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EU Declares AstraZeneca Vaccine Safe; U.S. Open to Communication with Russia; FBI Releases Video of Capitol Riot; House weighs Overturning Iowa Election. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired March 19, 2021 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Great to have you with us this morning.

British medical regulators, just before we heard from their European counterparts, had said there was no evidence the vaccine causes blood clots. That being said, as I'm sure you know, there has been a fair amount of damage done to public confidence. Recent polling in France showed just 22 percent of the population trusts the AstraZeneca vaccine.

How concerned are you about that confidence? How do you rebuild it?

PROFESSOR ADRIAN HILL, DIRECTOR, JENNER INSTITUTE OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY: So the process we've seen over the last couple of days where a very rare event was suggested to be associated with vaccination was looked at very quickly by the regulators in all 27 countries and they came to a view yesterday that really there was no concern. And that's exactly what the British regulators had seen independently in an even larger sample size.

So this process, which is normal in the deployment of any new medicine, including vaccines, is really important to enhance public confidence.

Now, there are challenges always with vaccines that are given to healthy people that are greater than with drugs that are used to cure disease. So people need to keep working on this because this is an extremely important vaccine. It's the global vaccine against COVID. It's going to be more widely distributed than any other vaccine. It's in 71 countries at the moment, I understand. So it's absolutely crucial that processes like this are followed through, ideally very quickly, but thoroughly to restore public confidence.

E. HILL: But in terms of restoring the public confidence, is there something like -- is there something that you would see in perhaps a change or addition to the messaging?

A. HILL: So the messaging is being worked on continuously. It's more challenging in the low income countries where this vaccine is being very widely distributed at the moment. And, you know, 30 million people in India have already been vaccinated with this vaccine. And, by the way, there were only two cases in 30 million of the suggested issue in India, so that was really reassuring.

So, yes, it is an ongoing work in progress that AstraZeneca are working on. The public health authorities have been very helpful on. And the WHO, in particular, have endorsed this vaccine. They did so very early on. Back in January, the European Medicines Agency approved it for all age groups. It was under discussion about that.

But, you know, there's no magic bullet except what we found in the U.K. was pretty reassuring. Those surveys you mentioned initially suggested maybe 60 percent or 70 percent of the people would want the vaccine. Once the available was available and people were invited to come and have it, the uptake rate is more like 94 percent. So hopefully we will see that in France because, as you know, there is a supply issue with the vaccine to France.

HILL: Again -- there is, absolutely. And as you pointed out, AstraZeneca really the dominate vaccine in much of the world. Here in the United States, you haven't yet applied for Emergency Use Authorization, although we have three vaccines, of course, which are currently going into arms.

The rollout here, though, really hasn't been as smooth, I think, as anticipated for the company. In fact, I know there were some issues, you know, in September. So in a call, trials had quietly been stopped according to reporting from "The New York Times" two days before that call. That was not brought up on the call with officials at the FDA here. They found out about it after the news broke. "The New York Times" reporting that the FDA commissioner at the time was, quote, stunned to hear about it.

You know, how concerned are you that perhaps some missteps in this country could affect AstraZeneca's rollout?

A. HILL: We're not. And that was not a misstep. You have a seven-day reporting window and you were well within that.

What's unusual about this vaccine is the press gets the information before the regulators, as you've just pointed to the ad (ph), but that's not a failure of reporting, that was absolutely within the required timeline. So not a -- not a misstep.

We are not concerned. We -- you know, if one thing were to change that would speed up the deployment of many vaccines in the U.S. in a pandemic, that could be done, and that is not to insist on U.S. data for licensing vaccines that are developed for the world. And that's really what has delayed the review in the U.S., the requirement to have data in 30,000, 35,000 people. And the good news is those data are pretty well in and we should except an application very soon, and many authorities are expecting licensure next month.

HILL: Appreciate you joining this morning.

Adrian Hill, thank you.

ADRIAN HILL: Thank you. HILL: The Biden administration suddenly facing duel diplomatic crisis with China and Russia. More on the rising tensions and what it means for U.S. foreign policy. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:38:49]

BERMAN: All right, happening now, the U.S. relationship with Russia and a place it hasn't been in, in decades. President Biden called Vladimir Putin a killer. Russia recalled its ambassador. Then Putin either physically threatened Biden or staged a trumping attack on his acuity, depending on how you look at it.

CNN's Matthew Chance live in Moscow with the new twist this morning.

Matthew.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John, thanks very much.

Well, in fact, the -- in the past few minutes, the Kremlin has doubled down on its offer for a live online discussion or debate between Vladimir Putin and President Biden of the United States, saying that the Kremlin will be available any time when it's convenient for President Biden. But they also say the offer would not stay on the table indefinitely. There are -- the Kremlin spokesman was asked why -- why is President Putin favoring this sort of online, live format. And he said, well, because this is an unprecedented situation. And that means, this is the Kremlin speaking, that unprecedented formats should not be ruled out.

But, of course, we've seen an extremely angry response from the Russians over the past couple of days since the remarks by President Biden that Vladimir Putin was a killer.

[06:40:05]

And President Putin here in Russia, yesterday, saying that he wishes President Biden good health. That was essentially the summation of his response to that comment. He said he meant that without joking, without any kind of joking, without any kind of irony. That's been interpreted by, in some quarters, as a kind of threat to Biden. This is a man, you remember, that -- that, you know, silences his critics or is accused of doing that at least.

But I think it was more like playing into this whole situation at the moment on Russia state media, which is trying to cast President Biden as mentally frail, as too old to hold this position. That's been backed up by another senior Russian official here. In fact, the former president and former prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev. He went on state media yesterday and said, look, I met with the incumbent U.S. President Joe Biden. He did back in 2011 at various events. He gave the impression of being a reasonable person then. However, it seems that time hasn't been kind to him. I can only quote Freud, he goes on. Nothing in life is more expensive than illness and stupidity. And so that was the former president, the former prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev saying that and sort of talking again to this whole kind of idea that's been perpetuated through the Russian media that the comments that Joe Biden made about President Putin were, you know, impacted by his mental capabilities. That's what the Russians basically are saying about the U.S. president, John.

BERMAN: Matthew Chance, it is stunning how closely once again Russian propaganda lines up with arguments being made by Donald Trump and his supporters.

Joining us now, CNN global affairs analyst Susan Glasser. She's a staff writer for "The New Yorker."

So, Susan, big picture here, what we're seeing with Russia and China, is clearly a deliberate repositioning on the part of the U.S. against two very important countries in the world. They're very different, Russia and China. And I think what the U.S. is trying to do with each country is, is very different.

Let's start with Russia.

What's going on here?

SUSAN GLASSER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, I think you're right to note, it's hard not, how much there's a convergence between the Russian rhetoric and attack on Joe Biden and what we've heard from Donald Trump and his supporters, including, by the way, Donald Trump, Jr., just yesterday, in response to all this with Russia, once again put ought the exact same argument that somehow, you know, Joe Biden doesn't want to debate Vladimir Putin.

And it's very Trumpian. And, interestingly, you're seeing with both Russia and China, now that Donald Trump is gone as president, they seem determined to fill his space -- a little bit of his space on the international stage with public theatrics. That's actually what's happening in Alaska right now with the Chinese in their first meeting with key American officials of the Biden administration.

So both great powers, I think, who are the rivals of the United States are really testing and challenging and probing this new administration right now to sort of see, where does this rivalry and competition end up.

HILL: It's also interesting in looking at that, that they've announced a bilateral meeting for next week, China and Russia. I mean that, too, I think, is certainly sending a message.

GLASSER: You know, international diplomacy is very carefully choreographed. They have multiple audiences. Right now I think it's important to remember that both Russia and China have internal domestic audiences as well. Those are authoritarian societies, but they're not devoid of politics, even if it's just the internal politics of the Chinese Communist Party in the case of its leaders. And I think a certain amount of hawkishness from the Russians and the Chinese is something that plays well for them domestically. Vladimir Putin, right now, has a lot that he'd like to distract the

Russian people from, including his crackdown on a huge wave of protests that greeted his arrest and imprisonment of Alexei Navalney, the leading dissident, the fact that there's more U.S. sanctions that are coming from the administration of new President Joe Biden. So, you know, there's some -- some politics that goes both ways to this.

BERMAN: How is the Biden administration trying to position itself toward Russia and China? And I think this is the big question. I actually think it's very different. I think in a way they're trying to say, Russia, you're not really that important anymore. You're a little country compared to us in many ways.

China, the exact opposite and, in a way, espousing what is a bipartisan sentiment in the U.S. right now that China is a main competitor.

GLASSER: So, I think you're right to point out there is a distinction between President Biden and his team and their approach to the two different countries, Russia and China, taking a much tougher line, obviously, on Russia than Donald Trump did, with China, embracing more or less the view that Democrats and Republicans have come to adapt in the last few years.

Tony Blinken, actually, the new secretary of state, in his confirmation hearing he said, you know, I agree with the Trump administration on China in terms of its analysis that China remains the biggest geopolitical threat to the United States in the long term.

[06:45:13]

Where we disagree maybe is in the approach. And I do think you're seeing them take much more effort to consult with allies, to make the point that it's not just the U.S. confronting these two great powers, but that it's much more about the west and an alliance and people.

But this meeting right now that's happening in Alaska with Blinken, the secretary of state, and Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, I think it's very significant. The Chinese agreed to meet on U.S. soil in Alaska, which I think is significant. So that might explain a little bit of their public grandstanding and theatrics at the opening of this meeting where the Chinese delegation leader had an 18-minute rant against the United States, again, a sense of testing each other as the U.S. really does take a much more hawkish line, even under Biden.

BERMAN: Susan Glasser, thank you, as always, for being with us. Appreciate your time.

GLASSER: Thank you.

BERMAN: So, shocking new video shows Capitol Police officers beaten and sprayed with chemicals during the January 6th riot. Now the FBI needs your help to track the attackers.

Details, next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:50:22]

HILL: The FBI releasing graphic new video of rioters beating Capitol Police officers, spraying them with chemicals during the January 6th insurrection. And they're releasing it because they're asking the public for help in identifying the rioters seen on tape.

CNN's Whitney Wild is live this morning in Washington.

I mean just when you think some of the video can't become more graphic, we see these moments.

WHITNEY WILD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. It really shows just the venomous anger and violence on the day. Let's bring the video straight to you because the most important thing, the FBI is looking for tips.

So here's the first video. This is video of a man coming out of the crowd and punching a police officer.

Here's the next video. And these are just four of about ten the FBI is releasing. In this other video, a man is walking up, here he is, holding something in his hand. Watch his hand, spraying officers with some sort of chemical irritant.

This is alarming because what we know is that two men were already arrested this week for spraying a chemical irritant at Officer Brian Sicknick. We know he later died. So we know how dangerous these chemicals could have been in the field, although that case not directly linked to his death at this time.

Here's a third video. A man is grabbing a police officer by his helmet and face mask, banging his head into a door jam. We actually spoke with this officer from the Metropolitan Police Department. His name is Daniel Hodges. And he described to CNN his assailant as practically foaming at the mouth.

And then finally, here's a fourth video for you this morning. Video of a man with a pole in the hallway of the Capitol beating police. There's going to be, I think -- I believe another angle on this in a moment, or at least you can see with the circle around that -- yes, here's the other angle. That is so violent, so alarming, Erica.

And what all of these videos in aggregate prove is that these prosecutors are persevering in their effort to bring justice to all of the -- you know, bring all of the people to justice who assaulted these officers. We know 65 people have been charged with assault total. There are hundreds -- hundreds of people have been charged total, hundreds more to go, Erica. But the hope is that someone out there, someone watching right now can help bring these people to justice.

Back to you.

HILL: Yes, let's hope that is what happens. Whitney Wild, thank you.

Democrats facing mounting criticism from Republicans over an effort that could overturn a House GOP victory in Iowa. We have that story for you, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:56:52]

BERMAN: So, this morning, House Democrats are moving forward with a review of a contested congressional race in Iowa that could potentially overturn a state certified Republican victory. The effort sparking major criticism from the Republican Party.

CNN's Sunlen Serfaty with the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): You don't often see hypocrisy this blatant.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice over): On Capitol Hill, accusations are flying.

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): I would not put it past him to try to steal a race.

SERFATY: Over a decision by Democrats to review the results of a contested congressional race in Iowa. A controversial move that could potentially overturn the state certified Republican win in the district.

MCCONNELL: Congresswoman Miller-Meeks has been sworn in. She's here. She's working. But Democratic leadership is trying to use bruit political power to kick her out.

SERFATY: Last November Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks defeated Democrat Rita Hart after a districtwide recount revealed she won by just six votes out of the nearly 400,000 votes cast.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need to make sure every eligible votes count.

SERFATY: The results were certified by a bipartisan board of Iowa officials, sending Miller-Meeks to Washington.

REP. MARIANNETTE MILLER-MEEKS (R-IA): I'm proud that a narrow majority of you elected me as your next member of Congress.

SERFATY: But in the months since, Hart has continued to challenge the results.

RITA HART (D), FORMER CANDIDATE FOR U.S. CONGRESS: The initial attempt at a recount was inconsistent without enough time to count every vote and it left at least 22 Iowans disenfranchised.

SERFATY: Hart argues 22 legally cast blots were not properly counted, ballots she says would have flipped the results in her favor.

The Democratic-controlled House is now involved.

REP. ZOE LOFGREN (D-CA): Rita Hart has raised specific, credible allegations that enough validly cast ballots were wrongly excluded from the certified totals to reverse the election's outcome.

SERFATY: The House Administration Committee voted last week to consider the case, opening the door for the full House to decide the election and potentially replace Miller-Meeks with Hart.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): We'll see where that takes us. Yes, but there could be a scenario to that extent.

SERFATY: It would be an extremely rare move. From 1933 to 2009, the House has considered 107 contested election cases, only three have led to the seating of a candidate who contested the results. Republicans are calling this a hypocritical partisan power grab, pointing to criticism by Democrats of former President Trump's attempts to overturn the results of the November election, even as some in the GOP try to rewrite history when it comes to supporting Trump's efforts.

QUESTION: Donald Trump tried to overturn the results in Congress and you supported that effort.

MCCARTHY: Well, now you're saying something that's not true.

PELOSI: For them to call anybody hypocritical about elections when two-thirds of them in the House voted against accepting the presidency of Joe Biden is, well, it's just who they are.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SERFATY: And both campaigns have until March 29th to answer written questions. The House committee basically essentially laying out the case before them. And Democrats, John, here still continuing to push ahead, still very aware of the optics of replacing potentially a Republican who had been serving here in Congress for months.

[07:00:08]

John.

BERMAN: All right, Sunlen Serfaty