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Pentagon Spokesman: Defense Secretary Austin Shares Same "Revulsion" Over Tucker Carlson's Sexist Comments; Biden To Give Prime-Time Addresses As World Marks 1 Year Of Pandemic; GOP Voters Praise Biden's Stimulus Plan; A Year of Loss: 29 Million Sickened, 529,302 Dead; CDC: 10 Percent Of Americans Fully Vaccinated. Aired 12- 12:30p ET

Aired March 11, 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]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Barbara, thank you very, very much. You want to talk about real patriots, talk around his friends like to - and so much. There you got it. Thank you so much for joining us today. I'm Kate Bolduan. John King picks up our coverage right now.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Hello to our viewers in the United States and around the world and welcome to Inside Politics. I'm John King in Washington. Thank you for sharing a very important day with us.

Tonight President Joe Biden delivers a primetime pandemic address. The speech marks a sad anniversary one year of Coronavirus shock and sorrow. The president will pay tribute to the lives lost and the family scarred both by personal loss and by economic pain.

But he will also promise a new chapter is at hand and that helped us on the way. Tomorrow the president signs and nearly $2 trillion COVID relief plan into law, meaning billions of dollars will soon flow arriving in mailboxes and bank accounts of struggling American families were approved today that help is needed.

Look there. Another 712,000 Americans filed for first time unemployment claims lost their jobs just last week. Tonight's primetime speech is a giant moment for the new president and it presents a giant challenge. Look back with sorrow, but look ahead with hope.

We are one year into what most consider the start of the new world. Remember, sports stopped, offices and schools began closing. The World Health Organization one year ago today called COVID-19 a pandemic. One year, nearly 30 million cases here in the state's 118 million plus globally, soon to be 530,000 American deaths.

The president will outline his two track path to post 10 -- post pandemic life tonight, a spring surge in the COVID vaccine rollout and a parallel surge in economic help to families and to small businesses and to schools.

But the president's hope does come with a messaging challenge telling Americans there's a ball game or a family picnic not that far off, while asking them to make the path back to normal shorter by masking up being extra careful just a while longer.

We start this big day at the White House with our Senior White House Correspondent, CNN's Phil Mattingly. Phil, what will we hear from the president tonight?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well I think a couple things. And John you hit at the key effort right now in terms of trying to thread the needle between being willing to engage on what's next. What's coming that optimism the president kind of eluded to it yesterday when he was speaking publicly; it's certainly going to be a key element of the speech.

Moving on to the next phase is how he framed it but also ensuring that people don't move on too fast. When I talk to White House officials John over the course of the last several weeks, their biggest concern by far is that people are going to take their eye off the ball and there will be resurgence.

There's no doubt that the systems that they've put in place that the infrastructure they've put in place will be effective. You add the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill that the president is going to sign tomorrow to that. They feel extremely confident that the path that they've laid out to go forward will be effective.

Their biggest concern is how long it will take to get there. And that is largely up to individual Americans, not the administration itself. Now what you're going to hear the president talk about today is obviously a remembrance of the more than 525,000 who have died over the course of the last year.

He has done that every step of the way. The night before inauguration when he hit the 500,000 death mark, he will do it again. Tonight, he will talk about the vaccination program, how they've ramped up production, how they've ramped up supply and how they've tried to ramp up the distribution networks that they're pushing throughout the country.

And then he'll talk about that next phase forward. And I think one of the key elements of the next phase forward will be a messaging blitz around that $1.9 trillion COVID relief plan.

According to an internal memo that was sent to senior white House staff by Jen O'Malley deal in the White House Deputy Chief of Staff, they are going to try and pretty much hit the entire country, every corner of the country.

According to the memo with the president, the vice president, the first lady, the second gentleman, pretty much everybody in the cabinet as well. And they are going to be laser focused on very specific elements of the bill, whether it's reopening schools, whether it's the extensions of unemployment benefits, whether it's those direct payments.

They want to ensure that 1) people know what's coming what they have access to, but 2) that they're aware of how to obtain it, how to get it. So I think you're going to see all of that tonight and also going forward. Also the president will hit the road for strip Pennsylvania on Tuesday John.

KING: Pennsylvania on Tuesday, a big speech tonight grateful for the reporting and insights live from the White House. Phil thanks so much. And with me now to share the reporting and insights as we continue the conversation our Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash, and Former Senior Adviser to President Barack Obama, David Axelrod.

Dana, I want to start with you and just remind people it's a tough moment for the president tonight. It's a great opportunity. He's about to sign into law, his big COVID relief package. But it's also a challenge to reflect, remember, share the sorrow and the pain of the last year, but try to give people hope going forward.

The president will talk as we know about the 500,000 COVID deaths. He will talk about his efforts to accelerate the vaccine rollout. He will talk about next steps that he believes are necessary to control the pandemic. In some cases, essentially these are my words, not his asking people to ignore your governor and keep your mask on for the next month or two. He gave us a little flavor yesterday. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Everything in the American rescue plan addresses a real need including investments to fund our entire vaccination effort, more vaccines; more vaccinate tours and more vaccinations sites.

[12:05:00]

BIDEN: Millions more Americans will get tested including home testing. Schools will soon have the funding and resources to reopen safely on national imperative.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: A lot of promises, the challenge now are deliver on the promises he will be judged by how they implement this, whether those checks get where they're supposed to get whether they get there quickly. Whether schools do reopen whether state and local governments keep the firefighters in the cops in the payroll, so on and so forth.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. I mean, look, getting to this point obviously getting the nearly $2 trillion package that they got passed along party lines against a lot of odds against you know, a lot of criticism of him saying you know, wait a minute, you promised to be bipartisan.

And his pushback of that is by also promised to and the economic hardships, thanks to COVID. I also promised to help open the schools, I also promised to get people more testing and vaccines and so forth.

And he understands that when history looks back on this, that is what he is going to be judged on. And so the idea of his big speech tonight and also going on the road, as Phil was reporting is to make people on first of all, just is kind of news you can use, explain to people how you get your tax, how you get -- how you deal with the earned income tax credit if you're eligible, so on and so forth.

But also you know, help is on the way but I think you're exactly right. It's - the hard balance between being hopeful but also cautious.

KING: And so David Axelrod, you've been at the White House a big moments like this, no two situations are exactly the same. But one thing you hear a lot from team Biden is that he was the vice president. He remembers the -- the Obama stimulus.

In fact, the president, then President Obama tasked him with keeping an eye on it and going around the country checking in on the projects. He remembers passing Obamacare. Democrats were optimistic the polling numbers were good in both cases.

In the next midterm election, the Democrats got spanked. So what lessons can the now president and the former vice president those days learn from that? Or do you think that's overblown?

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think that situations were different. John you know, the crisis in 2009 was just hitting its peak when we arrived. And we were advised by economists then that even if we did everything we could, it would take years for recovery to really bloom.

And so we couldn't go out there and claim too much even as we were doing things. And then same with the Affordable Care Act which was so important, but the benefits of it wouldn't be realized for years to come. In this case, the crisis is really defined by the virus.

And the relief that he's bringing is going to be felt immediately. So he's in a strong position here to deliver quickly on the promises that he made. I will say this too. He was in fact in charge -- charged with the task of implementing the Recovery Act back in 2009.

Ron Klain was his Chief of Staff then. They did a splendid job of managing that program. So they're very good at implementation. And that's going to be helpful here. But he's a -- he's in a good spot here. But you said something very important earlier; you don't want to hang a mission accomplished banner tonight.

That's what - that we've seen that mistake made by presidents before you want to you want to say mission advancing. And you want to enlist people in the mission in the short term to help shorten this period of the virus.

But there's a lot that the Biden people should feel good about going into this speech tonight. They're making a lot of progress and they're delivering a hell of a lot of relief.

KING: And one of the fascinating things for me is you have these Washington conversations, and then you have the American conversation. No Republicans, no Republicans voted for the Relief Act. We'll come back to the election politics of that in a moment.

But it's the out in the country politics. CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich, she has done a great job over the past year keeping in touch with real Americans across the country, Democrats, Republicans, Independents. Listen here. This is a Trump voter.

This is a Trump voter who knows they just passed this big Biden stimulus plan. And she's grateful.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEXO BELL, REPUBLICAN VOTER: Whether it'd be Biden or Trump, I think the country needs that stimulus.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's significant. You have two kids, that's an extra $2,000.

BELL: It is. And you know, I think that people that have more than two children will be getting that much more of a break.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Gentlemen in that case, I'm sorry, I watched a piece earlier but one woman Trump voters, same thing. So there's this interesting moment for this president. He has no Republican votes here in Washington. The Republicans have decided politically and we'll come back to this in a minute it may work, it may not to just say no.

The challenge for the president is can he pick off a Republican Mayor here, a Republican Governor there, more importantly, Republican voters to say thank you that help me.

BASH: Well you know it depends how you define pickoff. You're going to have a lot of Republicans pretty much all Republicans saying how horrible this is. But at the same time, say things and press releases like Roger Wicker that you know oh, look at this great thing that's coming your way, my home state.

[12:10:00]

BASH: And it's in this bill which he doesn't say, of course he voted against. We're going to likely see a lot of that just like David saw a lot of it back in 2009. And it really does go to the critical goal of tonight. And then in the travels that follow because it is implementation first and foremost, people have to feel it, but it's also messaging.

And they are up against a very, very clear strategy by Republicans to vote no, but then follow that nova with something like what Mitch McConnell said yesterday which is, if you feel better after this, it's not because of this. It's because it was already getting better. And they have to try to combat that in a messaging way in addition to implementing that.

KING: Well part of that David is the president; his team will be out there. The question is will members of the Democratic Party across the country be out there with him? Do you get the echo if you will, every time one of these members of congress goes home every time a Senator goes home because that was the issue for you back in 2010?

AXELROD: Yes.

KING: The economy was slow to come back. The Obamacare when it - when the Affordable Care Act was enacted, it took a long time to be implemented the disruption came first and a lot of Democrats frankly got timid and docked.

AXELROD: Yes.

KING: And Republicans were beating them over the head with this. I just want to, you know take a look. Joe Biden on the other hand has decided number one, I'm going to go out there and say yes, we did this and we should be held accountable for it. But I think it's going to help.

But he's also set this up. He's not ducking from the political issues down the road. This is a sweeping progressive bill. Some of it is temporary. And there are enhanced unemployment benefits. They'll expire. They're COVID related.

You hope you don't have to renew those. But there's a giant tax credit child tax credit in this piece of legislation. There are also additional Obamacare subsidies in this legislation; those expire in a year or two. Those are going to be new votes in heading into the 2022 cycle.

This is what we did. We stand by it. You Republicans all voted no. What do you say now right before you go to see the voters?

AXELROD: Yes, absolutely. Look I think the Republicans in the short term have done him a great favor because they basically said, hey, that check you're getting that help you're getting we didn't do that. He did that.

I mean, that's not what they want the message to be, but that is a message they've sent. They've you know, by voting on mass against it, they will you know, run against the aspects of they'll try and find the check that goes to the unqualified person or the safe state and city government that is spending money in ways that perhaps they shouldn't.

And the Biden people need to be alert to that and manage this properly. But look at the end of the day what this is going to do is hasten the end of the virus. It's going to turbo charge the economy. And that is going to be the climate in which Democrats will be running in 2022.

There are plenty of advantages built in for Republicans including redistricting and the fact that incumbent president parties generally don't do well in midterms. But I'll tell you what a rip roaring economy in the end of the virus and the exuberance that will go with that, that's going to wear down to the benefit of Democrats. KING: That's a piece of the challenge to watch in the days and weeks

ahead. And it begins with the president's address the American people tonight David Axelrod, grateful for your important insights. Dana Bash is going to stay with us for a later segment.

Up next for us though a COVID year review and lessons learned with Dr. Sanjay Gupta. And in this one year ago today, flashback a reminder, one giant factor in the sluggish U.S. response to this pandemic was a president in denial.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, 45TH U.S. PRESIDENT: The virus will not have a chance against us; no nation is more prepared or more resilient than the United States. Our future remains brighter than anyone can imagine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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KING: It was one year ago today the World Health Organization declared Coronavirus a pandemic. There were just 1200 confirmed cases here in the United States back then.

And then President Trump was determined to ignore the science and to play down the COVID threat. Then one year ago tonight, Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz tested positive and the NBA suspended its season. Coronavirus disruption suddenly became very real.

Everything began to change including using this to track a pandemic instead of tracking elections. Joining me now a man who I am grateful for personally and it's helped so many of you I know navigate this new reality this last year, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Sanjay grateful for your time and I'm grateful trust me, I'm grateful for the past year of your help and guidance. Let's go through a little bit where we are in some of the big questions. Number one is the case timeline. Yes, we thought it was terrific last spring, when we started to go up, and then it was more horrific in the summer.

And then came this which is just stunning. The winter peak, we're down now to about 50,000 cases 50 -- between 50 and 60,000 cases well down from this, but still 58,000 cases yesterday that is a plateau you do not want you need to shove that down more.

We also sadly have gone through this over the last year. 529,000 of our friends and neighbors fellow Americans have been lost in the past year. And the CDC projects that will climb by 40,000 plus more, 571,000 in just a few weeks. When you look at that numbing, number what goes through your mind?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know it's numbing just like you say John. I think the first thing I would say is that this should not feel normal. I mean you know, I think it's like that boiling frog analogy. You know, because we've been at this for a year.

You hear 58,000 people got diagnosed yesterday, you hear 571,000 people may die and total died within the next few weeks that should never feel normal. And this was not inevitable. So many of these deaths were preventable that's the first thing that sort of goes through my mind.

But the second thing John, when you look at that graph that you showed and you show that surge that happened that surge didn't need to happen, but what has brought it down. That wasn't the vaccines as wonderful as the vaccines are. What ends up bringing these things down what has worked in the United States at various times?

[12:20:00]

GUPTA: What has worked in so many places around the world, our basic public health measures, I think that's one of the biggest lessons of all this, we want science to rescue us, understandably.

But that shouldn't mean that we lean away from basic public health measures, which can work so well and so quickly. And that was something that we missed too many times during this.

KING: And another thing that happens at every aspect of life, but it's critically important here when we're talking literally about matters of life and death. Is that what we knew then and what the experts knew then is very different from what we know now, a little back in time here because some of the things we were told back then, are not what we're told now, listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. JEROME ADAMS, U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: One of the things they shouldn't be doing, the general public is going out and buying masks, it actually does not help. It's not been proven to be effective in preventing spread of Coronavirus. Here's how you can make your own face covering in a few easy steps.

ADMIRAL BRETT GIROIR, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH: There will be more asymptomatic testing in areas where it's needed and hopefully less where it's not needed.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY & INFECTIOUS DISEASES: You can and should test asymptomatic people.

DR. DEBORAH BIRX, TRUMP WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS ADVISER: If one person in the Household became infected the whole Household self quarantine for 14 days.

DR. HENRY WALKE, INCIDENT MANAGER, CDC COVID-19 RESPONSE: Quarantine can end after 10 days without a COVID-19 test if the reports -- if the person has reported no symptoms.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Some of that may have been unnecessary. But some of that was just we were blind at the beginning. And the scientist's good intentions -- attention scientists were learning every day.

GUPTA: Yes, I mean, you certainly you know science is something that evolves. I mean, I think people often expect science to be like math that two plus two is definitively going to equal four. But science you know, it changes in is organic. I think that's an important thing to remember.

But also you know, look, there's no secret that science and politics collided so many times during this pandemic. And what you hear sometimes from the scientists is influenced, I think by that political pressure. I think that was clear at the time.

And it's becoming increasingly clear in retrospect. I also think John is just one of these things I think, just from my humanity standpoint, you're dealing with something that's unknown. You don't -- there's no certainty around this. How do you behave in the phase of uncertainty? What kind of decisions do you make?

Do you err on the side of let's just save lives and maybe an overreaction? But let's just save lives and then dial back that reaction later? Or do you say; you know what, let's see if we can squeeze by this. And maybe, maybe lives will be lost. But let's see if we can sort of thread the needle here.

It is going to be a fascinating and important retrospective I think to look at these types of decisions from the leaders of the world frankly, in the phase of uncertainty and a public health crisis.

KING: Without a doubt, without a doubt in history. It's a very important history there. So let's look at one year later, Sanjay. And what we still don't know, we don't know long term effects. We don't know, some get, you know, some why do some people get more ill than others when they get COVID?

How long does immunity last after infection? Or as many people now are starting to get their vaccines and what's the impact of these variants?

GUPTA: Right, these are still questions that we are you know, people are trying to answer. Although I will say again, I think all of those things lead back to this idea that you don't want this virus, people tend to be binary, either you live or you die, to your first point on the screen.

I mean look, people who have had this infection, even mild symptoms have lingering symptoms that go on for months that are very debilitating. You don't -- you don't want this virus.

But one thing I want to point out about the variants and I think this is potentially good news that builds on what you're saying John, if we can show South Africa for a second. South Africa is circulating one of the most concerning variants that people have been talking about for some time B-1351.

Look at what has happened there. They had this -- they first detected it in October of 2020. Huge surge as you can see there, their biggest surge and now it's come way, way down. Less than 1 percent of the country John has been vaccinated.

So again that steep decline is not because of vaccines. That is another reminder, even with one of these concerning variants that basic public health measures work. So we want the vaccine, we want science to rescue us. But South Africa should remind us of what is possible even without those vaccines.

KING: Right. And so, the -- it's an excellent point about the variants. And one of the questions now is you know, how quickly do we get the vaccine rollout here in the United States three approved right now Pfizer, Moderna, both two shot vaccines.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine, they're trying to ramp up production here of the one shot vaccine. And it's got three weapons now if you will, in the fight out there. And Sanjay, this is where we are today. 19 percent of the population has been partially vaccinated. 10 percent fully vaccinated. So progress, but.

GUPTA: Yes, that's exactly right. So 10 percent of the country fully vaccinated. That means 90 percent of the country is not. I mean, it's as simple as that. I think with regard to how you should interpret the guidance coming out of organizations like the CDC.

For those 10 percent you know, we're now getting a glimpse of how life can be different for them. They can visit, they can do indoors, and things without masks on give their families a hug.

[12:25:00]

GUPTA: And you know, people that they haven't seen in a while, who are also vaccinated, but 90 percent of the country is not so how much mobility? Should we still allow or recommend the country have if 90 percent of the country is not protected still?

That's -- it's a tough question. And you know, I think people want to balance this with this very earnest desire, I think by most Americans, most people around the world to get back to some sense of normalcy.

John, I'm optimistic. I got to tell you, I mean, I tried to keep it real frankly over the last year. And that's been tough. People don't like to hear bad news. But I am optimistic. I'll tell you that now. Because every couple of weeks we're probably going to increase by another 10 percent.

And 30 percent by the end of March, you know. And then going into summer, we have a lot of people vaccinated and we will get to that herd immunity. But even along the way, we're going to have these winds were all of a sudden people are going to be able to do things that they hadn't done in a year.

KING: Along the way, the vaccination challenge number one is supply and they're trying to ramp up supplies as much as possible as quickly as possible. Number two is access can you get it to people where they live, especially in rural communities in disadvantaged communities.

But the third issue is there is some skepticism, especially among communities of color who have historical right to be suspicious about the government saying here, try this vaccine. One of the efforts now to try and if you will lower any suspicion barriers to make people more open to do it is this effort by the former presidents watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm getting vaccinated because we want this pandemic to end as soon as possible.

BARACK OBAMA, 44TH U.S. PRESIDENT: So we urge you to get vaccinated when it's available to you.

GEORGE W. BUSH, 43RD U.S. PRESIDENT: To roll up your sleeves and do your part.

BILL CLINTON, 42ND U.S. PRESIDENT: This is our shot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: How important is that?

GUPTA: I think it's really important. I mean you know people are fearful or hesitant about this vaccine for all sorts of different reasons. It's difficult to lump it into one category.

But to the extent that we know hesitancy goes down as more and more people get vaccinated, as people see others get vaccinated including our leaders. We know historically that makes a difference.

But you're right, you know while we are getting much better vaccinating the elderly 30 percent of those 60 and older have now been fully vaccinated. 60 percent have received at least one vaccine, communities of color are still you know, they're still way behind.

We can show the graphic, but I think it's 67 percent roughly of the vaccines are going to white communities. And it's closer to six or 7 percent, I believe going to black Americans for example.

So that's you know, that's a huge problem because we know that this pandemic has been uneven in terms of the impact that's had on our society. It's got to change. John I think it will, I really do, we're starting to see that hesitancy go down.

There probably will be a significant percentage of people who still just will never their minds will never be changed. That's unfortunate. But I think if you start to get the 70, 80 percent of the country vaccinated, that'll have that herd immunity that sort of more blanket protective effect.

KING: Sanjay grateful for your time today on this one year anniversary of the pandemic declaration but more importantly throughout the past year helping our viewers to get through.

GUPTA: Thank you.

KING: -- their many questions. GUPTA: Thank you John.

KING: Thank you. I cannot tell you thanks enough. Up next for us an immediate test of what next for the Biden agenda as the House acts today on gun legislation. But does it have any chance of getting through the Senate.

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