Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Biden Talks about Illegitimate Elections; Kentucky Health System at Tipping Point; FBI Searches Congressman's Home; Embiid Ties Career High. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired January 20, 2022 - 06:30   ET

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


[06:30:00]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: Among the Democratic caucus. And worth noting that that speech took place as the Democratic president was giving a news conference at the White House. So, no longer following old rules of decor that say you wait to say your piece until the -- your president is finished.

All right, Lauren Fox, thanks very much for your reporting.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Also this morning, President Biden facing backlash after saying this about the legitimacy of upcoming election without the voting reform bills he wanted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Oh, yes, I think it easy to be -- be legitimate. Imagine -- imagine if, in fact, Trump has succeeded in convincing Pence to not count the votes. Imagine if --

QUESTION: In regards to 2022, sir, the midterm elections.

BIDEN: Oh, 2022. I mean imagine if those attempts to say that the count was not legit. You have to recount it and we're not going to count -- we're going to discard the following votes. I mean, sure, it -- it -- it -- I'm not saying it's going to be legit. It's -- the increase and the prospect of being illegitimate is a direct proportion of us not being able to get these -- these reforms passed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Joining us now, CNN political commentator and former special assistant to President George W. Bush, and a key aide to Mitch McConnell, Scott Jennings. And back with us, Washington bureau chief of "USA Today," Susan Page. Susan, obviously, the former president was criticized for questioning

legitimacy of the elections and undermining the legitimacy of the elections before, during and after they happened here. Now, President Biden refusing to say the upcoming elections will be legitimate.

How could he or should he have answered that question?

SUSAN PAGE, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, "USA TODAY": John, I think democracy scholars were very dismayed by the president's comments here because, of course, we've learned -- if we've learned anything in the past year or so it's the fragility of our democracy, the need to protect it.

And President Trump's -- perhaps the most dangerous thing former President Trump has done is convinced millions of Americans that the 2020 election wasn't free and fair, that they can't trust the elections to be legitimate.

Democrats have generally said that 2020 was free and fair. You can trust the election process.

And I understand the president's -- President Biden's point that he was pushing very hard for the voting rights bill. But to sow doubt among his own followers about whether they can trust the election return -- returns the next time around, I think, is -- is something that worries a lot of people who want to make sure Americans believe what has been the truth, that they can trust our elections.

HUNT: Yes, he seemed to have the base of his party in mind as he answered that question, as opposed to when we have heard him talk about the importance of -- of the moment and of defending our democracy.

And Scott Jennings, from a political perspective, I mean, you know very well how this hurt Republicans in Georgia when the former president was saying, hey, you can't trust this. And there were a lot of people who stayed home because they didn't think or believe that their vote would be counted.

What are the potential political ramifications of this in addition to the ramifications for the health and safety of our democracy?

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, you raise an excellent point, Kasie, about the Georgia elections. If you give your party the idea that somehow it doesn't matter whether you vote, hey, it turns out some people are listening. And Republicans, at least in some cases, were listening in Georgia. I suspect some Democrats were listening to Joe Biden yesterday.

To me, though, the larger implications here, though, are for what happens in '22 and '24. I mean to pre-spin what looks like is going to be a good Republican year, to pre-spin that as illegitimate and then to go ahead and start to pre-spin the idea that if I don't get re- elected that's also illegitimate. You know, we're on a long escalator here of parties trying to raise legitimacy concerns about elections of not just congressman and senators, but also commanders in chief. And so, to me, the clear way to clean this up today is for Joe Biden

to call up Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi and say, we're pivoting now to his voting rights thing. We've got to reform the Electoral Count Act to give people something that's germane to the question of January 6th. I'm dubious Democrats want to do it because they like to use this law. They used it on Bush. They used it on Trump. And I suspect they'll want to use it in '24 if a Republican wins. But that would be the way to pivot out and to show that he actually wants to do something that's germane to fix January 6th and not just germane to his own -- the health of his own political party.

BERMAN: So -- so to be fair, Scott, he didn't specifically say, if I don't win that it's illegitimate, which is something that --

JENNINGS: He said it all depends. He said it all depends.

BERMAN: Right.

JENNINGS: He said it all depends.

BERMAN: I understand. I understand that --

JENNINGS: That was the answer. That's not a -- that's not a good answer!

BERMAN: I know, which leads me to my next question, though, Scott, which is this, which is, you well know that there are candidates running for office who will control election apparati (ph), if that's the plural, in states like Arizona and other places, who are running on a lie, right? You have candidates who are literally running on the idea that 2020 was illegitimate.

[06:35:05]

So how do you, if you are President Biden, deal with the possibility that you will have -- you might very well have people in office who you know have lied about elections and have promised to enforce lies about election, how do you answer that question, Scott?

JENNINGS: The defused nature of our elections is what protects our elections. You have boards of elections, county clerks, secretaries of state. I know you're making predictions about what might happen in this election. I don't know if that's going to happen or not. And as you know, I don't agree with the idea of casting doubt about the legitimacy of our election.

BERMAN: Oh, I know you don't.

JENNINGS: But the diffused nature -- the diffused nature of our elections is what protects the sanctity of our elections. And so if I were Joe Biden, I would absolutely cast absolute confidence in the legitimacy of the way we do it and not tell people that if you don't do it my way, a, elections are illegitimate and, b, you might be a racist, because that's basically been his message for the last two weeks. So, I hear you on the Republicans. You know where I am on that. But you cannot add fuel to that fire on the other side of the equation and keep us on this long escalator of delegitimizing our democracy.

HUNT: Scott, while we have you here, can I ask you about the ways in which Mitch McConnell was raised during the press conference yesterday. I mean President Biden continued to say that they are friends. He also said he was surprised by just how intransigent Republicans have been, which, you know, a lot of liberal observers are looking at what your former -- former boss, I suppose, and confident has -- confidant has done for the last several years and said, why on earth were you surprised that Mitch McConnell didn't want to go along with this?

JENNINGS: Well, I -- first of all, it's not true. I mean the biggest accomplish Joe Biden has, in my opinion, is the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which was delivered unto him by a bipartisan group that included Mitch McConnell and the United States Senate. Now, Biden can't really tout that right now because the progressives in his party don't really like it. He's beholden to them. They don't love it because they didn't get the rest of Build Back Better. But his principle accomplishment was thanks to McConnell, Romney, and a bipartisan group -- Portman and a bipartisan group in the Senate. So it's just not true that there is complete intransigence.

Why would he be surprised that Republicans don't want to enact his bipartisan agenda? Why would a Republican be surprised if a Democrat doesn't want to enact their agenda? I thought that answer was completely ridiculous. If he wants to do things that have bipartisan support, he should do that, like reform the Electoral Count Act, like the infrastructure bill. But it seems to me right now the reason Republicans are being supposedly intransigent is because he's going after an agenda that's just not supported in a closely divided government.

HUNT: I am interested to see what happens with the Electoral Count Act. I think that's going to be an interesting fight to follow coming up in Congress.

BERMAN: Susan Page, Scott Jennings, thank you both very much.

So, just days after Martin Luther King Day, Florida is pushing a bill that critics say would shield white people from guilt about America's racist history.

HUNT: And just discovered, what they're calling the twilight zone of coral reefs. Could it hold the secret to saving the world's under water life?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:42:38]

BERMAN: A hospital in Kentucky is facing a Covid surge at the very time where the staff is just exhausted. Last fall conditions were bad. Now they're even worse. CNN has returned to St. Claire Hospital to find out where things stand

today.

CNN's Miguel Marquez joins us live.

And, Miguel, you know, you've been there. You're back. What's changed?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Look, it's a theme that we have heard not only here in Kentucky but across the country. Hospitals and health care workers, look, they've gotten damn good during this pandemic. They have learned to do a lot more with a lot less and they've done it all on the fly. But all of that comes at a price.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUEZ (voice over): Owingsville, Kentucky. Rolling hills. Rural. The coronavirus, still a heavy burden for health care workers.

DR. AARON PARKER BANKS, FAMILY MEDICINE PHYSICIAN, ST. CLAIRE HEATHCARE: I have -- I've held the hands of people dying of Covid. I've been within the Covid ward. I've -- I've had close friends lose their lives even at my age. I've had -- I've had somebody, who was like a second mom to me, lose her battle. There's just not words of what we're experiencing right now at the health care forefront.

MARQUEZ: Dr. Parker Banks is the physician at St. Claire HealthCare's clinic here. The battle now, the highly infectious omicron variant, more patience and some days less staff.

BANKS: It definitely puts a strain on the system, on an already strained system. So, right now, we have probably a 40 percent reduction in staff currently today due to Covid or Covid exposure. With that, everybody else here has to pick up a significant amount.

MARQUEZ: At St. Claire's main hospital in Morehead, where we visited in September, health care workers are still battling the virus and false information.

ASHLEY FAY, PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT AND HOSPITALIST, ST. CLAIRE HEALTHCARE: I think a lot of our patients just need to be able to be talked to. Let them know the truth. Talk to them and answer their questions, because a lot of them are just fearful of it.

MARQUEZ (on camera): People you treat, they come in not believing they have it or what they --

FAY: Some of them don't believe they have it. They -- they don't believe it's a real thing.

MARQUEZ: Right.

FAY: I've heard that.

MARQUEZ (voice over): With nearly a third of Kentuckians testing now positive for the coronavirus, the state has smashed its record weekly case count, more than 72,000. The unvaccinated or partially vaccinated accounting for nearly 80 percent of those cases, nearly 85 percent of hospitalizations, and more than 83 percent of deaths.

[06:45:07]

Sharry Conn, 80-years-old, diabetic and asthmatic, now has coronavirus, too. She had one dose of the Pfizer vaccine and says, if not for that, she might be in worse shape today.

SHARRY CONN, PARTIALLY VACCINATED: And that asthma will really knock you down. When you can't breathe, you better be getting somewhere.

MARQUEZ (on camera): And with Covid on top of it, that's not a good combination, is it?

CONN: Huh-uh (ph). But he -- the way I can understand, that the -- I didn't have it bad like some people.

MARQUEZ: Right.

CONN: Because some people won't take shots like that.

MARQUEZ (voice over): Not sure how she picked up the virus. She says, once released --

CONN: I'll get that second shot, yes. I'll go to my doctor.

MARQUEZ: And despite the sharp rise in cases, one bright spot.

DR. STEVE KOENIG, PULMONOLOGIST, ST. CLAIRE HEALTHCARE: It seems that because omicron, in general, appears to be a milder disease versus the delta, we're still having a lot of hospitalizations because a lot of people are being affected just by the sheer numbers. But I think the number of people on ventilators, the number of people requiring respiratory support are a little lower than they were in delta.

MARQUEZ: Still, health care workers here, like everywhere, working harder, longer and with seemingly no end to the pandemic or the nation's bad mood.

CHARLOTTE KINNEY, NURSE MANAGER, ST. CLAIRE REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER: Everybody just needs to try to be a little more patient and be kinder with each other. Everybody's got their own struggles, whether it's where they work or what they're dealing with, with their families. People has had losses personally. So we just need to all work together to be kinder place, I think.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUEZ: Now, look, I was really struck by the pessimism on behalf of a lot of the workers that I spoke to this time around. Usually they see the light at the end of the tunnel. They feel that that tunnel has only gotten longer and longer. They're not sure how deep or how long this current wave is going to be and they have no idea of another wave is on the horizon.

John.

BERMAN: They've been through so much. And they're only human at this point, though we ask them to be superhuman and have for two years now.

Miguel Marquez, you are superhuman. Thank you so much for keeping -- bringing us these important stories.

MARQUEZ: You got it.

BERMAN: So, the FBI searching inside a congressman's home. What did they want? And how is he responding?

HUNT: And the CIA ruling out foreign power behind the mysterious Havana syndrome. So, what's behind the illness that has left embassy personnel sick?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:51:46]

HUNT: A surprising development overnight. The FBI searching the home of a Democratic congressman, Henry Cuellar.

Let's bring in CNN's Evan Perez.

Evan, what's happening here?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kasie, the FBI acknowledged that they were doing a search of what we know now is the home of Representative Henry Cuellar.

He -- the reporters down in -- down in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas also said that they saw FBI agents searching a building that houses the campaign office of the representative. The FBI acknowledged that they were doing court-authorized searches at that location. That's what the FBI uses to say that essentially it was a search warrant that was being done there.

We don't know the details of this investigation. We do know that prosecutors with the public integrity section of the Justice Department are involved in this investigation. At this point, Cuellar is not saying much. He says that he is fully cooperating with this investigation. And I'll tell you that the agents were seen there at his home coming out with bags and bins of what appears to be evidence, including a computer.

Again, we don't know exactly what the details of this investigation are. But, you know, it's very unusual for the FBI to be going to the home of a member of Congress and, you know, carrying out what appears to be a public corruption or a public integrity investigation at this point.

Kasie. John.

HUNT: Pretty remarkable and always usually has to be approved at the highest levels. PEREZ: Absolutely.

HUNT: So we'll continue following this.

Evan Perez, thanks very much for your reporting this morning.

PEREZ: Sure.

HUNT: Basketball star Kyrie Irving doubling down on his refusal to take the vaccine. Stephen A. Smith, who just detailed his incredibly scary battle with the virus, is going off about it. He's going to join us live, ahead.

BERMAN: We have breaking news involving the former pope. Damning new allegations that Pope Benedict knew about the abuse of children by priests. Stand by for that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:58:10]

BERMAN: Fifty points in 27 minutes. Philadelphia star center with a night to remember.

Andy Scholes has this morning's "Bleacher Report."

That's a pretty good 27 minutes.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Not bad, right, John? And I'll tell you what, the stars were out in the NBA last night. You had 15 players that had at least 30 points. That tied for the most in any day in NBA history.

And no one had a bigger night than Joel Embiid. He did it really fast as well. The Sixers' star center tied his career-high with 50 points, pulled down 12 rebounds, and he did all of it in 27 minutes of action. He joins Warriors' star Klay Thompson as the only players in NBA history to score 50 or more points in less than 28 minutes. Philly beating the Magic 123-110 in that one.

All right, Tonga, meanwhile, continues to try to recover from the volcano eruption that caused a tsunami to decimate their country. Their most recognizable athlete, Pita Taufatofua, known for going shirtless and oiled up while being the country's flag bearer for the last three Olympics, has set up a Go Fund Me page. And Pita says his home is unrecognizable.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PITA TAUFATOFUA, SUMMER AND WINTER OLYMPIAN: When you're there in Tonga, everything is lush. It's green. It's blue. It's -- it's full of life. But you look at it now, it looks like a 1910 black and white film. And it's like that's -- you know, everything's just covered in -- in ash.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SCHOLES: Yes, and Pita has already raised more than $540,000 to help his home country. And, John, unfortunately, Pita told CNN's Amanda Davis, he's still not been able to reach his father after that tsunami.

BERMAN: Look, and I've got a lot of concern about what we're not seeing from Tonga right now. So hard to get there. Very little communication. I don't think the world even knows the full scope of the damage there.

Thank you very much for that report this morning. Super important.

SCHOLES: All right.

BERMAN: NEW DAY continues right now.

[07:00:00]

Good morning to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. It is Thursday, January 20th. I'm John Berman. Brianna on night duty this week.