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Biden Shifts Timeline Of When U.S. Can Return To Normal; Gov. Cuomo Expected To Speak Amid Growing Calls For His Resignation; Psaki: No Announcement This Week On New OMB Nominee. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired March 03, 2021 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

DR. MICHAEL MINA, PROFESSOR OF EPIDEMIOLOGY, HARVARD CHAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: And, you know, it's just a mask, continue wearing our masks. It's a -- it is a small effort but goes potentially far away.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Well help someone out there who might be listening and might be getting conflicting information. The Biden team says, you know, be vigilant, your governor might say, we're 100 percent open, like in the state of Texas, you know, do what you want in a restaurant, you know, more mask mandate.

What is safer, if you will, as long as you're careful, what can we reopen because the case count is down? We do know a lot more about the COVID, you know, COVID treatments in the likes. So what is safer? And where would you draw the line, like, please don't do that right now?

MINA: Yes. I think that open -- reopening things is quite different than telling people not to wear a mask. I think that as we -- it's going to be dependent on what is the local environment. But starting to be able to reopen our stores, our businesses, you know, we've talked about it, I would like to see that these things get reopened with the assistance of having people use rapid tests on a frequent basis to ensure that they're not transmissible, but these things can start to happen.

But certainly, we should remain vigilant, we should continue keeping our masks on. We probably shouldn't crowd into theaters, for example. But we should start thinking seriously about how to make these locations safer as they open up rather than just throwing all caution to the wind and opening up and sort of swinging the pendulum all the way.

KING: Well, let me let me bring into the testing point you just made because you have been remarkably consistent on the idea that the best way to have eyes on this, to have intelligence about what the COVID crisis is, what's better, what's worse, what's in the middle is that more testing. And we have seen, like, we can show you some numbers right here, just since January 1st, the numbers are down a little bit. You've seen a little flow there, but from 2 million two months ago to 1.3 million tests on Tuesday.

And if you look at some of the states, only five states are reaching the goal of having five tests for every 100 people essentially averaging out, you know, testing enough people to give you a good snapshot there, only five. What do you see as the risk here? Or is the picture I just presented, actually, when I went through the cases, obviously vaccines helped. But when I just went through, do we know -- is that even a complete picture, are we sure when testing drops?

MINA: Yes. This is a very difficult piece to really interpret. How is testing and changes and how many people are getting tested on any given day? How is that impacting how we think about what this virus is doing across the community? I think that there are ways to get around that to try to understand. But certainly if we continue to keep barriers up to testing, it's going to be very, very difficult for people to continue wanting to get testing performed as cases drop. And that could turn into a negative cycle.

What we would like to see is for these tests to get put into people's homes, make it absolutely convenient for everyone to test themselves, whenever they want to. This will help the public health. It will help curb transmission.

And then we make one click reporting, you know, you open up your phone and you report if you're positive, it can be very, very simple. But we've yet to actually see these very simple home tests without a prescription get authorized, and really be deployed widely. But these tools could very well help us both understand the epidemic and make sure that when we're opening up we're doing it and as safe away as possible.

KING: And I just want to pick up your point is that without a prescription part, right, that you believe that that's an extra barrier that is slowing down, the more widespread availability and use of these tests.

MINA: Absolutely, requiring, at this point in the pandemic requiring a prescription for these tests and having one physician for example, you know, write a prescription for thousands of people who they never even meet, that's not enforcing medicine or practicing medicine, that is the FDA eroding what it means to have a prescription eroding medicine. And, you know, at this point, nobody should need a prescription to get one of these. It's just creating financial barriers and barriers in the access overall to these very important tools.

KING: Dr. Mina, grateful as always for your insights. I wish we're having a more optimistic conversation. I think we're starting to get there. We shall see. I appreciate it very much, Sir. Thank you.

MINA: Sure.

KING: Let's continue the conversation now. Well, President Biden is now promising the United States will have enough vaccine doses for every adult by the end of May. The White House has offered up various dates about when the country will really return to normal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I can see return to normalcy in the next year. We're still far from back to normal. I believe we'll be approaching normalcy by the end of this year and God willing this Christmas will be different than last. My hope is by this time next year we're going to be back to normal and before that my hope.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:35:06]

KING: Our senior White House correspondent Phil Mattingly joins us now. Phil, the administration does have many things to brag about at the moment, especially this new deal to ramp up vaccine production and the like one thing where the President maybe could use a little bit of work has been a little bit more consistent on when normal comes.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, look, I think this is to some degree, a feature and not a bug from the President and from really all senior White House staff right now. And that is one, how do you define normalcy?

And two, be very, very cautious about predictions. If there's one thing they learned from the last administration, I think administration officials would argue they learned an awful lot from the last administration, it's that promising things that you aren't sure you can deliver is going to be a significant problem.

So what you've seen over the course of the first six weeks of President Biden's time in office is the effort to under promise and over deliver, think just for the Johnson & Johnson one shot vaccine. They knew this was in the pipeline. They knew there was a pretty good chance, once they saw the efficacy numbers that this was something that would get an emergency use authorization, but they never factored in the numbers in terms of what the supply would look like until it got that emergency use authorization.

You saw them all of a sudden factor that in and all of a sudden the supply for -- to vaccinate all 300 million adults in the U.S., the timeline shifted from late July to late May. And that is obviously a very good story for them.

I think one thing you're hearing or at least I'm hearing from administration officials I've spoken to over the course of the last couple of days, is they recognize that this is not a straight line, there are any number of things that can happen to throw, even their best laid plans completely off course, whether it was the weather a couple of weeks ago, whether it's a surge based on what you're seeing, perhaps in Texas, what you're seeing perhaps in Mississippi, or what you're seeing with the variants, there's some expectation that is coming.

And so they're being very cautious in terms of what they predict, and how they try and represent what's coming down the pike. The one thing they are certain of is the supply, which obviously they changed the deadline or the timeline on that yesterday.

And also the fact that they feel like they're making progress in terms of the infrastructure of the distribution, when you talk to White House officials that were on the transition team that were in those agencies when they came in, and you compare what they saw then to what they're seeing now there's a recognition that the decision to really federalize this process, move top down and put things into place has had a dramatic effect when they hope so long as people get the shots will speed or hasten the return to normalcy despite what the President's predictions are, John.

KING: I think the weeks ahead, the month of March will be absolutely critical at least on the vaccine front. There has been important progress now we will see as Phil says as the infrastructure in place to get those shots in arms. Phil Mattingly at the White House, grateful for the live reporting.

Up next for us, very important statement coming from the New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, he will speak in just a short while for the first time publicly since facing multiple sexual harassment allegations.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:42:27]

KING: We're just minutes away from a briefing from the New York Governor Andrew Cuomo significant because the Governor says he will be discussing COVID and quote making an announcement at 1:00 p.m. Eastern. We do not know what that announcement is about. But the Governor has not spoken publicly in recent days. And he is facing growing calls that he should resign amid allegations of sexual harassment launched by three women.

Our CNN national correspondent Brynn Gingras is here for us live in New York. We've been waiting for days to hear from the Governor. We're not sure exactly what besides the COVID news, but just a few minutes away.

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. That's right, John. And listen, just to give your viewers some backup here. Essentially, we always get COVID briefing updates multiple times a week from the Governor. One was supposed to or usually did happen on Monday. We didn't get that. We got it in our inbox instead. So this, as you said, will be the first time that we actually will see the Governor in front of cameras, allegedly talking only about COVID for now.

But of course questions are always asked at those briefings. So I'm sure there are plenty of reporters who will be asking for some sort of statement to these allegations that first came out just a week ago. Now it'll be interesting to see if Cuomo just sticks to the lines that he put out publicly in a statement over the weekend after the second allegation came forward.

Or if he elaborates more, because remember, John, we still have not gotten any response to the third person's allegations of sort of unwanted advances from Anna Ruch. Remember, she was the woman who said she met Governor Cuomo at a wedding reception back in 2019. And have -- we had that picture at the times first reported of Cuomo putting his hands on her cheeks and saying, can I give you a kiss?

Well, CNN hasn't been able to talk to Ruch about her story. But we did talk to a friend who was actually at that same wedding. And it said she was there when this happened. She heard the Governor actually say, though, that question, asked that question. And this person told CNN that the moment just felt aggressive and she remembers asking Ruch, was she OK.

So that allegation is another serious one. There's a picture with it. And we haven't heard anything from the Governor specifically for that one. So it'll be interesting to see if he addresses that. But, again, this is a big deal because we have not seen him. We have not heard in his own words other than a statement, anything toward any of the allegations, all three of them as of yet. So we'll see what he addresses at 1:00 p.m., John.

KING: Very important moment for the Governor of New York. Brynn Gingras, grateful for the live reporting and the hustle, we'll see what the Governor has to say in just a few minutes.

[12:44:51]

Up next for us, in the meantime, the price of an evenly divided Congress, President Biden loses a Cabinet pick and now tries to get his COVID relief package through the 50-50 Senate.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: The President's COVID relief package faces key tests in the 50- 50 Senate this week. And today there's a deal to make an important change to help win key support. Our source telling CNN that stimulus checks for single and joint filers were now phase out at lower income threshold. You see it right there. That change addresses concerns raised by centrist Democrats and reflects the reality that any one senator in a 50-50 Senate can derail things.

The stimulus targeting is just one change. Speaker Pelosi's office now confirms two infrastructure projects in the House bill will also be dropped. Republicans were complaining, some Democrats complaining too, they had nothing to do with COVID relief.

[12:50:03]

The COVID package is the first of many legislative challenges for the Biden agenda. Still to come, an infrastructure bill, legislation providing a pathway to citizenship for the undocumented, election reforms, and much more. The evenly divided Congress makes Democratic unity paramount, something Vice President Harris raised yesterday in a conversation with House Democrats.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Democrats have a majority in the House. Democrats have a majority in the Senate. And Democrats are in the White House. And some of us have never experienced this before. But let's own it by working with Republicans when we can and by driving ahead when we must.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Back with us, CNN's Lauren Fox and Phil Mattingly. And Lauren, this change, the targeting of the stimulus checks, it's a modest change. But an important change when again, you're trying to get to 50.

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is something that Senate Democrats who are on the moderate side of things have been fighting for, for several weeks now. They had that meeting with the President on Monday, where they talked about this issue once again. And I'll just explain because it's a slight change. Essentially, what happens now is that if you make $75,000 or less, you get the full $1,400 stimulus check. But once you get to $75,000, there's a phase out.

And instead of that phase out going to $100,000, it's now only going to go to $80,000. So essentially, you're going to cut off the number of people who are going to be receiving any stimulus check at all. And that was important to Democrats, because remember, they were wanting to make sure were the moderates at least were wanting to make sure that those high income earners weren't getting the $1,400 stimulus checks. Their argument, if you're talking to Joe Manchin is someone making $100,000 in West Virginia, do they really need a $1,400 stimulus check, his argument?

No, of course, that's a problem for some progressives from, you know, high income earning states like New York where someone making $100,000 is not the same as someone making that amount in West Virginia.

KING: And so help, from the White House perspective, helps them they think with the math going forward. And Phil Mattingly it's an interesting time for the White House because everything the President tries to do, anything sensitive is going to be difficult just because of the math, a handful of votes despair in the House, no votes despair in the Senate. Overnight, Neera Tanden withdrew she was the President's nominee to be budget director. She withdrew because of the math.

Some tweets she had sent in her prior life at a Democratic think tank had angered some Democrats and some Republicans just moments ago now everyone's -- it's very critical job Office of Management and Budget, critical power in the federal bureaucracy. Moments ago, the White House press secretary says we need a few days, listen.

All right, the computer radar homework there. This is what Jen Psaki said at the briefing, given Neera Tanden withdrew her nomination just last night. You should not expect an announcement on a future nominee this week. So they want to reboot here. They have a favorite but they also have incoming from Democratic interest groups who have different choices and you will. Beyond the who, how big of a setback is this? MATTINGLY: Look, obviously the White House is willing to fight for it. The White House lost that fight. And so when you're looking at an administration that hasn't had really anything catastrophic occur over its first six weeks, this would be considered a loss.

And I think they're aware of that fact. But in the grand scheme of things, when you're still getting your core Cabinet officials confirmed and generally confirmed with pretty wide bipartisan support, they feel good about where they are.

And officials I spoke to over the course of the last week kind of asking them, look, the writing feels like it's on the wall here. What are you guys doing, kind of go into the mattresses on this one, was there was a sense inside the White House that they needed to have the fight. They needed to show that they were willing to fight even if they were going to lose and clearly they made the calculation that they were going to lose. Neera Tanden made that calculation as well. And so the nominee was withdrawn.

So I think they felt like they put an important message out there that they were willing to fight for their nominees, while also acknowledging reality when it kind of hit them in the face to some degree. Look, I think one thing -- it's going to be really interesting. Lauren is dealing with the balancing act that's going on in Capitol Hill, which between progressives and moderates with no margin for error, particularly in the Senate, it's going to be fascinating how the President handles this because he's willing to get in the weeds. He's willing to deal and has made that very clear.

The dynamics of just this OMB selection is going to be fascinating too, John. And this is a little bit inside baseball, but you know it very well, in terms of the interests that are at play here.

You have the three top leaders in the House on the Democratic side, getting behind one nominee, something that I've really never even seen before. Shalanda Young, longtime congressional staffer who Biden nominated to be the deputy at OMB. And you have also individuals pushing from Biden world for particularly -- potential nominees. You have people pitching from Clinton world for particular nominees as well.

And so it's almost another dynamic here where the administration has to navigate Democratic politics, intra party politics, and intra White House politics. There are individuals who want specific people for this position, and how that plays out.

And frankly, how the President steps in and decides who this nominee is going to be really interesting, just in terms of the internal dynamics of the White House, because while most people don't really necessarily pay much attention to what the OMB director does or who he or she is, it is an extraordinarily important position particularly given how big and to quote Biden bold this administration wants to go with some of their economic policies over the course of the next several years.

[12:55:07] KING: Right. I agree with you 100 percent. Most of this lobbying is done behind closed doors. It is not subtle when the Speaker of the House, her number two and number three, put their name on a piece of paper and release it to the public.

You need our votes, Mr. President, we'd like this pick. And to that point, Lauren Fox, one of the reasons he needs the votes, he knows and you heard Vice President Harris as well, saying, look, Democrats, we're going to have some family feuds.

We're going to disagree over some details, but we have to stick together in the votes on the end. Is that, listen here, it's just, you know, former Senator Biden, now President Biden thinks he can reach out to Republicans, we'll see on infrastructure bills. We'll see if we get surprised on the Senate COVID bill, but we did not on the House side. Listen to the Republicans who have clearly decided if Biden is for it or against it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MINORITY LEADER: Vast catalog of liberal spending with basically no relationship whatsoever to beating COVID- 19.

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO (R-WY): This whole bill, in my opinion, gets an F grade because it fails to do what it's supposed to do.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL): I'm not going to get pumped into voting for a bill that helps Pelosi bail out California that helps the Schumer bailout the predator, Governor of New York.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Pretty clear. You're not -- you can't count. You might get a Republican vote here and Republican vote there. But you cannot start any conversation counting on him.

FOX: Well, that's exactly right. They are not counting on any Republican votes in the Senate. Let's be very clear about that. That's what part of this compromise with the Senate moderates was all about. I should note that that's also one of the reasons you saw those transportation projects in New York, a bridge in New York, and as well as a rail system in California get taken out of the bill because that was a common, common refrain they heard from Republicans.

Look at this huge relief bill, and then they pointed to these two smaller projects in the bill as their reason for voting against it. Democrats wanted to extract that out of the bill, in part because they want to make this a tougher argument for Republicans when they go home and rail against what is a very popular bill when it comes to giving people direct checks, when it comes to helping small businesses, getting kids back to school. Those are popular provisions. Democrats are feeling good about them. So extract what you need out of the bill so that it is popular when you're selling it back home.

KING: Interesting to watch, the vote-a-rama coming ahead in your week as we move on through the week. Coming up for us, Phil Mattingly and Lauren Fox, thanks so much for coming in.

Coming up for us, a U.S. civilian contractor dead now after a rocket attacks against an Iraqi base hosting U.S. troops.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Topping our Political Radar today. Sad news, the Pentagon says a U.S. civilian contractor had a heart attack and died that during a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base that is home to U.S.-led coalition troops. At least 10 rockets hit the al-Asad airbase during that attack. It comes less than a week after you a U.S. strike in Syria targeting two Iranian-backed militia groups. No group has claimed responsibility for the recent attack.

[12:59:56]

That's it for us today on Inside Politics. Hope to see you back here this time tomorrow. Brianna Keilar picks up our coverage on a busy News Day right now. Have a good day.