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Food Banks Strained By Pandemic Struggle To Meet Demand; CNN: White House Aiming For COVID Relief Package To Be Law By Mid-March; Soon: Senators To Be Sworn In As Impeachment Trial Jurors; "Washington Post:" Oregon Republican Party Calls Capitol Riot A "False Flag" Meant To "Discredit" Trump; GOP Senator Says White House Reached Out About Another COVID Relief Meeting. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired January 26, 2021 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And we know Kate that the Biden Administration has dedicated their attention to race and the economy. But it's really about targeting both of those things together in order to try to close this gap. Kate?

KATE BALDWIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks so much, Vanessa. Really appreciate it. And thank you all so much for joining us. I'm Kate Baldwin. John King picks up our coverage right now.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Hello, everybody. Top of the hour. Welcome to INSIDE POLITICS. I'm John King in Washington. Thank you so much for sharing a busy day with us. We have a packed hour ahead. President Biden's choice for Secretary of State gets his confirmation vote.

The first female Treasury Secretary gets sworn in and the White House holds a briefing on another round of executive actions. Racial equality is the big Biden theme today and the new executive actions target police conduct, improving prison conditions, expanding housing opportunities and addressing COVID-related racism and discrimination targeting Asian-Americans.

The Biden agenda perhaps can now move forward in a faster clip that after the Senate struck a power sharing deal last night. The filibuster is still alive, but there is no paper commitment from the Democrats not to try to do away with it down the road a bit. The new president plans a speech on battling the pandemic this afternoon.

The Biden team now says mid-March is its goal for signing a big new COVID-19 relief plan into law. That is an ambitious timeline, anyway, all the more so with an impeachment trial on the horizon set to freeze the Senate for most of February a ritual step in that process a bit later this afternoon. Senators take an oath to serve as jurors in the second impeachment trial of Donald j. Trump.

Let's get straight to the White House and begin the hour with CNN's Phil Mattingly. Phil, one week into the Biden Presidency and another busy day at the White House.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, no question about it. Obviously you have the racial equity actions. The president spoke about it quite often on the campaign trail and then racial tunnel that really had of course to cross the country over the course of 2020. That will be addressed at least on the executive action side today.

There will also be a push on the legislative side in the weeks and months ahead. And there's also the push on the legislation itself, the cornerstone legislation that the Biden Administration is coming opening - coming out of the gates with and that's that $1.9 trillion COVID relief plan.

I think it's really interesting, John, you were listening closely when the president spoke yesterday, took questions about that relief plan and he made clear he is still pushing to have bipartisan support for that proposal.

But there was one thing in particular that caught my attention, particularly given what sources tell me is likely coming next on the economic agenda. And that was his point that unity doesn't necessarily mean Republicans are voting for something.

Unity means that they believe that their policies are popular and they believe that the core components of that $1.9 trillion COVID relief plan are largely popular, whether it's related to vaccines or school funding and extension of the unemployment insurance pieces of that. They believe that's popular, and what that's under scoring - John, back to you?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: --allegiance to the same that I take this obligation freely.

JANET YELLEN, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: That I take this obligation freely.

HARRIS: Without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion.

YELLEN: Without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion.

HARRIS: And that I will well and faithfully discharge.

YELLEN: And that I will well and faithfully discharge.

HARRIS: The duties of the office upon which I'm about to enter.

YELLEN: The duties of the office upon which I'm about to enter.

HARRIS: So help me God.

YELLEN: So help me God.

HARRIS: Congratulations, Madam Secretary, congratulations.

YELLEN: Vice President, thank you so much.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, all. And we're going to get back to where we can.

HARRIS: Thank you.

YELLEN: Thank you.

HARRIS: Congratulations.

YELLEN: Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: You're seeing right there Janet Yellen just sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris, our first female Vice President swearing in our first female Treasury Secretary an instant choice of location there that on one of the side entrances at the White House, you can walk directly across there - some fencing because for security reasons but directly across the Treasury Department.

Phil, sorry for the interruption that's just more proof of how busy it is there, trying to get the new team in place. You were talking about the economic agenda. Now the Treasury Secretary is in place, part of the administration team not only to get enacted into law but then to use the mechanics of government to implement it.

MATTINGLY: Yes, and I appreciate the Biden Administration for setting that swearing in up perfectly to bolster my conversation here. Look, I think there is couple of pieces right now. One thing that I continually pick up and this actually goes to what Janet Yellen said in her congressional testimony for her confirmation hearing and that is, one that they plan to go big.

And obviously Republicans have raised concerns about the size and scale of this opening package but something that I keep hearing is that this is just the start. There will be another jobs package that will follow this COVID relief package that will likely be larger than the $1.9 trillion price tag on this COVID relief package.

And while the president has repeatedly said he wants bipartisan support, he wants unity. Democrats are very clear right now that they're willing to give Republicans a couple weeks to come on board, but they're not willing to cut down their package in a significant manner. That goes for the next package that's coming as well.

[12:05:00]

MATTINGLY: And the reason why, and I think this is a really important point as you kind of try and get into how this administration is operating on the economic side. A lot of the people on the economic team were veterans of the Obama White House were there in 2009 and 2010 where the stimulus came in at about $787 billion.

And a lot of them regret that the stimulus was less than a trillion dollars, that they didn't go big enough, early enough. And therefore the recession stretched out longer than it should have.

The economic policy lessons learned on the democratic side of which many of those Democrats are now working in this White House play an enormous role in terms of what the administration is going to be pushing for in the days ahead and in the weeks ahead.

So as you noted, they want that COVID relief plan passed through congress whether with Republican support or through Democrats only, using a budget mechanism, at some point by mid-March.

And shortly thereafter, perhaps even before it's passed, it is very likely, I am told, that they will present their second package, the jobs package that they believe is a crucial component of the Biden build back better plan that they're laying out here. That will be a very large package. It will deal with infrastructure; it will deal with climate as well.

While the full components are not completely drafted at this point in time, the one thing you can take away from all of this is the idea that Republicans getting involved in these negotiations are going to significantly slash the top line cost of these packages doesn't seem likely at this point in time.

Democrats from Janet Yellen in a confirmation hearing on down, and including the president are making very clear they have majorities in the house and the Senate. It might be very, very small, but they believe now is the time to go big. The lessons learned from the 2008 financial crisis bolster their opinion on that view and that is exactly what they plan on doing in the weeks and months ahead whether they have Republican support or not.

KING: It's going to be a fascinating test that Democrat discipline and the new president steal after he at least tries as bipartisanship whether he's willing to go forward. Phil Mattingly, appreciate the juggle there at the top of the program.

You just watched Janet Yellen sworn in as Treasury Secretary right now in the floor of the United States Senate, Anthony Blinken, and the president's choice for Secretary of State getting a confirmation vote. We'll keep count of that math for you bringing the final results momentarily. We expect that to sell trough.

And as Phil just noted, the looming impeachment trial presents the new president and the new democratic Senate majority with the big focus challenge. Once it starts in two weeks, the impeachment trial will jam up everything. So team Biden needs to pick and choose what it wants to get done first the cabinet of course, the immediate concern.

Then that big Coronavirus relief package we were just talking about with Phil there. President views that as his top 100-days priority. And go big still the Biden way at the moment. The president and his team well aware Republicans don't like the big price tag, but they say they're not interested in scaling it back too much or not interested they say also in breaking it into pieces.

Let's go straight up to Capitol Hill and CNN's Lauren Fox. And so, Lauren, that will become the challenge. First the president says I'm going to try to get Republicans on board. But if I can't, then it becomes a big question of democratic discipline. LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right, and

you're starting to see some democratic lawmakers running out of patience and pretty quickly. That's because they're starting to hear from some moderate Republicans like Senator Susan Collins saying, look, let's hold on that's put on the breaks here. We just passed a little over a month ago, a $900 billion COVID relief package.

Do we really need to go this big this soon? If you can't get Senator Collins, largely considered a moderate member that many Democrats reach out to and work with all the time, there is a chance you may not get many other Republicans. Not the larger focus right now on Capitol Hill is this question of impeachment. The trial is looming here.

You're going to see senators sworn in around 2:15 today, a ceremonial process, of course, and then that trial is going to start in about two weeks. We are watching very closely to see where the Republicans are going to fall on this. And when you're talking about a bipartisan COVID relief package, you cannot separate or detangle it from the fact that a Senate impeachment trial is still looming over a former president.

You're hearing a lot of Republicans still not saying what they plan to do, whether they would vote to convict former President Trump. You heard from one Republican, Senator Rob Portman, who announced that he is retiring, still saying he hasn't made up his mind. Here's what he told me a few minutes ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ROB PORTMAN (R-OH): I want to hear them out on both sides. I know there are constitutional scholars who have strong views on both sides of this. I'm a juror like everybody else around here. And all these folks that are making their decisions before they hear the arguments, look, I think our job is to sit down and hear the arguments. And that's what I plan to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOX: And, John, he's referring there to the question of whether or not it's even constitutional to hold the Senate impeachment trial on an ex-president. That is something that academic scholars are debating very publicly right now. And it's an intellectual argument that Republicans and Democrats are telling me on Capitol Hill is an honest one to be having.

And I think you mentioned that multiple times. There is a lot of gray area in the constitution on that very question. But look, at the end of the day, if you are going to convict former President Trump, you've got to get 17 Republicans. We just haven't seen any evidence that they're anywhere close to that number. John?

[12:10:00]

KING: No, no evidence we're even close to that number right now. But let's see. As Senator Portman says, let's listen and see two weeks from now an important swearing in this afternoon. Lauren Fox, appreciate the live reporting up on the Hill. And this is an unprecedented political moment.

An impeachment trial of a former president in the very critical early weeks of a new presidency for Republicans, it is another test of loyalty to Donald Trump and a test of their loyalty to the truth. And this is not just a Washington debate. The Arizona GOP censured three prominent Republicans who stood up to Trump, including standing up to his election lies.

And now get this from the Oregon Republican Party. The state party in Oregon is calling the capital insurrection a false flag operation staged, Oregon Republicans now say now officially, to discredit the GOP and to silence Trump supporters. Former Arizona Senator Jeff Flake is one of those Republicans just censured by the State Republican Party. There he's with us live.

Senator, thank you for your time today some Republicans will say it's just some flakes out on the state, forgive me, of Oregon, and just ignore them. It's a State Republican Party saying that this was staged; this was an attack on the United States government by people carrying Trump flags. Some of them carry American flags. What do Republicans have to do to stand up to the truth here, for the truth?

JEFF FLAKE (R), FORMER ARIZONA SENATOR: Well, unless Republicans do, we're going to continue to lose elections statewide, like here in Arizona. Both Senate seats are represented by Democrats for the first time in 72 years. That's largely because the state party has gone out so far on the fringe, and we're seeing it in other state parties. I think it's probably more pronounced in Arizona. But it's all over the country.

And it just - this follows statements on false flag operations that are alleged with some of the school shootings, it's just mind-numbing, some of the things that some of these state party officials will come up with. But it really is driving normal, regular, rational people from the Republican Party, and we can't afford to lose many more.

KING: And so the question, then, for the party is going to be, as you're trying to figure out a new administration, Republicans now in the minority in the Senate and the house, you're trying to figure out a new democratic president, figure out life and the minority in the Senate for Republicans. You have to deal with this impeachment trial, and you know the Former President Trump is watching very closely.

Here is a several reactions from you former colleague, Senator John Cornyn of Texas, could you go back and try President Obama? One way in our system you get punished is losing an election. I'll come back to that. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida who happens to be up in 2022, it's about demands from vengeance from the radical left.

Rick Scott from Florida who runs the campaign committee for the Senate Republicans now, this impeachment is nothing more than political theater. You have a right as a Republican or a Democrat to take a stand, say whatever you want about impeachment, you can say I think it's constitutional, you can say the president is gone, I just think we should just let it happen, but I want to focus on Senator Cornyn. Could we go back and try president Obama? One way in our system you get punished is losing an election.

Everything the president did that he's been impeached for happened after the election. And so, again, it's a question of what people who swear an oath to the constitution at least respect the truth. The insurrection happened after the election.

The election lies about fraud happened after the election. The call to the Secretary of State of Georgia and other officials saying, can you find me votes, happened after the election. How does the Republican Party break free of this, if that's what the party needs to do to survive, if you have a Senator from Texas who was once in the Republican leadership lying, lying? This all happened after the election.

FLAKE: If I were in the Senate, I would certainly vote to convict inciting the insurrection and also calling the Republican Secretary of State in Georgia asking him to find your votes and then trying to fire the attorney general reacting to attorney general to get a lackey in who would bring the challenge to the Supreme Court.

Yes, that all happened after the election. There has to be some consequence. I just hope that there is a conviction. If there's not, it may say more about what a president can get away with and what he can't, and I think that that would be bad, a bad outcome.

So I hope that my colleagues will listen, obviously to the testimony that will come during the trial and act accordingly. But I think the president has surely committed impeachable acts.

KING: So I want you to listen here, this debate about the future of the party. There are people like you, a Goldwater conservative who wants to stand up for smaller government, free market, and conservative stand up for the truth. I've been at odds with the President Trump in his approach, former President Trump now in his approach for some time.

Nikki Haley, the former Governor, South Carolina served obviously, as the U. N. Ambassador. She thinks the impeachment is a mistake. Listen to her take here on how she believes the Republican Party has to navigate in the post-Trump era.

[12:15:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY, (R) FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UNITED NATIONS: We should not want to go back to the Republican Party before Trump. We gained a lot of people that were unheard, unseen, many of who like I grew up in south Carolina, had just been misunderstood. We want to keep them in the party, but the reality is we lost a lot of women, and we lost a lot of college educated. We want to bring them in and we want to expand the tent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: The question is, can you bring, and you mentioned at the top what's happened in Arizona. And we watched this play out. Can you bring back suburban women? Can you bring back college-educated voters who have fled the Republican Party because they don't like Trump and Trumpism, but keep all the Trump people? Or does there have to be some accounting?

FLAKE: It's going to be difficult just given how far the president has gone and what's happened after the election in particular. Since the incident on Capitol Hill, since the insurrection, 9,000 Republicans in Arizona have changed their party registration. So that's where we're going.

I mean, millennials and suburban women have been walking away from the party for a while. I think now they're in a dead sprint unless we get away from Trumpism. I do believe that the president has lost significant influence; he will lose significantly more influence in the months to come.

So I don't think that he'll hold the power that he believes he will but those who are trying to hold on to the Trump base, so-called Trump base, by excusing the behavior of the president, I think are making a mistake.

KING: And the truth should matter in every conversation, certainly. Senator Flake, grateful for your time and insights today we'll continue this conversation obviously in interesting, fascinating, few weeks, months and years ahead for the republican party. Senator thanks so much.

FLAKE: Thank you.

KING: Up next for us, the ambitious Biden agenda faces a closely divided congress, and yes soon, that Trump impeachment trial.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:20:00]

KING: The Biden team's biggest goal is Coronavirus relief, today a marker from the new Senate Majority Leader. Democrats would like Republican support for that. But--

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): We want to work with our Republican colleagues to advance this legislation in a bipartisan way. But the work must move forward, preferably with our Republican colleagues, but without them if we must.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: March is when the new administration hopes to sign that new COVID money into law. The Trump impeachment trial is between now and then. You can count on that trial ginning up partisan tensions. The next big Biden initiative is a build back better package centered on infrastructure. It carries a two to perhaps three trillion dollar price tag. Plus there are more executive actions coming. Tomorrow, for example, the president plans to issue a moratorium on new oil and gas leases, new oil and gas leases on federal land, that after he already angered most Republicans by cancelling the keystone excel pipeline.

With us to share the reporting and their insights on the Biden agenda and the path ahead, CNN's Jeff Zeleny, POLITICO's Rachael Bade, and Toluse Olorunnipa of the Washington Post. Jeff Zeleny, I want to start with you. This is day seven.

A lot of activity out of the gate, the biggest challenge isn't actually let's listen to the new president yesterday. His team and you hear many Democrats already saying, Republicans are not going to work with you, sir. Let's just make this a democratic agenda. The president says, let's wait.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I have been doing legislative negotiations for a large part of my life. I know how the system works. I don't expect we'll know whether we have an agreement and to what extent the entire package will be able to pass or not pass until we get right down to the very end of this process, which will be probably in a couple weeks. But the point is this is just a process beginning.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: It is the process beginning, but the early weeks of a new administration's success in those early weeks are so critical.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: So critical, and look, President Biden has been thinking about this for a very long time. He's right about that, he's been negotiating things most of his life. He wasn't planning on an impeachment trial to be coming at the beginning of his first 100 days so that, without question is going to slow the momentum.

That's why all of these executive actions are happening. They are trying to set the pace of their agenda through this first 100 days. In the blink of an eye, the first 100 days are over. Then the first year is over. He knows that, he knows the time is fleeting so they're trying to push these things through. It's going to be fascinating to see if anyone comes on board with him.

The retirement yesterday of Senator Rob Portman for example, surprising many people. Would he be more of a player now at this point? I'm not so sure about that. But look, we'll see how long President Biden leaves open the hope of working with folks. But they know if they go it alone on the COVID plan, there is one more chance, you know, for a bipartisan unity thing that's infrastructure, like you said.

So that's in the back of his mind here. So it's fascinating to see how he is driving a lot of this, actually because he knows how both sides of Pennsylvania Avenue work. But, boy, it is a different Washington, and that impeachment trial, we can't say enough, that gums up the works.

KING: And part of the different Washington Rachael Bade is the Democrats in the majority in the Senate. They haven't been the majority in the Senate since almost what six, eight years ago. So Dick Durbin is the number two. He said this today, he says, "very limited time" to get Republicans on board. And he mentioned March 14 is when some unemployment compensation, unemployment benefits run out.

He said you need the new COVID package before then. Are Democrats in the Senate especially the progressives who want the new president to go big and go bold, are they willing to give him a little bit of grace here, and if so, define a little bit?

RACHAEL BADE, CO-AUTHOR, POLITICO PLAYBOOK: I mean, clearly this tension is already sort of bubbling toward the surface, right. You have Democrats who - quickly and who are sort of rolling their eyes privately at President Biden when he talks about bipartisanship.

And I think clearly there is sort of bite here. I mean, the interesting thing, I think, to watch will be its not just Republicans who have expressed concern about this $2 trillion package. Over the weekend there were a couple of Democrats who also expressed concern with the price tag.

[12:25:00]

BADE: And so, I think this notion of -look, you see there's going to be bipartisan or we're going to sort of jam it through on a party line, it's not really either/or right now. Democrats got to have their own internal problems as they try to do this on a party line, too.

And so, perhaps that's why Biden is trying to see can they do maybe a smaller package, that's more bipartisan, that can move together, because if they just say forget the Republicans, we're going to do this on a democratic basis.

They're still going to have some internal negotiating to do on things like increasing minimum wage, how big are the checks going to be? And it's going to be a lot of debate internal with Democrats.

KING: Albeit test of leadership. And Toluse, one of the interesting things is, because there is drama there, right. You have some Democrats complaining Republicans saying the price tag is too big. So your eyes, your tension and the time on programs like this go to what's going to - the conversations up on Capitol Hill. But all these executive actions out of the box, number one, designed to keep campaign promises.

Number two, designed to prove to progressives who might have been skeptical about Joe Biden. I meant what I said during the campaign, today racial equity on a number of fronts, on a number of fronts there. Tomorrow the ban on leasing, new oil and gas leases on new federal land. There are a bunch of executive actions he's also coming out of the box with quite quickly. TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST:

Yes, that's exactly right. And in part it's a gift from President Trump. The outgoing president essentially did a lot of his governing by executive order. He did not get much legislation passed over the course of four years.

And as a result, the incoming President Joe Biden has the opportunity to just quickly with a stroke of a pen to reverse a lot of the things that progressives and Democrats don't like about the past four years, on the environment, on racial issues, on the economy.

President Biden can do that relatively quickly and that builds some momentum for his administration. Obviously, if he does not win in four years, that can all be reversed by a Republican President in four years. So that when you can sort of live by the executive order and you can die by the executive order, and that's part of the reason why legislation is such an important part of this presidency.

And right now it does not seem like there is as much momentum on the legislative front as there is on the executive front. Right now, early in the first week of this presidency, we have not seen this bipartisan support for any specific deal, even though there is a major challenge facing the country when it comes to the Coronavirus, pandemic when it comes to the economy.

It does seem like this is going to take much longer and previous presidents that were able to kind of quickly move forward with their legislative packages, quickly galvanize support at least among their party, if not across the - to do something very early and very quickly.

It seems like things will take a little bit longer in the Biden administration and he's going to have to decide whether or not he ultimately is going to go along with only Democrats if Republicans do not get on board with the ideal of helping him in his early part of his presidency.

A lot of those Republicans in the Senate are looking in 2024 and are considering running against him. And they may not want to run, and are other Republicans in 2022, and the slim majorities that Democrats have and looking to actually take advantage of maybe some of the gridlock and take power in two years.

So it will be very difficult for Biden to get support for his agenda within that colloquial environment, but that's what he said he's set out to do. We'll have to wait and see whether or not he's successful in doing it.

KING: And let me add a third group of Republicans, Rachael. Toluse mentioned the 2024 and the 2022 classes potential presidential candidates and those up for re-election in two years. Susan Collins was just reelected in May. And you're in a 50-50 Senate, so relationships matter. She traditionally has been part of big bipartisan groups trying, not always successfully, but trying to resolve difficult issues. Listen to what she told CNN about her relationship with the new

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. What this campaign taught me about Chuck Schumer is that he will say or do anything in order to win. It was deceitful, despicable campaign that he ran, meaning groups, fund raising groups aligned with Chuck Schumer running ads against her.

She says she does trust Joe Biden from his days in the Senate and his days as vice president, now that he is the president, but that's some bad blood for the new leader right there. From a senator, he would need to do almost anything bipartisan.

BADE: Yes, that's absolutely right. There is no love loss there between Susan Collins and Chuck Schumer. I mean, you saw it going back all the way to impeachment last year when on the first day of the impeachment trial there were a bunch of ads going up against Susan Collins trying to hit her on witnesses, will she support witnesses.

So this is really where Biden's relationships are going to really come in handy in the Senate if he can of course bring Republicans along. Schumer and Collins can't perhaps; they wouldn't be great in a room together trying to negotiate something. But Collins is one of the first Senators, Republican Senators that Biden reached out to after he won the election.

So clearly that's going to make, perhaps, a difference if he can do a bipartisan deal. I do think it's kind of telling, though, that a couple days ago and over the weekend, we heard Susan Collins say this package is too big in regards terms of Coronavirus relief as she specifically called out the $1400 check saying people who make $300 shouldn't be getting those checks, they need to be more targeted.

So even with people like Susan Collins who Biden has that close relationship with, she's not there yet and she wants the smaller package.