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Striking Similarities Between Diana And Meghan's Tell-All Interviews; House Passes Major Labor Rights Legislation; House Debating Before Final Vote On $1.9 Trillion COVID Relief Package; Dr. Fauci Says He Anticipates U.S. To Reach Herd Immunity By Summer; Pentagon Approves Request To Extend National Guard At U.S. Capitol. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired March 10, 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]

MAX FOSTER, CNN LONDON CORRESPONDENT: But for now, we are going quite, Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Max, thank you very much for that. And thank you all so much for joining us this hour. I'm Kate Bolduan. John King picks up our coverage right now.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: Hello to our viewers in the United States and around the world. Welcome to Inside Politics. I am John King in Washington. And thank you for sharing a very important very busy news day with us.

You're looking right there live pictures, the House of Representatives right now the lower chamber will vote in just a few minutes. To deliver President Joe Biden's big Coronavirus rescue package, the government will send checks to millions of Americans billions to state and local governments and monthly help to American parents.

The plan is broadly popular and this is a very important win for the new president on day 50 of his administration. Democrats frame it as transformative Republicans say its government runs amok.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JIM CLYBURN (D-SC): I call upon my Republican colleagues to stop their March madness and show some compassion for their constituents who are less than wealthy.

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): I've heard people across the country say this bill today is costly, corrupt and liberal. It's a long degree lifts of left wing priorities that predate the pandemic and do not meet the needs of the American families.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: That deal will head to the president's desk just as the country arrives at a familiar Coronavirus crossroads. The Biden administration just this morning just last hour announcing a new agreement to buy 100 million more doses of the Johnson & Johnson single shot COVID vaccine.

More vaccine means the country should get back to normal more quickly. But here's the concern at the White House. States are already relaxing restrictions. Even as Dr. Anthony Fauci says, "we're not out of the woods yet". Listen here a similar warning from the CDC Director. She sees a pattern and potential reason for worry.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: What we have seen is that we have surges after people start traveling. We saw it after July 4, we saw it after Labor Day, and we saw it after the Christmas holidays. Currently 90 percent of people are still unprotected and not yet vaccinated. So we are really looking forward to updating this guidance as we have more protection across the communities and across the population.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Let's begin the hour with me to share their reporting and their insights. CNN's Kaitlan Collins and CNN's Lauren Fox and Lauren Fox, I'll start with you because we can show the House floor.

They're about to vote, they will vote in the moments ahead here on what is a signature achievement for the Biden presidency and a moment of remarkable democratic unity both in the Senate and in the House.

And now again in the House for a second vote, this bill transformative $1400 checks to individuals making less than $75,000 a year $300 a week and unemployment benefits through September increases the child tax credit to $3,000 a year funding for schools for states and vaccines. Democrats say transformative the challenge now is once this vote is done to roll it out.

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well that's exactly right. And this is really an act of democratic discipline as well. There were multiple, multiple points multiple provisions in this bill that moderate Democrats didn't like progressive Democrats didn't like. You know they had a hard time bringing this back to the House without the $15 minimum wage included in it.

Yes, now is the opportunity for Democrats to go out and remind voters what is in this package. There are those of 2009, where a lot of Democrats felt like they didn't do a good enough job selling that stimulus package to the American public really making it clear what that package did for Americans, they're not going to make that mistake again.

They are making it very clear that they want to talk about what is inside this bill and expansion of Obamacare is also included in this piece of legislation. They want to talk about that. They want to get passed even just talking about direct funding which is going to be a huge deal for people when they look at their bank accounts.

They want to talk about the broad scope of what this bill is. They want to make it sound like this is the biggest progressive policy that they've pushed forward in decades, John. KING: And Kaitlan Collins to that point, this is a collision. You get

them in Washington, but not this big in quite some time of policy and politics. The new president on day 50 today was vice president when the Obama stimulus passed this Lauren just noted.

When Obamacare passed, he was the vice president. In the next midterm election, the Democrats got hammered. Even though they did something they thought was critical for the economy and the Obama stimulus plan. Then with Obamacare, a 50 year democratic goal of passing a big health care bill.

And they got hammered, which is why this president says I'm going to run around the country. I'm going to talk to the country. And I'm going to make sure they understand what a primetime address is in this tomorrow night.

A March travel around the country as possible in the pandemic to highlight key provisions of the bill first of all, a news conference is coming up plus sometime in the weeks ahead most likely in April, a joint session of congress address how much is the salesmanship going to be important once the president actually gets the bill to sign?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I think they view it as critically important. They've dealt with this legislative battle that's been hammering out on Capitol Hill for the last several weeks, but now it's really don't want to turn to the political fight. And you noted of course President Biden was around during the Obama days but he certainly wasn't the only one. A lot of his staffers were also here during those days.

[12:05:00]

COLLINS: And a lot of them did not feel like they did enough to sell the stimulus plan in 2009, they didn't get enough credit for it. So they don't want to make that mistake here. It was a similar option, when they were talking about getting Republican support or going really big.

They went with going really big and not getting any Republican support. But what they have insisted on is that it's popular with Republicans throughout the country. So that's why you're going to see President Biden firing up air force one going around the country making these stops though.

It's not exactly clear where he's going to be going yet to talk about this bill and to try to pitch it to voters and explain so many parts of it because it isn't massive bill. But we should note it's not permanent, a lot of it is temporary.

And so the questions of whether or not they're going to try to make some aspects of it permanent is going to be a big one. The other one is going to be the implementation of this because a lot of this is going to fall to the IRA when it comes to those stimulus checks.

The child tax credits as well, it's also tax season of course. So that's another key thing to watch in addition to how they're going to sell it as to how they're actually going to put it into place and implement this to actually get money out to people quickly.

KING: That's an important point. Because again part of candidate Biden's pitch was I know what I'm doing, I can run the government, I can make things work; implementation of a program of this size is going to be a daunting challenge.

We will see if they're up to the job. Its fascinating Lauren Fox as we watch this play out, this is going to be an all democratic enterprise. They're not expecting any Republican votes. And that's somewhat risky for Republicans.

When you look, you heard the Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy saying he talks to people out in the country and they call this liberal, they call this corrupt. Well if he talked to more people out in the country, he would see it has broad support.

Let's look at through some of the provisions here. Larger tax credits for some 95 percent of Democrats think that's a good idea. 73 percent of Republicans do money for returning to the classroom. 91 percent of Democrats say that's a good idea.

More than half 55 percent of Republicans sending out stimulus checks again majority Republican support overwhelming democratic support a) at the state and local governments is an area where you see Republicans less in favor of giving state and local governments of aid here, Democrats.

But this is a hard one for Republicans in the sense that if the Biden team can implement this, if people start to feel help Republicans are the party of no.

FOX: Well, that's exactly right. And you have to remember Republicans voted for many of these similar provisions in past bills, not an expansion of the child tax credit, but they have voted for some state and local funding in the past.

Now the argument that Republicans will make is that a lot of that money still hasn't gone out the door, a lot of states are starting to recover. They're not having the deficits that they might have expected to have at this point. In the pandemic, a lot of kids are already getting back to school.

That's the argument that you're hearing from Republicans is we still have money from past bills that hasn't gone out the door yet. Why are we spending more but that's a nuanced argument.

And in politics, when you're making those kinds of nuanced arguments, it can be tougher to convince people that you didn't make a mistake by not supporting this bill, but not a single Republican vote expected today.

KING: And so Kaitlan, that's the environment. You know candidate Biden said he wanted to be bipartisan. President Biden has repeatedly said he would like to be bipartisan; President Biden also has to realize that's unlikely it's unlikely to happen. There may be a few exceptions down the road. We literally see in our

new poll where he ranks right now presidential approval rating in the first year of office in March, President Biden, he's six points about President Trump, but he's at 51 percent.

He is not getting the honeymoon. Welcome to our polarized politics. Life has just changed since the days of Dwight Eisenhower certainly. But even since the days of you know Bill Clinton, he's down a little bit there.

What do they think inside the White House, they get this big first win which is a major achievement for the president again 50 days into office? What's the next act? And how important do they think it is to sequence out their priorities heading forward?

COLLINS: Well, I think they think that's a massive part. And so that's why that address that he gives which we are now expecting to happen in April, that joint address to congress is going to be so crucial because that's really where you're likely going to see President Biden lay out what his next priorities are going to be.

White House aides you know, we have a general idea of what it is people want to see happen next. But they're hesitant to announce anything before he actually gets out there and announces that we know infrastructure is a big one. But he's facing several other problems as well.

This is what happens when you become president. It's not just a list of your priorities; you're also dealing with the challenges of the job. What's happening on the southern border is one of those that is taking up a lot of time inside the White House right now and is becoming increasingly a bigger focus for them.

So yes, we'll probably see an infrastructure rollout. That's going to be a big question on whether or not they're going to get bipartisanship on that. Look at what's been playing out. You saw Senator Schumer on last night taking a hit at Senator Susan Collins.

That's going to be some in the White House thought they can get on board for a plan like that. So it'll be really interesting to see how these politics play out. The White House is counting that this is a one off where there was not bipartisanship.

But going forward seeing what it's going to look like is something that really remains to be seen and people in the White House are hopeful but they're also realistic when you talk to them privately about this.

KING: That's fascinating. We're still watching a young administration fascinated to see if they can take this big win and it is a big win of both policy and politics. Well I see if they can turn it into momentum. Kaitlan Collins appreciate, she's going to stay with us as we watch the vote on the House floor Lauren Fox with us as well.

[12:10:00] KING: Another big footnote on this moment in Washington, the House last night passing a very major pro union bill again that passed last night that protect the right to organize act or the proactive would neutralize right to work laws in 27 states. It will strengthen workers rights to strike and make it easier for workers to unionize.

But this bill even though it cleared the House faces a giant uphill fight on the Senate side passed the House did get a handful of Republican votes there don't look for that across in the Senate. Ohio Democratic Congressman Tim Ryan angrily accuses Republicans of putting the culture war ahead of America workers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TIM RYAN (D-OH): Heaven forbid we pass something that's going to help the damn workers in the United States of America. Start talking about Dr. Seuss and start working with us on behalf of the American workers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:15:00]

KING: Later today President Biden will highlight a big new agreement in the COVID fight. The purchase of 100 million additional doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine that purchase an effort to boost the vaccine supply ahead of what the White House worries could be a rise in cases down the road.

Let's walk through the latest numbers and then put that purchase into context here. Here's the case count. And you see down dramatically right from the beginning of the year down dramatically 57,417 new infections reported yesterday. You see the flat line here that's what the White House is worried about.

Yes, significant progress so far this year but now a plateau above 50,000 cases. They want to push that number down a little worried as restrictions ease that will get harder same with hospitalizations way above 100,000, about 120,000, sometimes earlier in the year.

Now down 43,000 Americans yesterday 43,100 hospitalized with COVID use again though, you see it's down but you also see a bit of a plateau right there at the moment, a flat line in the statistics.

The CDC is ensemble forecast of deaths where currently 527,000 Americans have died in the past year of this pandemic. CDC estimates that will go up to 571,000 or so by April 3rd less than a month from now. So still the death count is incredibly sad as you watch it play out.

Today is the day the Texas mask mandate is no more. Texas has now fully reopened as its Governor says 16 states currently do not have statewide mask mandates at this moment. This is a big concern of the White House saying the case count not down enough to be easing restrictions at that level. Some restrictions they say sure, but not a mask mandate. Look at the

vaccine numbers just shy of 19 percent of Americans partially vaccinated, just shy of 10 percent. So it's half the 10 percent right now fully vaccinated. 18 percent partially 19 percent partially vaccinated.

If you look at the map again Texas getting rid of its mask mandate and the other restrictions well, it's near the bottom of the list. Texas is right now poor performance in terms of getting its population vaccinated. It's at 8 percent you see Alaska at 16 percent, West Virginia 13 percent.

The darker greens are moving up into the teens. That's where you want to do get more people vaccinated ASAP Alaska taking a dramatic step today. It leads the pack again 16 percent of its population has been fully vaccinated.

It now says any adult in Alaska can get a vaccine start - started with older and more vulnerable. They've moved it down now they say if we have them come get one sign up and make an appointment. The doses announced today by the administration puts more supply out there in time doesn't come right away.

Johnson & Johnson is the single dose vaccine 100 million doses already ordered. Another 100 million doses announced today. Again it's going to take some time to ramp up their production there. But you have 300 million Pfizer doses 300 million Moderna doses.

And this goes back to the Trump administration and operation warp speed. If the AstraZeneca vaccine is approved Novavax and the Sanofi vaccine, you see the asterix - here. They're not approved yet in the United States but there are plans to purchase those.

Some of them are already in a warehouse if they get approved but right now Pfizer, Moderna and the additional 100 million doses coming from Johnson & Johnson at the White House COVID briefing today, the Coordinator, Andy Slavitt saying they understand they're going to need vaccines months and months and months down the road.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDY SLAVITT, WHITE HOUSE SENIOR ADVISER FOR COVID-19 RESPONSE: This order allows for the president to plan for the future in the latter part of the year. This is war time. And as facts still emerge, it gives us maximum flexibility for our upcoming needs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Put this into context now with Dr. Paul Offit. He's the Director of the Vaccine Education Center and an Attending Physician, the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Children's Hospital Philadelphia, also the Co-inventor of the Rotavirus Vaccine.

Dr. Offit it's good to see you again. So 100 million new doses of J&J on order again the production there is just ramping up. So they're not going to be available for some time. I want you to listen to Dr. Fauci. They're starting to sound a bit more optimistic as the vaccine rollout accelerates. He thinks in a few months, we could be here. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY & INFECTIOUS DISEASES: If you look at the planned rollout of the vaccines that we would hopefully get to that point somewhere by the end of the summer and the early fall, you're absolutely correct. If a significant number of people do not get vaccinated then that would that would delay where we would get to that endpoint.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: But he thinks could have herd immunity herd immunity by the end of the summer. You agree with that?

DR. PAUL OFFIT, VACCINE EDUCATION CENTER DIRECTOR, CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA: Yes I think I really think we're almost there. If you look at the actual numbers, even though we say roughly 29 million people have been infected when you do antibody surveillance studies is probably closer to 85 million.

So 25 percent of the population has already been infected meaning they're immune. There's another 10percent roughly that are fully vaccinated, another 20 percent that are partially vaccinated. And most importantly, the weather is getting warmer.

I mean, if you look at what happened last summer when 100 percent of the population was susceptible and we didn't have a vaccine, still those numbers came down and then surged again in the winter.

If we can get to 80 percent population immunity by the end of the summer, then we won't see a surge next winter because this is basically a winter respiratory virus and it will be bad unless we have a significant percentage of the population vaccinated.

[12:20:00]

KING: I hope your optimism you've been a sober voice. So when I hear you optimistic, it makes me optimistic because you have been a voice of caution which I've appreciated over the past year. One of the questions is what's the lasting power?

What's the shelf life if you will inside your body of these vaccines? Dr. Walensky at the CDC says we don't know quite yet. Listen here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALENSKY: Our current guidance says that you know three months is the data that we have so far. So we are waiting for data to American merge about how durable your protection is beyond three months.

And so this is exactly among the reasons why we want to be cautious as we take these first steps in our guidance post vaccination.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Point she's trying to make is that you know, we don't know yet, right? And when will we know, do you need to get a vaccine every year or is one is once enough?

OFFIT: Again I think there's reason for optimism. I mean, what these vaccines have done basically is they've mimic the immune response associated with natural infection. And it looks like natural infection induces longer lived immunity.

We don't know if people who for example were naturally infected and were sick, who then when exposed to the virus again were very sick, meaning we're hospitalized again, so that's good.

If natural infection can protect and you can induce you can get a vaccine that mimics natural infection. I think its good news also with the second dose of the MRNA vaccines are the first dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, you would do not only so called antibody responses in your bloodstream.

You also induce so called cellular immunity which presages typically a longer lived response. I mean, if you had to make a prediction, you would think that this vaccine would be effective for two, three years, not decades. But I think it would be likely to be a few years, but we'll see.

KING: And so as soon as more Americans get vaccinated and as more Americans hear optimistic voices in the public health community saying we're getting there, we're closer and we're closer and we're getting closer. There's all these questions, right, the CDC guidelines yesterday, when if you've received a vaccine, what can you do?

You know, they said it's safe especially if you were with other vaccinated people, you can have small group dinners. Maybe you don't need to wear a mask. The other question is, as people start thinking about, you mentioned the summer, well this virus is not as strong people are thinking, can I travel? Dr. Fauci says when it comes to air travel, hang in for a minute, listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FAUCI: The CDC is carefully heading in that direction. When you don't have the data and you don't have the actual evidence, then you've got to make a judgment call. And I think that's what you're going to be seeing in the next week. So you're going to see little by little more and more guidelines getting people to be more and more flexible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: What's your take on A, how the new Biden team is handling this? But B, where are we you hear them at one point saying, we'd like you to be more cautious. Can you give us six weeks? Can you give us eight weeks?

And in another time they're trying to write rules because they understand a lot of people are saying can we at least do more if not everything?

OFFIT: They're trying to take those first cautious steps into a time when we can start to live life isn't normal again. But 1500 people died of COVID yesterday, that's an enormously high number of people.

And that CDC knows for a fact that tens of thousands of people will likely die over the next six to eight weeks. And they don't want that to happen. And probably all of those people wouldn't have to die if they had a vaccine.

We are almost there we will have enough vaccine for everybody that will happen by this summer. If we can just hang in there for a few months and do the best we can to not put ourselves at risk i.e. with masking your physical distancing. We can get through this we are almost there.

And that's why it's hard to know that you know that the lifeboats have almost arrived. But there are going to be people who die because they're not careful and because they haven't been able to get a vaccine that's going to happen and that's what the CDC wants to try and avoid.

KING: Dr. Offit as always grateful for your time and your very important insights. Thank you so much.

OFFIT: Thank you.

KING: Up next for us the FBI releases some new security footage of a suspect placing bombs around Washington the night before the capitol insurrection.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:25:00]

KING: Remind you the House of Representatives right now finishing up its debate on the Biden nearly $2 trillion COVID relief package the House vote expected any moment from now. As we wait for that vote the National Guard deployment around the Capitol building will continue for 11 more weeks.

That request coming from the Capitol Police in the pentagon signed off yesterday on keeping more than 2000 guard members in DC through May 23. This reminder today of why the guard is protecting the Capitol, the FBI releasing new footage of a suspect placing pipe bops near the Capitol the night before the January 6 insurrection.

Our CNN Crime and Justice Correspondent Shimon Prokupecz joins us now live. Shimon is this part of the FBI effort to advance its investigation?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's a big part of it because it's truly fascinating when you think about this, John. They have no idea who this person is. And so in an effort to do this, they are releasing more video they had previously released some video. And then yesterday they went ahead and released additional video.

And when you look at the video one of the reasons why the FBI is having such a hard time figuring out who this is, is that this person went to great lengths to disguise themselves to try and hide their identity. When you look at the video, the person is wearing a hoodie.

They're wearing gloves, you can't see their face of course they're wearing a face mask. So there are a lot of issues we're trying to identify this person, you see them walking around. There's really a lot of video of this person.

[12:30:00]