Return to Transcripts main page

The Situation Room

Interview with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA); Biden Touts Vaccine Efforts; Trump to Speak at CPAC; Congress Holds Hearings on Capitol Insurrection; FDA Approves Storage of Pfizer Vaccines at Normal Freezer Temperatures; Millions of Pages of Trump's Tax Returns and Related Records Turned Over to Manhattan District Attorney; Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Posts Anti-Transgender Sign Across Hall from Lawmaker With Transgender Child. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired February 25, 2021 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM with breaking news.

Pfizer just received FDA approval to store its COVID-19 vaccine at normal freezer temperatures, making it easier to get doses in the arms of millions of Americans.

We're also following alarming new revelations about security failures during the January 6 insurrection. The acting Capitol Police chief telling angry lawmakers that her department did not follow emergency protocols during the riot, and she warned that groups want to -- quote -- "blow up the Capitol" when President Biden addresses a joint session of Congress.

This as conservative Republicans are kicking off a big meeting in Florida that's expected to indulge Donald Trump's false claims that he won the election. Tonight, a sizable number of GOP lawmakers are telling CNN they see no reason to debunk the former president's lie.

Let's begin our coverage with our congressional correspondent, Ryan Nobles. He's covering today's House hearings on the Capitol riots and the security.

Ryan, lawmakers did not get the answers they clearly were hoping for.

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there is no question about that, Wolf.

This was the third hearing just this week on the topic of what went wrong on January 6. And we are sensing a growing level of frustration from lawmakers up here, who are leaving these discussions with more questions than answers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NOBLES (voice-over): The blame game in full effect on Capitol Hill again. REP. KAY GRANGER (R-TX): What I'm hearing is the same old stuff and

pointing fingers and it looks like protecting jobs.

NOBLES: Acting Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman acting House Sergeant at Arms Timothy Blodgett told lawmakers the agencies were unprepared for the massive amount of people that stormed the Capitol on January 6.

YOGANANDA PITTMAN, ACTING U.S. CAPITOL POLICE CHIEF: I think that we were well in excess of 10,000 that traversed the grounds. But as far as the numbers that actually came into the building, we estimate that that was approximately 800 demonstrators.

NOBLES: The pair were critical of information that came in ahead of time, claiming some of it never made it to them, parts of it were wrong, and some of it even contradictory.

PITTMAN: The department was not ignorant of intelligence indicating an attack of the size and scale we encountered on the 6th. There was no such intelligence.

NOBLES: Still, the Capitol Police made changes to their plans based on the intelligence they did get.

PITTMAN: We increased the size of protection details, deployed countersurveillance agents across D.C., increased our CDU platoons, including deployed hard platoons. We deployed SWAT teams, enlarged the security perimeter, and increased exterior and interior patrols, to include the subways.

NOBLES: But lawmakers pushed Pittman and Blodgett to acknowledge that, regardless of the excuses, the security plan did not work,

REP. JENNIFER WEXTON (D-VA): OK, so that you will have one line of communication coming from the top down to all the officers on the ground, is that what the purpose of it is?

PITTMAN: It doesn't align one communication down from the top. It's a structured system. It's tiered. The person with boots on the ground has certain responsibilities, and then it defines each of those persons in the incident command structure, what their role and responsibility is.

WEXTON: So is it safe to say that structure failed on January 6?

PITTMAN: Yes.

NOBLES: Security officials agreeing that faulty intelligence and a lack of communication are at the root of what went wrong.

PITTMAN: On January 6, our incident command protocols were not adhered to, as they should have.

NOBLES: As their focus now shifts to new threats posed by extremist groups. PITTMAN: We know that members of the militia groups have stated their

desires that they want to blow up the Capitol and kill as many members as possible with a direct nexus to the State of the Union.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBLES: And it appears that that potential address by President Biden to a joint session of Congress is part of the reason that we still see this very intense security posture here on Capitol Hill.

And lawmakers want to know the reason why that continues, that fencing that still wraps all the way around the perimeter of the Capitol campus.

Wolf, we learned today from Congressman Jaime Herrera Beutler that it is costing taxpayers $2 million a week. And there is no clear sense of when it is going to come down -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, there's clearly a concern about security involving the entire Capitol Complex, not just the main buildings, but the House and Senate office buildings, where, adjacent, you can't get close to those areas. I drive around there on almost a daily basis. And it is really sad, but understandable, to see what is going on.

Ryan Nobles reporting for us, thank you very much.

[18:05:01]

Let's turn now to plans for a commission to investigate the January 6 Capitol riot. The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, she appears to be backing off her original plan to put more Democrats than Republicans on this panel.

I want to bring in our congressional correspondent, Jessica Dean.

Jessica, Pelosi had been getting a lot of pushback from members of both parties. Update our viewers on the latest.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we heard from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi earlier today, Wolf. She said that who gets appointed to this committee can be easily negotiated. That was -- those were her words.

What she was more concerned about was the scope of the investigation and how they will look into domestic terrorism. That's what she is very focused on. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): The point is the scope. If you don't know your why, if you don't have your purpose as to what the purpose of this is, then the rest of it is not the important part of the conversation. It's about domestic terrorism. We want to solve this.

(END VIDEO CLIP) DEAN: Now, her comments came a little bit after we heard from Senator Chris Coons, a Democratic senator and, of course, a key ally of President Biden, on our air earlier this morning, saying he believes that it should be a 50/50 split as to the Democrats and Republicans that get to appoint the members to this commission, that it would be evenly divided between both parties.

We also heard from the White House on this later today, Wolf. They said they have obviously come out in support of this commission and forming this commission. They say it is up to Congress to figure out, though, exactly how it is going to be structured.

BLITZER: As you know, Jessica, Republicans, they seem to be mostly united when it comes to Donald Trump right now and his role in the party going forward. What is the latest you're hearing on that?

DEAN: Well, it is very interesting here, Wolf.

He certainly -- former President Trump has a lot of support here still on Capitol Hill. In fact, CNN spoke to over two dozen House and Senate Republicans and found -- this was reporting by my colleague Manu Raju -- and Manu found that a number of these Republicans were very hesitant and would not debunk the lies about the election that former President Trump continues to talk about and peddled, of course, in between the election and the insurrection here on January 6.

They would condemn the violence, but they then voted, turned to voting irregularities that they said that -- of course, there is not any evidence of widespread voting irregularities. So, there are a lot of people here on Capitol Hill, Republicans, who stand very firmly in the former president's corner.

And we have seen that play out even in Republican leadership. And that, of course, takes us to this weekend and CPAC and this gathering of conservatives, where we are going to hear from the former president for the first time since he left office.

And we expect to hear more along the lines of what we heard from him while he was in office about the voting irregularities that we did not find any evidence of, but that he will continue to assault the integrity of the elections and the election in this country in 2020.

Now, we also look to 2022 and 2024 here. And we know that former President Trump is looking to assert himself as a continued -- the continued leader of this party by endorsing candidates, primary candidates in 2022. We have seen these skirmishes between him and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and him saying that he intends to endorse candidates that side with him, and then to 2024, where Kate Bennett, our other colleague, reported today that his goal is to run for president again in 2024, that that's what he's looking to.

So, Wolf, again, all eyes on this weekend to see exactly how the former president frames all of this and what the Republican Party does as it moves forward and looks toward gaining back majorities here in the House and Senate in 2022 -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Jessica, Jessica Dean up on Capitol Hill, thanks very much.

Let's discuss all of this and more with CNN political analyst Maggie Haberman. She's the Washington correspondent for "The New York Times."

Maggie, thanks for joining us.

As you know, Trump is set to return to the public eye at the Conservative Political Action Conference down in Florida on Sunday delivering a speech. What are you expecting to hear during this, his first major public appearance since leaving the White House?

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Look, it is absolutely true that he is talking a lot about 2024 as something that he wants to keep out there as a possibility or likelihood for himself. Whether he runs or not remains to be seen.

I think that some of his aides are hoping to keep him from leaning too hard into that, Wolf, for a variety of reasons, one of which is that it could trigger FEC requirements, requiring him to declare that he is a candidate.

I think you are going to hear him talk about President Biden's immigration policies. I think you are going to hear him cast doubt about the election in 2020, despite the fact that a lot of his advisers would like him to move on from that.

I think it is just something he is unable to stop doing and he will continue with it. But I do think that, whatever he says, you are going to see most Republicans fall in line behind that.

And it is fascinating, because where he is speaking is this giant event, a cattle call for candidates who are seeking the presidency, historically.

[18:10:03]

None of them are going to be able to get much traction if Donald Trump continues to put himself out front this way for the next two years.

BLITZER: Yes, I suspect he will be doing that.

It is hard to believe, Maggie, that so many Republican lawmakers actually believe the former president's lies about the election we're talking about. But most are very reluctant to actually criticize him publicly. Why are they so scared? Is this the most important loyalty test for the Republicans right now?

HABERMAN: Well, to be clear, Wolf, it is a lie what he is saying about the election and has been saying about it being rigged and stolen from him. Those are lies. Those are lies he has fed to his supporters, in the words of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, over and over.

But you have the voters who now believe it, because they have been told this. And those voters then pressure other Republican lawmakers, who are afraid of facing those voters' wrath. So, is it the main litmus test? Not necessarily. But it is certainly a

big one. And I think it'll be a big one not just for other lawmakers in terms of how they approach President Trump, but whether he endorses people for their own campaigns if they haven't pledged fealty to it.

It is incredibly dangerous, because it just perpetuates the lie about the 2020 race.

BLITZER: What are you learning, Maggie? First of all, Dana is standing by. She's going to join us in a moment.

But what are you learning about the president's speech?

HABERMAN: They are still working on it. It is not being drafted by Stephen Miller, is my understanding. There are two other speechwriters who worked in the White House who are working on this version.

Again, they are hoping to have some of it be about policy. I have been told a few times it will be about the future of the Republican Party, it will be about President Biden's immigration policy, which has been very much trying to undo and roll back former President Trump's restrictive immigration policies and his policies at the border.

What else he gets into, I think, is still very much under discussion. We will have a better sense over the next two days. Remember, President -- former President Trump is able to take as much time as he wants at this CPAC speech. And knowing him, I would expect he will take it because this is his return to the limelight and to the attention that he craves.

BLITZER: Yes, an hour speech is considered tight.

Dana, you're doing a lot of reporting on this as well. What are you hearing?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, like Maggie, I am told that people who are in -- still in the former president's orbit are trying to impress upon him the need to look forward and not back, not to relitigate old grievances, not to say the election was stolen.

However, they understand who they're dealing with, because this is a person who gets extremely fired up by the crowd to which he is speaking. And there is -- I can't think of a more red meat crowd than that of CPAC.

Soleimani, as one person who was familiar with an early draft or at least the notion of the themes that he wants to hit told me, there is the speech that you come up with, there is the speech that you write, and then there's the speech that Donald Trump delivers.

So, again, they're -- again, they're working on it. They're lobbying him to stay forward-looking, to stay policy-focused, to stay GOP unity-focused. But you never know with the former president.

BLITZER: A lot of us have covered CPAC over the years. It's traditionally been a strong launching pad for conservative political ambitions out there, Dana. Do you see -- do you think we're going to see a broad slice of the conservative movement this coming weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or is every major speaking slot basically filled with Trump loyalists?

BASH: Yes, both are true, in the sense that there are some potential speakers, like Kristi Noem, the governor of South Dakota, who is a Trump loyalist, but also is clearly somebody with potential aspirations in the future, whether it's 2024 or beyond.

But it is a different situation. I covered Mitt Romney speaking at CPAC. I covered other Republicans who in today's Republican or Trump Republican world, certainly CPAC, would be considered so-called RINOs, Republicans in name only.

So the whole notion of conservatism has changed, along with the Trumpism taking over that wing of the party. There is no question about it. And CPAC is a prime example of that, since, you're right, it had been historically a cattle call for future candidates.

And it just -- there is some of that, but it's not all of that.

BLITZER: We will watch and see what happens.

All right, Dana, Maggie, guys, thank you very, very much.

Just ahead, we're awaiting a key ruling on whether a $15 minimum wage will be present, will be present in President Biden's COVID relief bill. The parliamentarian, we're told, is about to issue a ruling.

[18:15:00]

And we will also have more on the breaking news that will make it easier to deliver and store Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine across the country.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Tonight, President Biden is marking a major milestone in the COVID-19 vaccine rollout and meeting with the nation's governors, as he works to battle the pandemic and sell his nearly $2 trillion relief plan.

Let's get more on the all late-breaking developments.

Our chief White House correspondent, Kaitlan Collins, is joining us now.

Kaitlan, President Biden says he is not taking any kind of victory lap right now. He says there is so much more work that still needs to be done.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. And you're talking about that $2 trillion plan that he is trying to

get through Congress that is going to go for a vote in the House tomorrow.

But, today, President Biden was focused on a different set of numbers. And that is the number of vaccinations happening inside the U.S. right now, reaching the 50 millionth shot since he has taken office. They're counting that, though we should note there are over 66 million nationwide since December, when former President Trump was in office.

But what President Biden was saying today is that, even though they are half way to his goal of 100 million shots in his first 100 days in office, he is saying this is not a victory lap and that they still have a long way to go.

[18:20:04]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS (voice-over): Today, President Biden marking the 50 millionth vaccine shot since he took office.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Fifty million shots in just 37 days since I have become president.

COLLINS: Biden is now halfway to his goal of 100 million shots in his first 100 days, an aim some skeptics said could have been higher, and another vaccine on the horizon could make it easier to pick up the pace.

BIDEN: If the FDA approves the use of this new vaccine, we have a plan to roll it out as quickly as Johnson & Johnson can make it.

COLLINS: Despite the progress, Biden said he is not celebrating yet.

BIDEN: This is not a victory lap. Everything is not fixed. We have a long way to go.

COLLINS: With a slim majority in the House, Democrats are preparing to pass Biden's coronavirus relief bill tomorrow and hand it off to the Senate, where a massive fight is brewing.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): One Republican member said that the American Rescue Plan was to the left of Lenin. Seriously. To the left of Lenin? The American people have all heard it before, and they know the country needs help.

COLLINS: All eyes in Washington are on the little known Senate parliamentarian, who will decide any minute whether Biden's proposed $15 minimum wage can be included in the bill.

PELOSI: I feel we have a very, very strong argument, and we have a very big need in our country to pass the minimum wage. It could be any moment. If you hear -- because I don't have a phone, if you hear before I do, let me know, OK?

COLLINS: The Senate confirmed Biden's energy secretary, Jennifer Granholm, today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The nomination is confirmed.

COLLINS: But the fate of his Budget Office nominee still hangs in the balance.

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: She apologized for her past comments.

COLLINS: Neera Tanden is facing a possible failed nomination for her public and often personal criticisms of lawmakers.

QUESTION: Did the president and the transition team underestimate how much of a problem her tweets would become?

PSAKI: The president nominated Neera Tanden because she is qualified, because she is experienced.

COLLINS: Despite the opposition to Tanden's nomination, Biden's chief of staff, Ron Klain, is making a last-minute push to get her confirmed.

RON KLAIN, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: She is a great candidate for the job, and, certainly, we are fighting our guts out to get her confirmed.

COLLINS: Senator Joe Manchin plunged Tanden's nomination into turmoil after he said he would vote against her, revealing the sway moderate Democrats could hold over Biden's agenda.

KLAIN: Look, Senator Manchin, he doesn't answer to us at the White House. He answers to the people of West Virginia. It is our job to make the case. It is their job to decide and vote.

COLLINS: Now the White House must find at least one Republican to vote for Tanden. GOP Senator Lisa Murkowski hasn't said which way she will vote, and after she was seen meeting with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, he told reporters -- quote -- "We talked about issues we both care about. That's all I'm going to say."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: So, Wolf, Schumer did not elaborate on what it was he and Murkowski talked about.

But we should note another conversation that we are now learning about, and that is one that President Biden had with King Salman of Saudi Arabia. They spoke today for the first time.

And, of course, that comes as we were told he was expected during that call to warn King Salman that the U.S. is expected to release an intelligence report on the death of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who, of course, was dismembered inside the Saudi Consulate in Turkey a few years ago.

That is something that we are expecting this report to point the finger at the Saudi crown prince, MBS. And, notably, Biden did not speak with him today. He spoke with King Salman instead.

But in the White House readout, it doesn't explicitly mention Khashoggi's name. It just says that President Biden brought up the respect for the rule of law and universal human rights.

BLITZER: Kaitlan, on a very different subject, I want to play a clip.

Mitch McConnell, the minority leader in the Senate, just said this. Listen to this, and then we will discuss.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS: If the president was the party's nominee, would you support him?

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): The nominee of the party? Absolutely.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Given the fact that Mitch McConnell has said some really, really tough things in recent days and weeks about Trump, what do you think when you hear that, that he says he would support him if he were the party nominee?

COLLINS: Not just tough things, Wolf. He basically implied from the Senate floor that the former president could easily be prosecuted for his role in the January 6 riot.

Now, that came as McConnell was trying to make the case for why he did not vote to convict former President Trump during that second impeachment trial. But he was pretty clear in his implication in those remarks. And people that we have spoken to around McConnell since then have said that was on purpose that he was so clear, saying that there was a chance Trump could still be prosecuted and that McConnell believed it was up to those jurisdictions to take care of President -- former President Trump in that way.

So, to hear him say that, even if the former president is the Republican nominee for president in 2024, would you support him, he said -- quote -- "Absolutely" there.

[18:25:06]

One thing we note, though, right before that. He was speaking with Bret Baier of FOX News. He said he believes multiple members of his party, they're going to run for that nomination, saying it is going to be quite competitive and a lot of fun for people to cover.

But, of course, that is a pretty interesting development there, given just how severe his relationship with President Trump has been since, of course, the November election.

We know that they have not actually spoken in several months now. And we don't expect that to change. Former President Trump has been trashing Mitch McConnell from his club down at Mar-a-Lago. So, it is striking to hear McConnell say that, yes, if Donald Trump is the Republican nominee in 2024, he will support him.

BLITZER: Yes, it is striking indeed.

All right, Kaitlan, thank you very much.

Let's bring in Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna of California.

Congressman, what is your reaction to that?

REP. RO KHANNA (D-CA): It's disbelief.

I mean, this is why the Republican Party is in disarray. They need to move on from Trump. They need to condemn his actions, but they know that their base still is loyal to Donald Trump. And until they figure out a way to move on, they are going to really have a problem as a party.

BLITZER: All right, let's talk about some of the substantive issues you guys have to deal with in the House of Representatives.

The speaker, Nancy Pelosi, she seems to be backing away from her initial proposal, which would have given Democrats a lopsided 7-4 majority on this proposed January 6 commission of inquiry.

Should the commission be evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, as Democratic Senator Chris Coons said here on CNN earlier today? And, as you know, he is very close to the president.

KHANNA: Well, I defer to Speaker Pelosi's judgment on that.

I think it should (AUDIO GAP) the current makeup of the House and the way that committees do. So, that wouldn't be lopsided, but it would have a slight advantage for the Democrats. That's how almost every committee is organized.

But the important thing is to have the commission. And we should compromise on what the composition is. I'm not hung up on what the exact composition is. And it should have the support of the broad American public.

BLITZER: Because, as you know, it wouldn't necessarily have the support of the broad American public if the conclusions from the commission, the recommendations for changes, if they think it is lopsided in favor of one party or another, because the 9/11 Commission had an equal balance between Democrats and Republicans.

What do you say to that?

KHANNA: I say I'm open to this.

We have to remember, Wolf, that Republican lies were equally threatened that day. Vice President Pence's life was threatened. I have talked to Republican members of Congress who were in the Capitol who were afraid for their lives.

So, this should be something that concerns every American to make sure that we never have an attack on our Capitol again, that there are not the kind of militarization or white supremacist groups out there. And if what it's going to take is a bipartisan commission to build that support, I am open to that. But I defer ultimately. I think the speaker will have the right judgment.

BLITZER: Yes, it is so important we look exactly back and see what happened and make sure we learn the lessons, so that it doesn't happen again.

Representative Ro Khanna, thank you so much for joining us.

KHANNA: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: Just ahead, we are going to tell you what we're learning right now about a new coronavirus variant that's been detected in New York City.

And what will a district attorney in New York uncover now that he has his hands on not thousands, but millions of pages of Trump's tax and financial records?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:30:00]

BLITZER: We are following a lot of news on the COVID-19 vaccine front. The FDA just gave permission for the Pfizer vaccine to be stored at normal freezer temperatures and that should make it easier to get the vaccine to millions of Americans who need it.

CNN National Correspondent Erica Hill has our nightly report on the pandemic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERICA HILL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): A new coronavirus variant identified in New York City and other parts of the northeast raising new questions after early research shows it may evade the body's natural immunity and some treatments.

DR. JAY VARMA, SENIOR ADVISER FOR PUBLIC HEALTH, NYC MAYOR'S OFFICE: Not all variants are of public health concern. Some variants are just that. They're variants. They're just a little bit different.

HILL: Meantime at new studies not yet peer reviewed show a separate variant first identified in California may not only be more contagious but could cause more severe disease.

MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASE RESEARCH AND POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: While we need to be concerned about what we're seeing in New York and California or in other places around the world, we can't take our eye off to me what I think is the single most important variant right now in our headlights, and that is this b.117 or the U.K variant which is rapidly spreading throughout the United States.

HILL: Both Pfizer and Moderna testing booster shots as vaccine makers work to get ahead of new variants.

DR. ASHISH JHA, DEAN, BROWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: This has been one of the really impressive things about the development of these new vaccine platforms, the mRNA ones, the Pfizer, the Moderna, and others as well. It said, they can get updated pretty quickly, we think, in six to eight weeks.

HILL: More than 21.5 million Americans are now fully vaccinated, New York City making up for last week's weather delays.

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D-NEW YORK CITY, NY): We actually adding capacity to a lot of sites because we have extra vaccine.

HILL: That includes new overnight appointments at Citi Field.

A new nationwide ad campaign is targeting vaccine hesitancy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because getting back to the moments we missed starts with getting informed.

HILL: But it is not the only hurdle.

JAMAR TISBY, AUTHOR, HOW TO FIGHT RACISM: It is again more of a problem of access than attitude.

[18:35:00]

HILL: More states working to meet people where they are.

And while eligibility is increasing, some grocery store workers in Michigan expressing concern over not being included in the state's next phase.

PAUL PETROS, MIDTOWN FRESH MARKET STORE DIRECTOR: We've been on the front lines since it started and we've been interacting with customers. I'm not saying we're the most important people but we are, during this pandemic, we were.

HILL: Nationwide, the benchmarks are improving. Average new daily cases in the last month down 57 percent, hospitalizations dropping 51 percent while more than 3,200 deaths were reported Wednesday, that number too is declining down 30 percent in a month.

DR. MARK MCCLELLAN, FORMER FDA DIRECTOR: Hopefully it's a sign of what's to come as we get more vaccination.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL (on camera): Just to note, the director of the NIH, Dr. Francis Collins, just telling our colleague, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a short time ago that there is some risk of a surge from this variant first identified in the U.K., which, of course, just puts even more importance on the vaccines. And, Wolf, we'll all be watching tomorrow when the advisory panel meets to discuss that Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine and perhaps grant emergency use authorization.

BLITZER: Erica Hill in New York for us, thank you very much.

Let's discuss this and more with Dr. Tom Frieden former Director of the Centers for Disease Control and prevention. Dr. Frieden, thank you so much for joining us.

How will the new approval, first of all, from the FDA that the Pfizer vaccine can be shipped and stored at warmer temperatures potentially change vaccine distribution around the country?

DR. TOM FRIEDEN, FORMER CDC DIRECTOR: It's very helpful, because up until now, the Pfizer vaccine has been given in kind of mass sites, the Moderna in somewhat smaller because of the extreme temperature requirements. It makes it a lot easier. And the other thing that is going to get easier is with the anticipated approval of the J&J single dose vaccine tomorrow with that coming in the coming weeks. We have more options, more access, and with more access, we'll have more vaccinations.

Right now there are too few vaccines but supply is increasing steadily and the rollout is going more and more smoothly.

BLITZER: And this is so important and it will save lives. What concerns you most, Dr. Frieden, about these new homegrown coronavirus variants that have now been discovered, for example, in New York City as well as in California?

FRIEDEN: There is still so much we don't know. What we do know for sure is that the virus mutates and it has the potential to get around the vaccine-induced immunity or immunity from natural infection being infected by the virus. That's happened with the South Africa strain and some vaccines.

But the bottom line is the vaccines that are approved in the U.S. are very effective against even the variants of this virus. We have to double down on protection. We're not safe yet. Hang in there a few more months. Mask up. Avoid sharing indoor air with people not from your household if you possibly can. And get vaccinated the moment it is your turn.

BLITZER: The CDC director now says people who have actually recovered from COVID-19 should at least consider holding off on getting the vaccine to allow others without immunity to go first. What do you think about that?

FRIEDEN: It's a complicated issue. On the one hand, you really don't want for someone who is debilitated, frail, elderly, and to defer vaccination and you don't want to deny vaccine to someone who wants it. On the other hand, we are in a situation of scarcity. And so there are various things being considered. And delaying vaccination in healthy young people who have had a vaccine -- had a virus infection before is a reasonable thing to do.

One emerging piece of evidence suggests that if you had the virus, a single dose of vaccine may be enough. We don't know enough to say that for sure. But some people are really getting robust reactions. Bottom line, get a vaccination the moment you can and for a few more months hang in there. Wear masks. And avoid sharing indoor air with others if you can avoid it.

BLITZER: Such important information. Dr. Frieden, as usual, thanks so much for joining us.

FRIEDMAN: Thank you.

BLITZER: Just ahead, the tax secrets that Donald Trump kept secret for years are now in the hands of New York's Manhattan district attorney. He's got millions, millions of Trump tax documents. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:40:00]

BLITZER: Tonight, the tax records Donald Trump has been trying to keep secret for years, they are now in the hands of the Manhattan district attorney. We're told millions of pages of documents, yes, millions, are being reviewed right now.

Let's get more with CNN's Senior Legal Analyst, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara. Preet, thanks for joining us.

And what do think? How long will it take the Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance's officer's to comb through these millions of pages?

PREET BHARARA, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, not as long as you think. You know, presumably the records were provided electronically. They can be searched electronically. There are a lot of methods by which you can extract the information you need.

Also bear in mind that the district attorney's office has been preparing for the receipt of these documents for some time. They have a lot of background information and other interviews. And then two other things quickly, they've hired an outside forensic accounting firm, FTI, who's known to be able to do this work quickly and thoroughly.

And they've also hired as a special assistant district attorney, Mark Pomerantz, who's a very well known and respected lawyer in New York circles, was formerly the Chief of the Criminal Division at the Southern District of New York.

So they have a lot of ability and wherewithal and resources to put on this.

[18:45:03]

And so I imagine it wouldn't take as long as you think.

BLITZER: As you well know, Preet, investigators, they're looking for whether there was actually intent to commit a crime. What could these documents reveal about the intentions of the former president and for that matter the Trump organization?

BHARARA: Well, it depends what the documents are. Presumably within those documents are certain forms that are signed by Donald Trump or signed by other people who are in the crosshairs. That tells you something about their knowledge and intentionality with respect to those representations.

There may also be e-mails and missives between Trump and his folks and the banks and lenders and other people. That will tell you something.

And then, finally, those documents in combination with testimony or interviewing they have done of other folks, for example, Michael Cohen who may have said there was a certain kind of intent, that may be corroborated by those documents and so the combination of the documents and testimony can sometimes be very powerful indication of intent.

BLITZER: I assume once they review the documents, that will result in their decision to go ahead and subpoena witnesses, right?

BHARARA: I mean, presumably -- presumably a lot today, I apologize for that. They probably talked to a number of witnesses already. They probably put some witnesses into the grand jury. Sometimes you want the benefit of documents that relate to those witnesses before you put them in the grand jury or sometimes you put them in. How the documents call them back, it's not ideal.

But I imagine they're going to be calling people very soon as soon as they make some headway with these documents.

BLITZER: See what happens.

Preet Bharara, thanks so much for joining us. Always important to have you here in THE SITUATION ROOM.

BHARARA: You're welcome.

BLITZER: Just ahead, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene is now facing new criticism for a pair of anti-transgender messages directed at a Democratic colleague and her child.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:51:13]

BLITZER: Breaking news: the House of Representatives voted to pass the Equality Act just a short while ago. The bill would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. We are following controversial Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene for a pair of anti-transgender messages directed at a fellow lawmaker and her child.

CNN's Brian Todd is working the story for us.

So, Brian, what are you learning?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, Congresswoman Greene is back at it again. She is stirring up more controversy, this time as you mentioned, getting that brush back for the personal way in which she went after that Democratic congresswoman and her transgender child.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (voice-over): With a defiant swipe of the hand, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene is enmeshed in more controversy. The Georgia Republican hung an anti-transgender sign outside her Capitol Hill office saying, quote, there are two genders, male and female. Trust the science.

It's a response to this move by Democratic Congresswoman Marie Newman, who with a similar hand gesture, posted a transgender pride flag outside her door, just across the hall from Greene's. Newman's daughter is transgender, and Newman tweeted she put up the flag so that Greene can, quote, look at it every time she opens her door.

Greene and Newman have been battling over the Equality Act which would ban discrimination from LGTBQ Americans.

REP. MARIE NEWMAN (D-IL): It was never meant to be a tit-for-tat or a game or anything. I just need to make that statement to her. What I wanted her to do was see the LGBTQ community and understand that equality is way overdue.

TODD: But Marjorie Taylor Greene also sent a transphobic tweet directed at Newman's 20-year-old transgender daughter, hat reads in part: Your biological son does not belong in my daughters' bathrooms, locker rooms and sports teams.

JESSICA HUSEMAN, EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, VOTEBEAT: She knows exactly who she is appealing to and this is red meat for her base.

REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): Make your voices heard.

TODD: Greene continues to torment her political opponents and critics after being stripped of her committee assignments when incendiary comments she made in the past came to light, including indicating support for executing prominent Democrats.

GREENE: I'm fine with being kicked off of my committees because it would be a waste of my time.

TODD: CNN's KFILE reports Greene has worked closely with conservative live streamer Anthony Aguero.

ANTHONY AGUERO, CONSERVATIVE LIVESTREAMER AND ACTIVIST: I stand with people like Marjorie Taylor Greene, that woman has more courage than every single man that was in that Capitol yesterday.

TODD: Greene has been a QAnon supporter, espousing conspiracy theories like one claiming the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida was a false flag. GREENE: And you're being tricked --

TODD: In 2019, Greene posted a video of herself confronting a survivor of that shooting, gun control activist David Hogg, aggressively following Hogg on Capitol Hill.

GREENE: Why are you supporting red flag gun laws that attack our Second Amendment rights? He's a coward. He can't say one word because he can't defend his stance.

TODD: One analyst believes the freshman congresswoman is hurting the Republican Party dramatically.

PROF. LARRY SABATO, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: The Republican Party is getting the image or already has the image of frankly a plate of crazy. And Marjorie Taylor Greene is one of those members of Congress contributing to that image, and it's one reason why Republicans have actually lost considerable ground since the November election.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (on camera): We reached out to Congresswoman Greene's office to a response to our story. But the broader criticism of her behavior, her communications director emailed us, calling CNN fake news, saying that we are obsessed with Congresswoman Greene and that we, quote, keep rehashing old tabloid garbage -- Wolf.

[18:55:05]

BLITZER: Brian Todd, reporting, excellent report, as usual. Thank you very much.

And we'll have more news right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Finally, tonight, as we try to do every night, we share some more stories of some truly wonderful people who have died from COVID- 19.

Augustine Pepe of Massachusetts was 89 years old. He was an Army veteran, a lifelong educator and devoted uncle. His niece Andrea says he was an amazing cook who loved to share his favorite recipes and techniques with family members.

Setsuko Wedel of Iowa was 85. She came to United States from Japan in the 1960s after marrying her husband who was in the U.S. military. Her daughter Connie says she was smart, athletic and outspoken, even in an era when it wasn't necessarily common for women or immigrants to speak out.

May they rest in peace, and may their memories be a blessing.

Thanks very much for watching. I'm Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM. You can always follow me on Twitter and Instagram @WolfBlitzer. You can tweet the show @CNNSitRoom. "ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts right now.