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President Biden Hold Virtual Summit with Countries Across the Globe on Democracy; Former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows Sues House Committee Investigating January 6th Insurrection after Handing Over Documents. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired December 09, 2021 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Kaitlan, talk to us about this. This is actually something that Biden as talked about for a long time, a long time. What does he want out of this?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: He's wanted it to hold it for some time. They wanted to hold it in person. Of course, that wasn't really feasible with about 110 countries that have been invited. But ever since Biden took office and even before that, you've seen him frame this global conversation and a global kind of inflexion point as democracies versus these countries that are run by authoritarians. And he said that we have to make a decision as a globe of which direction we want to go in.

And that was a big message he took to the G-7, his first big summit in person with other world leaders, is let's show other nations that democracies can work, they can put accomplishments on the table. And so I think that will be the broader conversation that you see from President Biden when he speaks any moment now on this.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: What do you think that he'll say, even if in veiled terms, about China and Russia?

COLLINS: I think you've seen them obviously working to undercut the message, having their own democracy summits this week. Of course, China is one of the least democratic nations in the world, so it is not that surprising. But it does come at a moment where he is having conversations with Russia about Ukraine and a potential invasion there that they are trying to ward off. China is very unhappy because Taiwan has been invited to this summit, and obviously that is a sensitive subject for them. They don't want them on that guest list. And it really irritated them when they were invited.

I think the guest list overall is also getting a lot of attention, because the question is kind of what was the criteria of who was invited to this, because if you look, Pakistan was invited, the Philippines were invited, but other nations like Hungary, of course, a member of the European Union, Turkey, a NATO ally, not on the guest list.

And so I think when you talk to the White House, they say the guest list was one of the most challenging aspects of this, of who do you -- how do you narrow this down and who do you invite, who made the cut, who didn't make the cut, because a lot of the nations that didn't weren't happy. Singapore also not making it, even though you recently saw the vice president travel there, the defense secretary went there as well, talking about that relationship. And so I think that is another factor that will be kind of looming over this.

BERMAN: I tell you, I think this is fascinating today, and the timing is fascinating. And I will be listening very closely to whether or not the president makes specific reference or veiled reference to three countries. We've talked about two of them. Ukraine, obviously Russian troops amassing on the board, China, with the U.S. and now other nations staging a diplomatic boycott of the Olympics that I think will only grow over the next several weeks. But the third country that I'm most interested to see if Joe Biden refers to is the United States, is how he deals with what has gone on in the U.S. and the insurrection and the aftermath, how he deals with that when he speaks to the rest of the world.

COLLINS: I actually think he will, because when I've talked to officials behind the scenes about how they're approaching this, they're not saying here's the summit to say look how great we are, democracy is working perfectly. It is more of a self-reflection kind of period to say, things aren't always perfect. And, of course, the United States is on a list this year for the first time saying that it is -- it had this backsliding of democracy here in the United States.

Obviously, President Biden has pointed time and time again to January 6th, what happened there. He's been under a lot of pressure to act on voting rights, something that they have not been able to do. And so you'll see Vice President Harris, and that's her portfolio, also speak today. And so I do think that will be a part of this that is looming over it, because China has used that to try to undercut this summit, saying really like the United States is the one making this argument. But I think the White House is countering that by saying, this is a period and a time to talk where democracies actually do take a hard look in the mirror and they do look at what's going right and what's go wrong, and this is a period for that.

And I think this will also maybe set the stage for another summit like this down the road, maybe in person, maybe they'll take a chance to kind of evaluate where they are. I think it will be a period for that kind of a conversation.

KEILAR: He's making a tough pitch to a number of countries, which is even as you look at China, and you're making a calculation that China may be ascendant, this is actually the path that is best for you, that is best for the world. That's difficult.

COLLINS: It is difficult. And I think that it is the reason why he wants to hold a summit like this. I think this is something that he's wanted to do since he took office. They just have finally been able to get it together in a sense that it's virtual. I don't think you'll as many deliverables as maybe they would expect if it was an in-person summit, because it is virtual. It does prevent this -- or put up a barrier there. But I think it is the conversation they feel like is worth having. However, it does bring this conversation of where does the United

States stand, where do these other democracies stand, this conversation of does democracy work and how is it viewed globally into the forefront of the conversation.

BERMAN: Kaitlan, as we're waiting here, you obviously covered this White House, you covered the last one as well. Our Jamie Gangel reports today with the January 6th House Select Committee investigating the insurrection, Mark Meadows is suing and he's not going to cooperate, but he's already turned over all this information, including texts and emails and stuff from his personal account. And Jamie says it includes conversations of people he was talking to in and out of government contemporaneous to the insurrection itself. That could be pretty revealing.

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COLLINS: Right, it is not just what happened on January 6th. It is what happened leading up to that. And Mark Meadows, as those of us who covered the White House at the time know, was in conversation with Justice Department officials, having conversations with state election officials about this. Of course, we know that was a big effort by the former president to target people in Georgia and ask them why they weren't finding votes for him. We've heard reported calls for that.

I think the timing of Mark Meadows and suing January -- the January 6th committee, suing House Speaker Pelosi comes as his book comes out. His book has a really unflattering portrayal of the former president when he got sick with coronavirus. Mark Meadows was one of the only people who was at the hospital with him in addition to his doctor and really saw up close what was going on with the president. Though he wasn't honest with reporters, when official weren't honest with reporters, Mark Meadows was of course, someone behind the scenes talking about that.

I think the reason you're seeing in part him change course here is because the former president is really unhappy with those parts of the book and the fact that's in there. Whether or not it ultimately changes the direction of his investigation remains to be seen, because I do think Mark Meadows could have shed a lot of light on what was going on the West Wing that day.

KEILAR: The cat is already out of the bag in some ways, though, with this information that they have received from Mark Meadows.

COLLINS: Text messages talking about efforts, a PowerPoint slide that's 40 slides long talking about something that they need to send to a briefing for lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Really, it is revealing in a way --

KEILAR: Which could be what, that PowerPoint slide?

COLLINS: The PowerPoint slide was essentially talking about ways that they could dispute the election results, and he was trying to sell it to other members of Congress. It is not totally clear who made the PowerPoint and how that came to fruition. I do think it raises a lot of questions. I still have other questions,

though, including this fight over executive privilege, which is what Mark Meadows has cited time and time again, and he was the chief of staff, very close to the former president, probably has more of an argument than a lot of these other people like Steve Bannon do. But remember, the January 6th committee, when they were trying to get documents from the West Wing that day, there is a handwritten note from Mark Meadows that they wanted to get that people still don't know exactly what was on that note. And I think it is questions like that that they would like to know more about.

BERMAN: I do want to note, again, we're talking about democracy in peril in the United States as we're waiting to hear from President Joe Biden speak to this democracy summit, this virtual meeting of some 100 countries around the world, where he talks about democracy. We're waiting for those remarks, we'll bring them to you live the minute they come.

Meanwhile, Kaitlan, last night, there was a vote in the Senate to basically try to block President Biden's vaccine measures, vaccine mandates. It is never going to become law because it's unclear whether it will pass the House and Joe Biden would never sign it into law. He'd veto it. However, it's a statement by the Senate, they voted to block it, and that vote included two Democrats, Joe Manchin, some people may try to discount that, but also John Tester.

COLLINS: I think it speaks to the level of how Democrats are viewing these vaccine mandates. They're not popular with every single person in the party. That's made clear by those two Senate votes last night. But also if you look more broadly across the nation, the New Jersey governor has not embraced this. The New York governor has not embraced this. There are Democrats who say we're pro vaccine, we're not pro vaccine requirement.

And even President Biden was once in that position. When he first took office, he did not want to implement mandates. He did not think that was the most effective route for them to take. However, they felt with the Delta variant sweeping the U.S. and the level of vaccinations being stagnant that they needed to put this in place.

And so all of these mandates are now tied up in the courts. A lot of them -- all of them have been blocked by judges, maybe temporarily. The White House says they're confident that this will ultimately -- they will ultimately be victorious. It remains to be seen, though. And I think it speaks to the broader fight that they have over these vaccine mandates, over what this is going to look like and over how to get people who don't want to get vaccinated vaccinated.

BERMAN: Stand by, Kaitlan Collins, if you will, because, again, we're waiting to hear from President Biden at this democracy summit. In the meantime, China and Russia denouncing it before it even begins. We're going to look at Joe Biden's different tone when it comes to the Chinese and Russian leaders.

KEILAR: Plus, brand-new scientific proof that a COVID booster shot could help save your life. And outrage at FOX over an attack on a treasured institution. Not the

storming of the Capitol, though.

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JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: -- capturing in our Declaration of Independence, not unlike many of your documents. We say we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all women and men are created, endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, among them, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Democracy doesn't happen by accident. We have to renew it with each generation. And this is an urgent matter on all our parts, in my view, because the data we're seeing is largely pointing in the wrong direction. Freedom House reports in 2020 that marked the 15th consecutive year of global freedom in retreat. Another recent report from the International Institute of Democracy and Electoral Assistance noted more than half of all democracies have experienced a decline in at least one aspect of their democracy over the last 10 years, including the United States.

And these trends are being exacerbated by global challenges that are more complex than ever, and which require shared efforts to address these concerns.

By outside pressure, from autocrats, they seek to advance their own power, export and expand their influence around the world, and justify the repressive policies and practices as a more efficient way to address today's challenges. That's how it's sold by voices that seek to fan the flames of social division and political polarization. And perhaps most importantly, and worrying of all, most worrying of all, by increasing the dissatisfaction of people all around the world with democratic governments that they feel are failing to deliver for their needs.

In my view, this is the defining challenge of our time. Democracy, government of the people, by the people, for the people, can at times be fragile, but it also is inherently resilient. It is capable of self-correction, and it is capable of self-improvement.

[08:15:00]

And yes democracy's hard, we all know that. It works best with consensus and cooperation. When people and parties that might have opposing views sit down and find ways to work together things begin to work. But it's the best way to unleash human potential and defend human dignity and solve big problems and it's up to us to prove that.

Democracies are not all the same. We don't agree on everything, all of us in this meeting today, but the choices we make together are going to define in my view the course of our shared future for generations to come. And as a global community for democracy we have to stand up for the values that unite us.

We have to stand for justice and the rule of law. For free speech, free assembly, a free press, freedom of religion and for all the inherent human rights of every individual. My late friend, Congressman John Lewis was a great champion of American democracy and for civil rights around the world. Learning from and gaining inspiration from other great leaders like Gandhi and Mandela.

With his final words, when he was dying, to our nation last year he reminded our country, quote, "Democracy is not a state it's an act". Democracy is not a state it is an act.

So over the next two days we're bringing together leaders from more than 100 governments alongside activists, trade unionist and other members of civil society, leading experts and researchers and representatives from the business community. Not - not - not to assert that any one of our democracies is perfect or has all the answers but to lock arms and reaffirm our shared commitment to make our democracies better.

To share ideas and learn from each other and to make concrete commitments of how to strengthen our democracies and push back on authoritarianism, fight corruption, promote and protect human rights of people everywhere, to act. This summit is a kick-off of a year in action for all of our countries. To follow through on our commitments and report back next year on the progress we've made.

And as we do this, the United States is going to lead by example. Investing in our own Democratic - our own democracy, supporting our partners around the world at the same time. From the earliest days of my administration we pursued a broad based agenda to prove that American democracy can still do big things and take on challenges that matter most.

That's why we immediately passed what we called the American Rescue Plan to get shots in people's arms as fast as possible at home and around the world; to help get this pandemic under control and to stimulate inclusive and lasting economic recovery. It's also helping to drive global growth.

Last month I was proud to sign a bipartisan piece legislation, a true act of consensus between Democrats and Republicans and our country, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. This legislation will make a generational investment to deliver what people need most in the 21st Century; clean water, safe roads, high-speed broadband internet and so much more.

All of which strengthens our democracy by creating good paying union jobs that will translate to lives of opportunities and dignity for working people with better access to the tools and resources they need to thrive. And soon - and soon I hope - I hope to sign into law a bill we call the Build Back Better Plan, which will be an extraordinary investment in our people and our workers and give American families just a little more breathing room to deal with their problems and their opportunities.

Our domestic agenda has been focused on delivering for the needs of the American people, strengthening our Democratic institutions at home. My first day in office I signed an executive order to advance racial justice and equality. And my administration recently released our first national strategy on gender equality and equity.

We're fostering greater worker power because workers organizing union to give them the voice (inaudible) -

(CROSSTALK)

JOHN BERMAN, HOST CNN NEW DAY: President Biden addressing the Democracy Summit talking to some leaders from 100 countries around the world suggesting that he feels that democracy can work. Making the case that democracy is a workable system and really that he feels it's under attack around the world not just in places like China and Russia but also in the United States.

Kaitlan Collins, what jumped out to you there?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE CORRESPONDENT: I think one interesting thing he said is we're going to check back in about a year from now and see progress that we've made and things that we've worked on. And saying including the United States.

I do think that will be interesting to see from a year from now are there any real tangible changes to this. What does this actually look like because we don't expect any big deliverables from this summit today.

[08:20:00]

But the President there talking about just the importance of the conversation saying that this is something he has wanted to do for a while. Talking about the inflection point that he believes the world is at when it comes to are we going to push for democracies or are we going to see more of these autocracies and these nations led by these authoritarian leaders. And that is something that he has made a priority since taking office to make a global conversation.

And you saw there he was there with the Secretary of State in front of this giant Zoom call with the leaders of about 110 nations to kick off this two day summit at the White House.

BRIANA KEILAR, HOST CNN NEW DAY: It's so telling about where we are as a country and about where we are in the world as well. Kaitlan, thank you so much.

Just breaking moments ago an incident at the Capitol where a person was arrested for trying to bring a gun into a House office building. CNN's Lauren Fox joining us now with more information. Lauren, what can you tell us?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well we're just getting some preliminary information this morning but the Longworth House Office Building, which is on the House side of the Capitol was on a brief lockdown after an individual brought a gun into the Longworth Office Building. Now this person has since been arrested, Briana, and we don't have a lot more information about what infolded.

This is, of course, all coming as there is concern and has been growing concern about security threats on Capitol Hill. That lockdown has since been lifted. Capitol Police saying that there is not a current threat to the Capitol Hill community. But, again, this is coming after a year of tummeled (ph) on Capitol Hill where you have the January sixth insurrection, you had another incident where a car drove into a barricade and killed a police officer.

So a lot of concern and obviously this is why U.S. Capitol Police has security. This is why, you know, people go through medical detectors to get into this building. But of course we'll keep you updated as we get more information about the incident. Briana.

KEILAR: All right, Lauren Fox, thank you so much.

BERMAN: So new this morning stunning data on the efficacy of COVID booster shots. Two studies out of Israel show that booster doses of the Pfizer vaccine reduced infection and death from the virus by 90 percent, 90 percent. Joining us now, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, 90 percent, Sanjay, is a figure you don't see a lot in science.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: No, we don't. Although the number that we hear often times when we talk about the vaccine effectiveness overall in terms of reducing illness, you remember even going back a year, was around 90 percent. And if you put up those graphs again let me just show you something, John, I think is important.

When you look overall at just vaccine effectiveness, so obviously the trend line is going up. But it is worth pointing out that still the numbers were small, relatively small and they were reduced any further. So that's sort of a blown in graphic if you will. You're seeing it at a sort of magnified level.

So there's two messages here; the vaccine effectiveness with the two shots was still pretty good but clearly was waning. And then over time after they got the boosters that was sort of the end of August you did see the numbers come down. So, you know, you had 90 percent sort of effectiveness with the two shots and it went to 99 percent with the booster. So yes clearly the booster has made a difference on top of something that was already pretty good with the overall two shot regiment.

KEILAR: Israel does have boosters for folks who are age 12 and up. When are we expecting that here in the U.S.?

GUPTA: Yes, I mean this is - this is a common question. So we do know there was an emergency use authorization put in for 16, 17 years old. What we heard is interesting form the FDA and they basically said typically there's this advisory committee that meets, we've seen a bunch of those, and then they make a recommendation to the FDA.

What they've said with this particular emergency use authorization application they're not even going to convene that advisory committee. So the FDA is going to basically decide on that them selves. They feel like the advisory committee has met a number of times, they've talked about the benefits of vaccines, they're going to leave to it to the FDA directly to make a decision.

So it's been about a month, maybe within the next couple of weeks we should hear on that.

BERMAN: So, Sanjay, in an interview yesterday Dr. Rochelle Walensky, head of the CDC, said that of the 40 confirmed Omicron cases in the United States I guess three quarters of them were among vaccinated people. What's the significance there?

GUPTA: Well, you know, I think that this is one of those things that we got to pay attention to. These are still small numbers obviously so we need to see does this sort of ratio play out in larger parts of the population. But also, you know, it is this sort of question all along about are we doing enough testing? These are people who obviously got tested, they're vaccinated.

The real question is what is the true denominator here? How many people out there may be carrying this, not getting tested and how many of them are unvaccinated? That's the real question I think. And we don't know the answer to that.

[08:25:00]

The third point, if you look at the data and again small numbers here but if you also look at South Africa regardless of infections sort of status, whether or not they were testing positive, the likelihood of being protected against disease was still significant just like we were talking about in Israel.

So the real goal of the vaccines, as we've said, while it may help to some degree with infection and transmission the main goal in terms of that big effectiveness is really reducing the likelihood someone's going to get severely ill.

KEILAR: Obviously the hope is that more people in this country get vaccinated, Sanjay. But when you look at this new Kaiser Family Foundation poll they found that this is still such a huge uphill battle when it comes to kids here; 30 percent definitely not.

GUPTA: I know and these numbers do change. You know we've been following them since the beginning. There is that wait and see population does tend to be larger than as initially sort of indicated. So there may be more people who do, you know, sort of jump over and get the vaccine.

It is the biggest problem here. As much as we talk about boosters, which are important as we just showed in the Israel data, the biggest problem right now especially going into the cooler, dryer months is people who don't have immunity really at all from vaccines or otherwise. So that's the big issue here.

My guess is those numbers will continue to budge a bit as more and more people do get vaccinated. But we'll see. I mean it's been a problem almost since the very beginning.

KEILAR: Yes, it certainly is. It needs to be addressed continually I think. Sanjay, great to see you.

GUPTA: You too, thank you.

KEILAR: Hitting a nerve, China says the U.S. and others will pay the price for its diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics.

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