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Biden Touts Economic Relief Plan: Help Is Here; Democrats Celebrate Passage Of "Transformative" Relief Plan; Interview With Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX); NY Dems Revolt Against Gov. Cuomo, Demand His Resignation; Marking One Year Since Coronavirus Lockdowns Began. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired March 14, 2021 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:27]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN HOST (voice-over): President Biden promises a return to normalcy is coming, maybe by the Fourth of July.

JOSEPH R. BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There is hope and light and better days ahead. America is coming back.

PHILLIP: Plus, the battle to define Biden's rescue plan with $1,400 checks already on the way.

BIDEN: This bill puts working people first. It's all about rebuilding the backbone of this country.

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA), HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: It showers money on special interests. It's a laundry list of left-wing priorities that predate the pandemic.

PHILLIP: And an early test for the administration on immigration, an influx of children crossing the border alone.

GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R), TEXAS: There is a crisis on the Texas border right now as a result of President Biden's open border policies.

PHILLIP: Democratic Congressman Vicente Gonzalez weighs in.

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIP (on camera): And welcome to INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY. I'm Abby Phillip.

To our viewers in the United States and the around world, thank you for spending part of your weekend with us.

One year ago this weekend, the coronavirus lockdowns were just beginning and COVID-19 had killed 70 people here in the United States. The death toll, now 534,000 and counting, would seem unimaginable. But today, Americans have never been more optimistic the end is in sight. Three quarters of Americans in a new poll tell CNN the worst is

finally behind us, and President Biden says there will be enough vaccine for all adults by the end of May and that we can safely celebrate the Fourth of July with a backyard barbecue if all goes well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: I will not relent until we beat this virus. But I need you, the American people. I need you. I need every American to do their part.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: Meanwhile, Americans already seeing the impact of the $1.9 trillion economic rescue plan. In the form of stimulus payments automatically deposited into accounts this weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: For a typical family of four, a middle-class family, husband and wife working, making $110,000 a year, that means $5,600 check they're going to get. 85 percent of the households in America will be getting this money. Some are going to get it as early as this weekend.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: The law enjoys by partisan support, and the administration's challenge now is to keep it that way. This week, President Biden, Vice President Harris, and their spouses will hold events in at least seven states to tout the law. Zero Republicans in Congress voted for the relief bill.

They call it a costly liberal wish list and a giveaway to special interest, and with economists predicting a blockbuster year for economic growth, they don't want their voters thanking Democrats.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MINORITY LEADER: President Biden and his Democratic government inherited a tide that had already begun to turn toward decisive victory. 2021 is set to be an historic comeback year. Not because of the far-left legislation that was passed after the tide had already turned but because of the resilience of the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: And joining us now with their reporting and insights, Laura Barron-Lopez from "Politico", and Lisa Lerer from "The New York Times."

Ladies, good morning. Thanks for being here on a daylight savings morning here in the United States.

So, Laura, you know, this bill is a massive bill, and it seems progressives are by and large very happy with the outcome. What are they saying about what this bill means for progressive priorities and maybe whether they can trust the Joe Biden administration going forward?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, Senator Bernie Sanders, arguably one of the most progressive senators, said this was one of the most consequential bills he has ever voted for. So progressives, as you mentioned, Abby, are widely happy with this bill. And they feel as though it really meets the moment.

Of course, one of the provisions they really wanted in the bill, raging the minimum wage to $15, isn't it in, so they're going to continue pushing the administration on that, potentially trying to see if they can get it inside of a second reconciliation package later this year. But overwhelmingly, they are very happy with what this bill does and it feels as though it's exactly what the moment calls for.

PHILLIP: Lisa, while that's happening on the progressive side, Republicans are figuring out how do they run against this bill. Take a look at this recent CNN poll that seems to show widespread support, not just overall, but by Republicans.

[08:05:08]

The overall bill is not as popular with Republicans, but take a look at some of the component parts. The tax credit, money for return to classrooms, the stimulus checks. All with majority support among Republicans, not to mention overall, the bill overall has also 58 percent support among independents. So how are Republicans planning to run against this? I should say, also, you wrote this weekend in "The Times" that they are trying to go back to 2009.

You wrote that Republicans calculated they could make the bill the centerpiece of their efforts to win control of Congress in the 2020 midterm elections. They began arguing that the legislation was chockfull of wasteful spending and failed to create jobs. By January 2010, the last time they did a stimulus bill like this, about 75 percent or half or more of the stimulus said that half or more of the stimulus money had been wasted, so is this a 2009 playbook they can actually run again?

LISA LERER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: So that 2009 stimulus bill is really looming large in the consciousness of both parties. I think Democrats are looking to it as a warning sign. They know what happened in 2009. They know they passed the stimulus bill, President Obama championed that.

That was fairly popular when it passed, and Republicans basically spent next year and a half running down the numbers by saying it was full of waste, fraud, and abuse, and didn't create jobs. In the end, they lost the midterm elections in large part because of that legislation.

Joe Biden doesn't want to see a repeat of that, of those political tactics. We'll see him out there over the next couple weeks, people in the administration out there campaigning for this legislation, explaining what it is. I think for the Republicans, it will be much harder this time around. We already see them starting to talk about the bill as failing to create jobs. They're going to be watching for any money that's wasted.

I suspect they'll go after the money and state and local governments, because at least among Republicans, those provisions are a little less popular, but the fundamental problem they have here is that people like getting money and this bill puts money directly in a lot of people's pockets, the stimulus checks, and also people with kids.

There's a whole new provision in the legislation that would give checks to a large number of families and help tens of millions of children. I do think they have a really hard effort in front of them, and what we may end up seeing them doing is trying to not talk about the bill at all and focus on other issues that tend to rally their base, even if the issues are Mr. Potato Head and Dr. Seuss.

PHILLIP: Right, the culture wars seem to be back, but they also seem to be a little concerned about Biden getting credit for improving the coronavirus situation. Take a look at this Jim Jordan tweet. I have to chuckle because he says, president Trump got us the COVID-19 vaccine, and President Biden plagiarized it. I'm not sure what the plagiarism accusation is all about.

But I mean, a little bit of a fact check here. Let's go in the way back machine and take a look at where we really were in December and in January. Look at some of the headlines from across the country. Red states and blue states, a lot of anger. COVID-19 vaccine rollout leaves people scrambling to find shots. Florida, not enough doses, no real plan. You're looking at a mess. And northwest Georgians frustrated with the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.

Are they trying to give Trump credit for the existence of a vaccine when it seemed the real issue was whether the vaccine rollout process was working enough to get us out of this pandemic? Laura.

BARRON-LOPEZ: Yeah, that's certainly right, Abby, which is we saw this as well, during the Obama years, as the country moved out of the recession, and again, Republicans tried to give credit to either his predecessor or Trump, who came after him. But again, Republicans are trying to say that Trump deserves credit for where the country is at right now.

Was Operation Warp Speed under way? Yes, it was, and president Trump was responsible for helping get that started.

Biden has now tried to make sure there's much more vaccines to be distributed.

There were clearly times during the Trump administration when we reported that Trump had turned away more vaccines. And so, President Biden is trying to make sure that there's more than enough vaccines, and says if there are any left over, that that is when America will have some vaccine diplomacy and start to potentially help other countries if there is a surplus of vaccines left over.

But those two dates, the May 1st as well as July 4th, a clearly huge, and a sign that the administration feels pretty confident that they're going to be able to meet them.

[08:10:09]

PHILLIP: And, Laura, before we go, I want to ask you about what comes next because Democrats are already talking about infrastructure being the next big priority. But how do they get there? How do they get the bipartisan support to spend more money in Washington? And what do they do about the filibuster at the end of the day?

BARRON-LOPEZ: Yeah, it's going to be really tricky for Democrats because right now, it looks as though they might try to get infrastructure passed. They may try to find Republicans on big infrastructure package. But other elements of Biden's recovery legislation would likely go through reconciliation.

Ultimately, the big thing that I think to be the breaking point on the filibuster reform for Democrats is the voting rights bill, is this massive voting rights expansion that passed through the House.

A lot of Democrats have told me that they think that's what maybe could finally, when it stalls in the Senate, when there aren't enough Republican votes for it, that could be what gets more moderate Democrats on board to reform the filibuster, because they really want to pass that, they want to pass police reform. They want to pass immigration reform and a litany of other issues that could get stalled in the Senate if the filibuster isn't reformed.

PHILLIP: Yeah, they're talking a lot about reform as opposed to busting it all together, perhaps to get something more narrow like voting through as opposed to getting rid of it all together.

Laura Barron-Lopez from "Politico", and Lisa Lerer from "The New York Times", Lisa is going to stay with us. Thanks for being with us this morning.

Coming up next, it's not just relief. It's transformation. More on why Democrats call this the most important new law in a generation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:16:23]

PHILLIP: Democrats call the nearly $2 trillion economic relief bill one of the most transformative pieces of legislation in a generation. And it's not just the stimulus checks. There's also an expansion to the child tax credit which will put thousands of dollars into the pockets of parents and boost food stamps for families going hungry.

It also includes aid for people facing eviction, more money to pay for health insurance, and a big pot of cash to protect pensions. Most of the benefits go to the Americans with the most need. Households making less than $25,000 a year will see a 20 percent boost in their after- tax income this year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: This legislation is one of the most transformative and historic bills any of us will ever have the opportunity to support. It's one of the most transformative that I have seen in my over 30 years in the Congress. It is as consequential as the Affordable Care Act.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: And joining me now is Austan Goolsbee, a man who knows a lot about the economic stimulus bill. He helped write the 2009 stimulus and was a top economic aid in the Obama White House.

So, Austan, you know, we just read through some of the many things in this bill, and I wonder, there's been a lot of attention on the $1,400 checks, but I wonder, what do you see as the most significant part of this bill?

AUSTAN GOOLSBEE, FORMER OBAMA WHITE HOUSE CHIEF ECONOMIST: Abby, thanks for having me back. I think the most significant parts of the bill, there's one philosophical and one specific that I would call people's attention to. As a philosophical matter, we usually, when we have a downturn, have some kind of a stimulus bill or do something.

This is really primarily focused for the first time, most all of the money just goes directly to individuals. And whether it's child tax credit, the earned income tax credit, a series of expansions of unemployment, the main focus of this bill is to get money to the people, not in other big programs. So I do think that's a bit of a sea change in how do you respond to a downturn.

I would call everyone's attention, though, to the $150 billion to $200 billion going to schools and child care and that sort of thing, because that's a place where in the economists' language, there's a supply side effect. You have millions of people who cannot go back to work because they don't have an outlet that their child can go to safely. There's not day care. Schools are shut down.

And so, the faster we can get that set back up, I think that can unlock some positive on the economic side.

PHILLIP: Yeah, so speaking of how much of a sea change this is, in some ways it's a bit of a perfect economic experiment. You have President Trump's signature economic achievement, the 2017 tax cuts, and you have this bill. If you look at this graphic, you can see how stark the difference is. A quarter of the benefits in the Biden bill go to the bottom wage earners compared to 1 percent of the Trump tax cut. And just 9 percent of the benefits in this relief bill go to the top earnings compared to 65 percent of the Trump tax cut.

President Biden says this changes the paradigm. You have some economists predicting we could see 7 percent economic growth this year, which would be historically high. Do you agree, and is economic growth, in your view, is that what you're looking at to see whether this thing is doing what it's supposed to do?

GOOLSBEE: There are a lot of interesting issues in that question. That's not where I'm going to be looking. I actually don't think that GDP growth rate is where you should be looking because this isn't a regular stimulus bill. This isn't trying to give you bang for the buck on GDP growth.

This is a rescue plan that is a disaster relief bill. And it's important to remember the reason why this bill is progressive and is aiming at the middle and lower income people is because this crisis has been concentrated in that part of the income distribution.

If you look at the high-income people that benefitted from the $2 trillion Trump tax cut, those people did not have a recession during this time. Those people's stock market wealth is way up, and those people tend to be in jobs that can be done from home on a computer. So their incomes didn't go down. Employment is actually up over the pandemic for that group.

So this bill is really aimed at what the problem of the moment is. And I think that the right way to think about and evaluate this bill is to say, are we preventing the permanent damage from a temporary shock that we were afraid of for all of last year and is it getting out to the right people who have been hardest hit? For the most part, my opinion is it is.

PHILLIP: So, as you know, the 2009 stimulus bill ended the great recession, but a lot of people didn't necessarily feel like it helped them. What lessons do you think the Biden administration needs to learn from that part? How do you get people to feel like this amount of spending was worth it and actually had a positive impact on their lives?

GOOLSBEE: Yeah, look, that was the problem of 2009 and of most previous recessions, is people got to feel good and feel like the economy is booming back to have a positive impact from it. I think it will be a lot easier with something like a rescue package where it's concentrated. The money is going to people. It's easy to see who's getting payments when they're going to the people who have been hardest hit.

I think the political lesson of 2009 clearly was that if a Democrat is the president, there's go to be virtually no Republican support for any policy measure that they do. So you should not be counting on being able to go back to the well and pass more bills if they need it, sort of the way we did last year with CARES Act and then another act in December. That politically is very unlikely, so I think that's pushing toward a big bill like this one.

PHILLIP: So, Austan, I have just a couple seconds left, but right before you go, yes or no, do you see a massive infrastructure bill getting through Congress this year?

GOOLSBEE: I see some infrastructure bill getting through Congress. I think there's still a lot of support. There might even be Republican support for that.

PHILLIP: All right. Well, thank you so much. We'll be on the lookout for that and probably have you back to talk about that. Austan Goolsbee, thank you for being with us.

And up next --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The Rio Grande Valley has been ground zero of the latest surge of migration, and here you see the operation unfolding right in front of us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: We'll talk to a Texas border congressman about the migrant surge.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:27:08]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): People are being lured into a humanitarian crisis in the middle of a pandemic because they believe this Democratic administration just conspicuously turned on a neon vacancy sign.

ROBERTA JACOBSON, SOUTHERN BORDER COORDINATOR: We have seen surges before. Surges tend to respond to hope, and there was a significant hope for a more humane policy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: But the situation at the southern border continues to worsen, as the surge of migrant children is overwhelming U.S. border capacity.

Internal documents reviewed by CNN show they're being held in CBP custody for more than four days on average with some kids telling their lawyers they haven't been able to shower or contact their parents.

Yesterday, the homeland security secretary directed FEMA to help house those unaccompanied children.

And joining me now is Congressman Vicente Gonzalez who represents a hard-hit border district and wrote this letter to President Joe Biden and DHS, and HHS department heads this past week saying: The number of unaccompanied minors that are arriving is staggering. The message in Central America seems to be that now is the time to come, and the cartels are profiting in the process.

And we're having a little bit of a technical problem with the congressman's feed, but we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:32:40] PHILLIP: And we're back now with Congressman Vicente Gonzalez after

some technical difficulties, but I wanted to start back with your letter that you sent to the administration this past week warning about this crisis with unaccompanied children. Have you heard a response to that letter? And what changes do you want to see that would help to end this surge that we're seeing?

REP. VICENTE GONZALEZ (D-TX): Well, we have been in communications with the administration. And I think what we need is to have a plan in place that doesn't incentivize people to make this very dangerous trek through Mexico, being held hostage by these cartels. They're the ones that are enriching themselves with this very complicated situation that's happening on our southern border.

And we're in the middle of a pandemic. I lost over 3,000 constituents in my border district. So I'm hugely concerned that we have a policy in place that's humane.

We're not going to cage children or divide families or rip children from mother's arms, but we do need to have an orderly process for migrants who actually qualify for asylum to hopefully ask for asylum in their home or a neighboring country. Or maybe build a center in southern Mexico where they could be processed there.

But making this very dangerous trek all to way to our southern border where women are raped, children are abused, American families -- relatives of them that are living in the U.S. are wiring, you know, millions of dollars to cartels to Mexico to pay for their arrival to the southern border of the United States.

I think that is just unacceptable. We need to find better ways to do it. And we can. And some of these ideas, I think, would work. and we need to implement policy that's functional, that's humane, that's orderly, and that's safe in the middle of a pandemic.

PHILLIP: I hear you saying that you want this process to take place in their home countries. The Biden administration has said that will take some time. Do they have the time to do that given that the crisis is happening right now?

GONZALEZ: Well, the United States of America can act very fast. I mean we got tent cities and tent camps along the border here in my district that are holding, you know, hundreds if not thousands of migrants. I think we should be stopping and helping them, especially children -- you know, children are special to me -- along the way.

[08:34:59]

GONZALEZ: Help them in Honduras. Help them in Guatemala. Help them in southern Mexico. Process them, and if they qualify for asylum, put them on a plane and fly them in. If they're children, let's help them reunite with their families.

But if they don't ever qualify, and we have to come to the fact that over 80 percent never qualify for asylum, and obviously they get absorbed by our economy because we have a shortage of labor. We have a broken immigration system, and we need a holistic approach.

The other 80 percent should probably be applying for a guest worker program. Or a different way to come into this country in an orderly fashion. And my heart goes out to the migrants. Obviously, they're coming for a better life and they're trying to improve their conditions, but coming across the Rio Grande River and being processed and released into our communities cannot be the norm.

Our cities and our counties on the border don't have the resources to deal with this and it's the federal government's responsibility. It puts a lot of pressure on our local governments and our local communities. And we're in the middle of a pandemic where every one of us has lost somebody who we love.

And as I have said, I have lost over 3,000 constituents in my area. I have lost 11 personal friends and family members.

PHILLIP: Yes.

GONZALEZ: We have been ravaged here in south Texas and we need an orderly process to assure our safety and our health.

PHILLIP: Yes. I mean in the past ten days, we have heard a lot of different things from the administration. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: We are not saying don't come. We are saying don't come now.

ROBERTA JACOBSON, SOUTHERN BORDER COORDINATOR: I want to make a point, again, that it's really important that people not make the dangerous journey in the first place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: You come away from that wondering which is it? And you talked about whether or not people are being incentivized to come here. What impact does that kind of mixed messaging have?

GONZALEZ: Yes. Well, it's very concerning. And I think we should have a very aggressive message that we can have a place in southern Mexico, a processing center where you can come in and you register and maybe even have your hearing there. I mean, obviously, we're doing a lot on Zoom now.

We can do so much and we could do so much better than we're doing now. And I think the administration is on the right track. But we don't have a lot of time. We have to move fast.

But we -- you know, we have this tent camp in my district that costs tens of millions of dollars that we put up pretty fast. And I think we could do that in other areas and get the cooperation of the government of Mexico and the government of Guatemala and the government of Honduras and the government of El Salvador and let's all sit down and work this out and assure that we can take care of these folks and do what's proper and what's right and what's humane.

PHILLIP: You're back in your district, that's a district that has had a lot of political changes over the last two years, just two years. You won your race this past year by three points after winning it by about 20 points back in 2016. What is going on down there, and do you think it is related to immigration policy? Is this a warning sign for Democrats that something is not resonating with the message in a border district like yours?

GONZALEZ: Well, I think it was a combination of things. Obviously, this was a very divisive election this past election that we had -- probably one of the most divisive in a very, very long time. And Trump created some very prolific conditions in my district.

Obviously, the border is an issue. We have a lot of energy workers in my district that were concerned about their jobs, but now finding out, that hey, they're going to keep their jobs and the industry is continuing to be robust here in this region.

And I think as people are finding out all the help that they're getting that they hadn't had before that they're getting from the Biden administration, I mean we just passed a $1.9 trillion bill that is helping my district so, so much. It's putting a check in the pockets of the most needy people in my district. It's keeping the doors open of small mom and pop businesses, and keeping people employed.

We're paying people's rent who have fallen behind and we're saving people's homes from mortgage foreclosure. We're opening our schools.

We're vaccinating more people than ever before. I was just at a vaccination site yesterday where we did a thousand people in a rural community of mine in Brooks County.

So we're blowing and going down here, and we're moving into the right direction. And I tell people, I think we have turned the corner, but we're not out of the woods yet. And we need to be very thoughtful as we move forward.

PHILLIP: All right. Well, Congressman Vicente Gonzalez, first of all, I want to say that, you know, the tragedy that your district has experienced is something that I think we all, you know, feel for you and feel for the people in your community.

[08:39:55]

PHILLIP: But thank you for being here, and we'll have you back on to talk about what's been going on at the border.

GONZALEZ: Thank you, Abby. Thanks so much.

PHILLIP: And another big story now. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is facing increasing pressure to step down, and a number of -- amid a number of growing sexual harassment claims and allegations that his office hid data on COVID-related nursing home deaths. A majority of the New York congressional delegation is now calling for Cuomo to step aside. Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand said on Friday that "Due to the multiple credible sexual harassment and misconduct allegations it is clear that Governor Cuomo has lost the confidence of his governing partners and the people of New York. Governor Cuomo should resign."

That is coming as 30 women tell the "New York Magazine" that the governor pressured staff to dress a certain way. And 35 current and former staffers told "The New York Times" that the office was, quote, toxic.

Cuomo dismissed all of these allegations in a press call on Friday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOVERNOR ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): People know the difference between playing politics, bowing to cancel culture, and the truth. Let the review proceed. I'm not going to resign. I was not elected by the politicians. I was elected by the people. Part of this is that I am not part of the political club.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: Back with me now is Lisa Lerer of "The New York Times". Lisa, this story has really exploded in the last week, and it feels like shoe after shoe is dropping for Governor Cuomo.

Take a look at just, you know, the entirety of the New York delegation here has now called for him to step aside virtually. And others have said that they need to wonder whether or not he has the ability to lead.

What is behind the sea change when it comes to the senators and the congresspeople in the state of New York saying time to go?

LISA LERER, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Well, I think it's just more and more women have come out, and as the environment, this abusive -- allegedly abusive -- environment in his office, there's more details that have come to light, I think there's a sense that not only do legislators in New York want to say that that kind of behavior is unacceptable.

There's also concerned about how the governor can really effectively govern the state if a huge part of the state legislature is against him at a period when the state is really struggling, not only with the virus but the economic ramifications of the virus. So I think there's a combination of things.

I also think Governor Cuomo is someone who doesn't have a lot of friends. He's largely -- over the past ten years he's been governor -- he's largely ruled by intimidation, vowing to destroy people who have gone against him and things like that. And once you lose that ability, because he's in such a weakened state, you know, it begins to be clear that he doesn't really have a lot of allies in his home state. PHILLIP: To that point, there was an amazing quote in "The New York

Times" on Saturday from the former lieutenant governor that said "The problem with Cuomo is that no one has ever liked him. He's not a nice person, and he doesn't have any friends. If you don't have a base of support, you get into trouble and you're dead meat."

But at the same time, the playbook that the Cuomo office seems to be running is actually that of the Virginia Governor, Ralph Northam. His aide told "The Atlantic" that the old resignation playbook is out. There is a new path, and that is to wait it out.

Is that actually true? Can he just hang on and not go away, and everyone will just forget that all of this has happened?

LERER: Well, we'll see, right. He's certainly trying to test the premise. And so far, the polling shows that voters are with him. You know, we don't have polling that was taken in the past couple days so I assume we'll get that tomorrow or the day after. I know a couple pollsters are in the field.

But what we've seen in the numbers is that New Yorkers are saying largely they don't want him to resign immediately, even though a majority don't want to see him run for a fourth term.

Part of what's saving Cuomo here is this investigation that's being done by the state attorney general. And I think there is this lingering sense that was really -- it started in the party, among the party's voters after Al Franken left, which is that Democrats are too quick to eat their own.

PHILLIP: Right.

LERER: And they look at President Trump, Democrats feel he never paid a price, and they don't want to oust their own people immediately. And so Cuomo, as a result, can take advantage of that, point to this investigation and say, basically, that he should let the process work, get a fair hearing, and let's see what comes out of the investigation.

Politically, that buys him time, and it makes it harder for anyone who might want to challenge him, you know, in the primary for the governorship for a fourth term. It shortens the timeline they'll have to do that.

[08:44:57]

PHILLIP: Yes. And for those of you at home, Lisa has a great story about that very issue this weekend. But Lisa, I want to ask you, I mean if Democrats want Republicans like Donald Trump and Congressman Madison Cawthorn to be held accountable, how can they do that while also perhaps turn a blind eye to what's going on with Cuomo?

LERER: It is a serious question. The party is really divided over what they want to do. For all the people who say look we're moving out, we're pushing people out too quickly, which is not actually that true. There's really been a handful of Democratic -- high-profile Democratic politicians who've lost their job in this MeToo era. There's a number of people in the party who say that this is what the

party needs to stand for, that Democrats need to stand for "no tolerance" policy when it comes to issues of sexual assault, sexual harassment. It's just really a difficult situation because in fact in politics there really aren't the structures to adjudicate claims like this.

And claims like this in every sort of professional area tend to be very clouded with a lot of gray areas. So there's no framework for politicians of either party to figure out what you do when prominent politicians are accused of these kinds of charges.

PHILLIP: Right. Last I checked, I don't think there was a sort of partisan out, get out of jail free card for MeToo allegations.

Lisa Lerer with "The New York Times", thank you so much for being with us this morning.

And coming up next, President Biden says the country should be closer to normal by July 4th. But what will the next few months look like?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIP: It has been one year since the coronavirus lockdowns began in the United States, and now finally, President Biden says the end is in sight.

[08:49:50]

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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: All adult Americans will be eligible to get a vaccine no later than May 1. That's much earlier than expected.

If we do all this, if we do our part, if we do this together -- by July 4th, there's a good chance you, your families and friends will be able to get together in your backyard or in your neighborhood and have a cookout or a barbecue and celebrate Independence Day.

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PHILLIP: Of course, a lot can still go wrong and the president warned that no one should give up on masks and social distancing just yet. But that has not stopped more states from relaxing or in some cases lifting restrictions that helped end the winter surge.

And joining us now with more on all of this is Dr. Ashish Jha, Dean of the Brown University School of Public Health. Dr. Jha, thanks for being here.

You know, the May 1st deadline is really a ray of hope for so many people. I wonder, though, what do you think about the time line that was laid out by President Biden both for getting all Americans access to a vaccine potentially and then also for perhaps life getting back to normal? DR. ASHISH JHA, DEAN, BROWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Yes,

good morning, Abby. Thanks, for having me on.

I was heartened to hear the president say it. I think it's aligned with what many of us have been closely tracking, that we are expecting. I have been saying for at least a month now that I think all high risk individuals will get their first shot in April. And most Americans who want a vaccine should certainly be able to get their first shot by May, finishing up vaccinations by June.

And that means a really good summer ahead. It doesn't mean we're going to be done with this pandemic. The virus is going to still be around. But life will feel meaningfully better.

PHILLIP: So we have talked here about the Fourth of July. And I know that you and I are both looking forward to what could be a really great Fourth of July. That's also a benchmark put forward by the Biden administration.

But take a look at the latest projections from IHME which we've been looking at for a year now. They're projecting that over the course of this summer, mask wearing is going to go down dramatically. We are also expecting, according to IHME, we are seeing already the biggest increase in mobility since the pandemic began.

It does make me wonder if the upside for Americans is a backyard barbecue with a small group of family members, what if people were already planning on doing that? You know, is that enough of an incentive to get people to mask up and to get vaccinated in time for the Fourth of July?

DR. JHA: Yes. It's a really good question. And you know, I think what is happening right now is we're letting our foot off the brake a little too early. A large majority of high-risk people still have not gotten vaccinated. Infection numbers are still quite high. And the variant from the UK B-117 that we have been worried about is still circulating in high numbers.

And so what I think is really important is to hold off on some of this relaxation for another four, six weeks. We're going to get there either way and by July 4th we're going to have the ability to have a backyard barbecue. The question is how many people are going to get infected and die between now and then. And obviously, we'd all love that number to be as small as possible.

PHILLIP: We're also looking at the issue of vaccine hesitancy now that the vaccines are becoming a little bit more widespread. And some surprising numbers in a recent poll finding that, of course, perhaps not surprisingly -- 87 percent of Democrats are willing to get vaccinated, but just 56 percent of Republicans are.

And then if you look at it broken down by race, we have been very worried about, you know, minority groups and vaccine hesitancy. But black Americans seems to be the most willing to get the vaccine compared to whites and Hispanics. What do you think is really behind, first of all, this partisan it seems vaccine hesitancy that seems to be setting in here in the United States?

DR. JHA: Yes. I think there are two separate issues. I think we have often looked at the fact that black Americans have been getting vaccinated at lower numbers and said this is a hesitancy issue. It's not a hesitancy issue. It's an access issue.

We are not providing access to vaccines in the black community at the same rate as in white communities. And that's a huge problem that we have to fix.

The second part that's bothersome to me is how somehow this has become partisan again, just like mask wearing and social distancing was. And my gosh, vaccines are way out of this pandemic. Most of these vaccines were developed under the Trump administration.

You'd think there would be enthusiasm on all sides of the political aisle. I've been disheartened to see that there hasn't.

PHILLIP: I want to play a little of a year ago, you were on this show for the first time. Just take a listen to what was going on a year ago in March.

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DR. JHA: So the question is, are we being aggressive enough? And I believe this is great progress, but we're still not being aggressive enough.

I think restaurants and bars need to close. I think people cannot congregate, not until we have a much better understanding of how widespread this disease is across our country.

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PHILLIP: A year later, Dr. Jha, how much has changed? What have we learned? What have you learned in that time?

DR. JHA: So much. I mean my gosh, we know so much more about this virus. That was a scary time because we knew that the virus was spreading across the country, and we didn't know how bad. We didn't have testing. We didn't have the ability to really sense how many people were at risk.

So we're certainly in much, much better shape. Obviously, we have vaccines now. There are still uncertainties in this pandemic. But we're in so much better shape a year later than we were then.

PHILLIP: And we're grateful as always for your continued vigilance and guidance on all of this. Dr. Ashish Jha, thank you so much for being with us this morning.

DR. JHA: Thank you.

PHILLIP: And that's it for INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY. Join us back here every Sunday at 8:00 a.m. Eastern time and the weekday show as well at noon Eastern.

And coming up next, "STATE OF THE UNION WITH JAKE TAPPER AND DANA BASH". Among Jake's guests this morning -- Dr. Anthony Fauci and Maryland Governor Larry Hogan.

Thank you again for sharing your Sunday morning with us. Have a great rest of your day.

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