAMOND (voice-over): President Biden leading a moment to pause and to grieve, holding a memorial remembering the more than 500,000 American lives lost to COVID-19.

BIDEN: We've been fighting this pandemic for so long, we have to resist becoming numb to the sorrow. We have to resist viewing each life as a -- as a statistic or a blur or on the news.

DIAMOND: Each candle on the steps of the White House representing 1,000 people who died from the virus during a pandemic keeping so many separated from their loved ones even in their final moments.

BIDEN: The people we lost were extraordinary, but just like that, so many of them took their final breath alone in America. I know all too well. I know what it's like to not be there when it happens. I know what it's like when you are there, holding their hands. There's a look in their eye, and they slip away.

DIAMOND: The grim milestone comes as the fate of Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package is in the hands of lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

BIDEN: Now, critics say the plan is too big. Let me ask them a rhetorical question. What would have you have me cut?

DIAMOND: The House is expected to pass the bill this week, featuring Biden's proposals including $1,400 stimulus checks for millions of Americans; funding for vaccine distribution and medical supplies; and raising the federal minimum wage to $15, an increase opposed by at least two Senate Democrats.

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president would not have included an increase in the minimum wage if he did not want to see it in the final package. The stage we're at right now is it needs to go through the parliamentary process.

DIAMOND: The U.S. is reporting fewer new coronavirus cases and deaths in recent weeks, but with new variants on the rise and vaccine distribution delayed by severe winter weather, the CDC director issuing this urgent reminder.

[06:05:01]

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: We continue to see trends head in the right direction, but cases, hospital admissions and deaths remain at very high levels. There is still much work to do.

DIAMOND: Biden urging Americans to find purpose in the work still ahead, in a nation fatigued by the pandemic.

BIDEN: This nation will smile again. This nation will know sunny days again. This nation will know joy again. And as we do, we'll remember each person we've lost, the lives they lived, the loved ones they left behind. We will get through this, I promise you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DIAMOND: And as the House is set to pass that coronavirus relief bill by the end of this week, Senate Democrats will move quickly and aggressively to pass that bill in the Senate. It is very likely that it could be a party-line vote. And they are moving so quickly and aggressively, because those federal unemployment benefits expire in less than three weeks on March 14 -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Jeremy, thank you very much for all of that reporting.

Joining us now is Dr. Joseph Varon. He's the chief of staff at the United Memorial Center in Houston. Also with us, CNN political commentator Errol Louis, political anchor for Spectrum News. Gentlemen, great to see you. And Dr. Varon, I want to start with you

and just your personal journey this past year, because I think that it's -- it's more than a microcosm for what we've lived through in this country; because you're such an interesting person to look at, how you've -- you've gone through this past year. This is day 341 for you. Every day.

DR. JOSEPH VARON, CHIEF OF STAFF, UNITED MEDICAL CENTER, HOUSTON: That is correct.

CAMEROTA: Working in the hospital with coronavirus patients. We have a picture of you at the reception desk where -- well, this is the iconic picture of you. We can start with this. This was you back in November, comforting a dying patient.

And people saw what it takes just with one patient in one moment for doctors. And then, of course, you've done it for 341 days. There's your staff keeping track of how many days you've worked. You know, what are your reflections today, a year into -- well, more than a year into this? And where are we headed?

VARON: Well, you know, for the first time, we actually can see the light at the end of a tunnel. Unfortunately, we continue to see that people don't care. You know, people don't wear masks. People do a lot of things they shouldn't be doing. I'm hoping that we're going to go the right way if we can continue to vaccinate as many people as we can.

I mean, me personally, as we -- we have discussed in the past, I'm exhausted, you know. I'm tired. I mean, it's day in and day out. The number of cases slowly coming down, but that should not be kind of a situation where everybody says, it's no big deal. You know, things are getting better.

Because we've been here before. We have gone down in the numbers, and then, you know, we have the Thanksgiving, the Christmas and all of that stuff, and then we went back up.

So people need to understand that this is not over yet. It's going to go away, but it's going to take time.

BERMAN: Look, I think that's why it was so interesting watching the president last night at the White House, Errol, with that moving address to the nation, saying there's no such thing as ordinary Americans, which by the way, I think we should adopt going forward, in general. There are only extraordinary Americans.

VARON: Yes.

BERMAN: But what he did in grieving with the American people, yes, it was completely human and necessary, but there's also a scientific purpose for it. And Dr. Varon was talking about it. Sanjay talks about it, Errol. Because of risk of what Sanjay calls empathy fade. If we stop caring and grieving about this staggering loss, we won't do what we have to do to get over it. ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, that's right. That's

right. This is -- this is an important time for people to take stock of what has happened and what has been lost.

Over a six-month period, broadcasting here out of New York City, when we were at the peak of the pandemic, when, you know, on a typical day, 600 deaths, 700 deaths, you know; freezers being brought in on an emergency basis, behind nursing homes and behind hospitals; bodies being carried out; mass graves being dug the middle of New York Harbor. It was -- it was such a shock to the system.

And it's important for folks to recognize what can go wrong and how quickly it can go wrong, and that decision making by people who are either not fully informed or not properly equipped for the jobs that we've entrusted them with, it's a real serious matter.

You know, it's one thing when we talk political commentary and you kind of want to, you know, stick it to the other side; and people are making political choices based on -- on tribal affiliations almost, but when the moment of truth arrives, you need people who are -- are going to be serious leaders.

[06:10:03]

And I think we got a smash in the face and a real object lesson in what happens when you have people who are unprepared to deal with what was, in this case, a literal war against a virus.

CAMEROTA: To that point, Dr. Varon, it was exactly one year ago today that President Trump tried to tell the country nothing to see here. We've got it totally under control. Everything's fine.

Listen to what he said on February 23.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have it very much under control in this country. Very interestingly, we've had no deaths.

The coronavirus, which is, you know, very well under control in our country.

And everything is under control. I mean, they're very, very cool. They've done it. And they've done it well. Everything is really under control.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Say one thing. That first clip right there was about 20 feet from where Joe Biden, President Biden mourned half a million dead Americans, exactly one year ago.

CAMEROTA: I mean, and I know that people think that it's futile. We look back. Here we are. It's painful. Obviously, Dr. Varon, to think what could have happened, had President Trump not engaged in just denial and lies; had he been honest. We know from Bob Woodward's book he knew how dangerous it was, but he wasn't telling the American public that, and so many people listened to him.

And so do you ever let your mind go there of what -- what could have been and the fact that we didn't have to lose half a million people?

VARON: Absolutely. Every single day. And the reason is, you know, it's not just President Trump. You guys well know, this is an illness that was politicized. There was no uniform message. President Trump would say something, Dr. Fauci would say something else. The World Health Organization would say something. CDC would say something that was usually opposite to World Organization. I would say something. You know, your viewers, they didn't know who to believe?

And who they're going to believe. They will believe whoever tells them the nicer thing. If you hear that it's not a big deal, you want to hear that.

So, yes, I think about this every day. I mean, it is an unfortunate situation. Half a million people dead in the No. 1 country in the world. That is not acceptable.

CAMEROTA: Dr. Varon, we have to let you go, of course. You're back at work, as always. When are you going to take a day off?

VARON: That's a great question. When things get better. When things get better, I promise I'll take -- I'll take a day off. You always ask me the same question, and so far I haven't.

CAMEROTA: I've noticed. You're not -- you're not heeding our subtle advice. Dr. Varon, thank you for all that you're doing. Thank you for coming on our program. Thank you for all you do at the hospital. And we'll keep asking that question and hopefully, keep talking to you soon.

VARON: Pleasure. Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Errol, we'll talk to you in a minute.

Coming up in our next hour, we'll talk to Dr. Anthony Fauci about the push to vaccinate more Americans.

So President Biden's cabinet and his pandemic relief bill are under scrutiny this week. The compromise on the minimum wage increase that a key senator now supports. We'll explain that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:17:17]

BERMAN: In just a few hours, confirmation hearings for two key Biden cabinet nominees. It's also day two of the hearing for Judge Merrick Garland, who appears well on his way as being confirmed as the next attorney general.

CNN's Ryan Nobles with the latest. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Merrick Garland, President Biden's pick for attorney general, making it clear the Justice Department he runs will be different from the one he would inherit.

GARLAND: I am not the president's lawyer. I am the United States' lawyer.

NOBLES: Garland pledged an independent DOJ, one that would follow the rule of law and pursue prosecutions aimed at confronting America's biggest problem.

GARLAND: If confirmed, I will supervise the prosecution of white supremacists and others who stormed the Capitol on January 6. The heinous attack that sought to disrupt a cornerstone of our democracy, the peaceful transfer of power to a newly-elected government.

NOBLES: Garland, a federal judge, said the investigation into the January 6 insurrection will be a massive job and his top priority.

GARLAND: I think this was the most heinous attack on a -- on the democratic processes that I've ever seen, and one that I never expected to see in my lifetime. One of the very first things I will do is get a briefing on the progress of this investigation. I intend to give the career prosecutors who are working on this matter 24/7, all of the resources they could possibly require to do this.

NOBLES: Garland took tough questions from Republican senators on a wide range of controversial topics. Like his support of the death penalty for Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, something he says he doesn't regret.

He also pushed back on the idea of defunding the police.

GARLAND: President Biden has said he does not support defunding the police, and neither do I.

NOBLES: Arguing that, while reform of policing is necessary, a wholesale reduction in funding is not the answer. The judge, who at one point was the nominee for the Supreme Court under President Obama but never got a hearing, also got personal in recounting his own background and upbringing.

GARLAND: I come from a family where my grandparents fled anti-Semitism and persecution. This country took us in, and protected us. And I feel an obligation to the country to pay back.

[06:20:09]

NOBLES: Ryan Nobles, CNN, on Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: I got to say, I feel like there's a lot going on there with Merrick Garland. First of all, getting the hearing that a lot of people think he should have first had five years ago, finally getting it, finally a way for him to give back the way he wants to.

And just his own personal history in prosecuting the crimes in Oklahoma City, his family history, the fact that white supremacy is still such a major issue now, a lot bubbling.

CAMEROTA: I agree. But also just hearing somebody who is that, you know, poised and professional breaking down and talking about his motivation was really a moment that grabbed you.

BERMAN: All right. Errol Louis back with us. Also joining us Anna Palmer. She is the founder of Punch Bowl News.

And Anna, I have to say, I actually think it's a really important day on Capitol Hill. This week, there's a lot going on. But today, we're going to see the first congressional hearing into the insurrection at the Capitol.

We are going to hear from those law enforcement or quasi law enforcement officials, many of whom have been forced out of their jobs. The Senate sergeant at arms, the House sergeant at arms, the head of the Capitol Police, who will testify in public for the first time about what happened there and the security breakdowns.

And I don't think this could come at a more important time, because you are seeing a wave of revisionism among some Republican senators, like Ron Johnson, who says it wasn't an armed insurrection. And Tucker Carlson on his show, which I call "Fantasy Island," last night devoted, like, a big chunk of it to saying it wasn't white supremacists. There was no armed insurrection.

There is an effort to really, I think, suppress the memory of what happened. What are you looking for today?

ANNA PALMER, FOUNDER, PUNCH BOWL NEWS: Absolutely. I think you're right in the sense that there really -- some of the comments by senators like Ron Johnson have been so outside the reality of what actually happened. It has been pretty shocking, frankly, for those of us who went through it; for, I think, some of their own members who have gone through it.

This is the first time we'll hear from some of these -- those three law enforcement officials. I think that's going to be key.

I also think, you know, my colleagues caught up with Senator Blunt, who's the top Republican official on the committee. And they're looking to see, does -- does the oversight of Capitol police work the way that it's set up? We could see some real changes that are going to potentially be made, depending upon what comes out of these hearings.

And I think for a lot of these members that lived through it, it's going to be another moment where they have to really reconcile the fact of what happened with Donald Trump and the fact that he was responsible for this insurrection. CAMEROTA: Errol, no armed insurrection. What is that? What are they

doing. What is Senator Johnson, what's FOX TV doing? What do they say to the 100 Capitol police officers who were wounded by weapons?

LOUIS: Yes. This is the final act of the Trump administration. And these are the loyal followers who are trying once more to gaslight the entire nation and tell us that we didn't see what we all plainly saw.

Trying to tell people that, although there were multiple deaths, although there were, you know, gallows set up outside and people chanting hang the vice president, that it was -- that it wasn't terrorism, that it wasn't an attack on government, that we didn't see people being gouged and maimed and didn't see feces smeared all over the Capitol by this gang of looters.

It doesn't work as well, I think we're finding, if you don't have Donald Trump at the head of it, and you don't have a Donald Trump with a Twitter account driving millions of millions of people into deep disinformation and misinformation.

Instead you've got, like, the B team and the C team. And you've got people trying to sort of lamely attempt to -- to convince the nation that we didn't see what we saw.

It's not going to work. There's going to be prosecutions. There's going to be confessions. There's going to be testimony. Our institutions are strong enough, thank God, that we can find out, discover from people under oath with real penalties.

You know, Tucker Carlson faces no penalties if he gets up and lies. In fact, he gets millions of dollars. Ron Johnson faces no penalties if he gets up and lies. But under oath, I think we're going to hear today and in the weeks ahead what really happened. And I think the American people are smart enough to figure out truth from falsehood.

BERMAN: I will say, this type of revisionism, it has a scary place in our world history. It really does. What's going on now shouldn't be ignored.

Anna, the Joe Manchin file. In today's -- so go the days of our Joe Manchin here today. Now he is proposing an alternative to an increase in the minimum wage, suggesting that he's not in favor of $15 minimum wage as part of the $1.9 trillion relief package, but he would support $11 or maybe a smidge more.

How much of a chance does this have of getting through? Assuming -- leave the Senate parliamentarian issue aside, whether or not it can be included in this type of a bill, but assuming it can, is that the type of thing that could get 50 Democratic votes?

[06:25:12]

PALMER: Certainly. I think leaving aside to your point the parliamentarian issue, which we'll see what happens in the next two days whether any minimum wage could be a part of this. But for Joe Manchin, he is really playing deal maker here. He has

asserted himself in a way that, yes, he was always kind of that figure who could make or break a deal, but he has now potentially taking down two of Joe Biden's nominees and trying to cut a deal here on minimum wage.

I do think if he can get Kyrsten Sinema on board, the other moderate Democrat who's been skeptical of a $15 minimum wage, there could be a deal here; and that could actually kind of appease some of the progressives who are adamant that this should be included. It is going to be something that we're going to be watching very closely in the coming days.

CAMEROTA: And Errol, I mean, Joe Biden had signaled that he wasn't -- it wasn't his way or the highway when it came to $15 an hour minimum wage. I mean, this might just be the happy medium that people have been looking for.

LOUIS: It would be a shame if that were the case. I mean, folks, your viewers should keep in mind, Alisyn, that when they say $15 minimum wage, they're not talking about enacting that this year or even next year or even the year after. It's supposed to ramp up over a period of years.

And it's not going to be indexed to inflation, which by the way, are major mistakes in this. This is why this question comes up over and over. They're talking about phasing it in by, I think, 2025 or something.

And for Joe Manchin to say even that's too quick. Even that's too much, in a state that he represents in the dire poverty in sections of that state, is really shameful.

I mean, if they can have a hearing where they may be try and bring some of these senators to their senses about what's really needed by people who are struggling, who are working every day and still staying poor, perhaps they can adjust the conversation. And perhaps the compromise could be more like, OK, we'll take our time, and we'll phase it in a little bit slower.

But my goodness, people have got to be able to make a living wage. I think that's what the election in part was about, and that's how the American people voted.

BERMAN: Anna, it's 6:26 in the morning and as of now, Neera Tanden is still President Biden's nominee to lead the Office of Management and budget. At 6:26 p.m. tonight, will she still be the nominee?

PALMER: We don't know yet. I am very bearish that Neera Tanden is the nominee. I think it depends -- it's a moment of when not if they pull her nomination. There's no Republicans right now on the horizon that are going to be helping her out, which is what she needs.

I think there's a lot more enthusiasm behind somebody like a Shalanda Young or others who could potentially be a much easier, you know, kind of OBM director nomination right now. I have a hard time seeing it. BERMAN: Anna Palmer, Errol Louis, thank you both so much for waking up

with us. Appreciate it.

LOUIS: Thank you.

BERMAN: Coming up, new details about what investigators believe caused the catastrophic engine failure on the United flight this weekend and a new image that shows just how close the flight came to near disaster.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)