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TSA Reports New Pandemic-Era Travel Record On Sunday; Sanders: "We're Going To Do It Alone" If GOP Doesn't Come Along; Poll: 71 Percent of Americans Approve of Biden's Pandemic Response; Republicans Who Voted to Impeach Trump Face Uncertain Future in Party; CDC: Average of Daily Shots in U.S. Now Hovering Around 2 Million. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired May 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]

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That is a new record of the pandemic. That is the third time we have seen a pandemic air record in the last seven days. Kate?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Pete, thank you very much for that report. I really appreciate it. And thank you all so much for being here. I am Kate Bolduan. John King picks up our coverage right now.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Hello, everybody and welcome to Inside Politics. I'm John King in Washington. Thanks for sharing what's turning out to be a busy news day with us. President Biden next hour gives an update on the economy that after a whiplash Friday jobs report.

We're cautiously optimistic at a cautiously optimistic moment in the pandemic as we begin the week, the Sunday new case count is the lowest since last June. Doctors argue some areas can now list - lift their masks mandates. The FDA plans to green light the Pfizer vaccine for 12 to 15 year olds as soon as next week.

But there is one hiccup, new CNN reporting this morning that because of slipping demand, several states are no longer ordering their full allotment of vaccine doses from the federal government. And House Republicans make a big choice this week, Trump over truth; Congresswoman Liz Cheney faces exile her colleagues are embracing again.

The big Trump election lie believing sticking with him is their path back to power. Up first though, a brazen cybercrime, a major American pipeline that stretches from Texas to the Northeast and fuels half the east coast, held hostage, a ransom ware attack shutting down the main arteries of colonial pipeline on Friday.

A former U.S. official says a criminal gang out of Russia called dark side is likely behind this attack. Now the shutdown won't impact prices at the pump right away. But the pipeline attack does expose giant flaws in America's cyber defenses, especially around the infrastructure, the electric and the energy grid.

Let's get straight to CNN's Kaitlan Collins at the White House, Kaitlan, and a major complication for the administration.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It is because not only are they dealing with this specific attack and the immediate after effects of what it could potentially do to the supply chain.

John, they're also looking at the bigger picture here. And what do they do to address this evolving threat that we have against critical infrastructure here in the united states?

And what do they do about nations that harbor the groups that conduct these attacks. You saw the FBI just put out a statement on this a few moments ago confirming that it was the dark side group that they believe that was behind this.

But meanwhile, the White House, the other thing that they're focusing on is something that was already underway, which is a new executive order that we expect to be issued in the coming weeks and signed by President Biden on how to strengthen the nation's cyber defense.

And what that really has to do with is not only the federal government agencies that have this software, but it's the contractors that they buy this software from that they use.

Of course, that was part of the major issue with the solar winds hack is it was through an outside software company, which was how they got into those federal agencies and their computer systems and sat there for months, looking what was going on.

And so this executive order so far, the parameters of it would have to deal with strengthening those requirements for those software platforms, those contractors, what they're using for the federal agencies, but also disclosing vulnerabilities and disclosing breaches to the federal government ahead of time.

And there could be repercussions if these company these outside contractors do not do so. But I think John really the bigger picture is they're still finalizing the language of that executive order is what it would do. And if it would go far enough to help with an attack, like the one we're experiencing right now.

And that's a big question for the White House. They held emergency meetings on this all weekend long, not only trying to deal with those questions and those answers, but also does this potentially disrupt the supply chain here in the U.S.

So we will see the homeland security advisor come out at the briefing in just a few minutes to address this and to address what their ongoing efforts are.

KING: We'll circle back to that briefing live when that happens. Kaitlan Collins appreciate the live report from the White House, this cyber tech complicating an important and very carefully scripted week for President Biden.

That week, this week includes his first White House meeting with the big fourth congressional leadership on Thursday sessions with lawmakers on the $4 trillion worth of proposals the president now trying to get through Congress.

Here to share the reporting and their insights literally here to share their reporting and their insights CNN's Manu Raju and Jackie Kucinich at The Daily Beast First. It's nice to see.

JACKIE KUCINICH, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE DAILY BEAST: Likewise--

KING: I haven't done this in a while three people at a table. It's been a while. It's great. I'm grateful. And for anybody watching at home, this is why you get a vaccine, you get to see your friends again. It's a good thing. Let's start with this and Manu let me start with you.

Phil Mattingly, our White House Reporter talking last week about -a couple weeks. Let's bring the Republicans in. Let's feel them out. Let's see if they'll move close enough to me that it's worth making a deal. Democrats don't think so. Listen to Bernie Sanders. He says alright, have a meeting. But--

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): During the Obama years, they talk to him talk to negotiated and negotiated. They never came aboard. I think Biden has learned that lesson. Republicans want to come on board seriously, great. If not, we're going to do it alone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: President has a clock of a couple of weeks. How about progressives like Senator Sanders?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's going to be the real challenge here trying to negotiate to cut a deal with the Republicans which will undoubtedly fall short of what Bernie Sanders wants what the liberals in the house want, and that's going to be the challenge here. Now what is very clear that the White House is trying to do is on a dual track.

[12:05:00]

RAJU: They're trying to get a bipartisan deal maybe in the range of what Mitch McConnell is even suggesting up to $800 billion. Now that is, of course, a fraction of the $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan that Joe Biden laid out.

And then tried to do the rest in a separate process, the budget reconciliation process that we talked so much about, because it's just so significant because you can avoid a senate filibuster by doing that and essentially pass it log straight party lines, but you need to - your Democrats, you have to keep your caucus in line to do that.

And today, an important meeting that Joe Biden is having with Joe Manchin and the White House, the West Virginia Democrat, he's one who has resisted going that down the road of reconciliation until they try the bipartisan route first. So the first question, can they get the bipartisan deal? If they can,

they get to keep the left at bay. And if they don't get a bipartisan deal, then they're going to try to do it on their own and win over the likes of Joe Manchin.

KING: And even that meeting that Manu just mentioned tells you the very different presidency we are in and we're still learning. We're just starting the second 100 days. But the President of the United States is going to meet with two Chairman today, Tom Carper and Joe Manchin individually.

He has the entire leadership coming down then he has another group coming back and he's already had Republicans in, he has others in. During the Trump Administration, the Republican leadership, essentially please keep the president away from this stuff. It's sensitive. If he gets involved, he blows it up. President Biden is taking a piece by piece himself.

KUCINICH: Absolutely. And he has. So you mentioned the Joe Manchin, he is someone who has actually said nice things about the Capitol plan that Senator Capitol has put forward having to do with infrastructure. And that is some a ray of sunshine for that particular proposal.

And the difference between even this administration and the Obama administration is, when it comes to the progressive caucus, is you've seen a lot of outreach, there's an open line between the White House and the progressive caucus.

And they really have been trying to address their concerns now whether that actually ends up legislative put into legislation. I know the likes of Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren; they're going to try to make sure that happens.

But it is --that is going to be as Manu said, that is going to be the trick here is trying to keep everybody happy. And we all know no one is unhappy at the end of these things.

KING: You cannot keep there's no such thing. There's no such thing as a bipartisan deal if everyone's happy, and they will see it the progressive. So one of the reasons you mentioned the outreach to progressives, they're relatively happy so far, because President Biden says, let's raise taxes on wealthy capital gains, and let's raise taxes on corporation's rollback some of the Trump tax cuts here.

That's how we will pay for all of this, including infrastructure, but also some other things. The Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell isn't here says, no.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): We're open to talk about infrastructure and how to pay for it. And the way to pay for infrastructure is through the Gas Act that already exists. And whatever the gap between that and what we're willing to spend here, it needs to be credibly paid for. And the best way to pay for infrastructure is with the people who use

it, not revisiting the taxpayer in a way that creates additional problems for the economy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: And for Republicans who, you know, that was their signature achievement, the Trump years those tax cuts. So if that's again, negotiations, people can move from their position. Senator McConnell has a history of negotiating, he knows how this works. But he's laying down the marker. They're saying, no, we're not doing it your way.

RAJU: Yes. And that way is a raise of corporate taxes. And the White House is faced resistance within democratic ranks about raising it to the level that Joe Biden proposed. But even as slight increase is going to be off the table for Mitch McConnell.

So they're going to have to deal with the how to pay for this. That's always been the dividing issue on infrastructure. My sense of it in talking to the Republicans is that they're not going to move on the corporate taxes.

But potentially they could just punt on the issue of paying for much of this baggage into later essentially, say Democrats want to raise taxes, you got to do it on your own, do it through the budget reconciliation process, get the votes to pay for it and a separate proposal together.

But the question will be will have not enough Republicans agreed to punt on the key issue of how to pay for it the later that's still uncertain.

KING: These are necessary Washington conversations. Sometimes maybe the country glazes over a little bit meetings and returns like reconciliation, but they're necessary to make progress. And you see the different approach of the president.

His hope, though, is that out there in America, his relatively strong standing in the polls helps him move these things along. I just want to say this is an AP poll out, you know, do you approve how Joe Biden is handling the Coronavirus pandemic.

Now, you might think that has nothing to do with infrastructure. But 47 percent of Republicans, nearly half of Republicans approve of the pandemic, six and ten Independence and 96 percent of Democrats on the biggest issue facing the country right now the president is in very strong shape.

And if you look deeper into that poll, 54 percent of the countries on the right track, according to that poll, that's the highest that's been since back in 2017. So there's a lot of Washington process and meetings involved here.

But what the president hopes for is that better numbers on the pandemic want to show you some more depth later in the show. They are getting better, better numbers on the economy that he has support out there.

KUCINICH: And one of the biggest another big difference between the last president and the current president as much as former President Trump like to talk about forging deals, Biden loves a deal he takes a lot of pride in it.

You heard him talk about it all the time on the campaign trail about the deals he was able to cut with the other side that got him a lot of backlash from the left.

[12:10:00]

KUCINICH: But we know from your administration officials that he's looking for a deal here. He really does want to try to bridge the gap and get something done because inaction is the one red line that one of the red lines that they have said.

RAJU: This is different than COVID relief. There was not a real serious negotiation that happened there. They had meetings with Republicans; they just said since it kicked, they said we're going to do it on our own. They're actually trying to get a bipartisan deal here. But can they do it?

KING: Yes. That's why we watched it's a lot of fun. Jackie and Manu are going to stay with us. Up next for us big changes for the House Republican leadership this week, truth telling is out. Embracing Trump and the big lie is in.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: The top House Republican is now public in his call to dump Liz Cheney from her spot on his leadership team. Donald Trump wants Congresswoman Elise Stefanik to replace Cheney. The vote is expected Wednesday and Kevin McCarthy well listen here quite good at follow the leader.

[12:15:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): As conference Chair, you have one of the most critical jobs at the messenger of going forward.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you support Elise Stefanik for that job?

REP. MCCARTHY: Yes, I do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: That explanation tells you all you need to know. Right? We're listening. The conference Chair is about messaging. And Liz Cheney tells the truth about Trump and the 2020 election, therefore, she cannot be a messenger for House Republicans.

Back with me CNN's Manu Raju, Jackie Kucinich of the Daily Beast. At least they're transparent about it. So called leader McCarthy, who is taking his cues from Trump right now. She can't be our messenger, because she keeps saying Joe Biden won the election and Donald Trump is lying about it.

What job in America do you go; let's go everybody go on LinkedIn, or some hiring site. It says requirement do not tell the truth.

KUCINICH: Right. And she also hasn't backed out; she's going to keep talking about it. She was going to keep talking about January 6. She was going to keep pushing back every time the president had the former president who would come out and say, you know, repeat the big lie.

She was one of the people that came out and you know, has kept at it. And I think one of the things that was happening; at least back in the districts that we started hearing about was members were starting to be asked about Liz Cheney.

And when it starts, when they don't want to answer questions about January 6 and they don't want to talk about it anymore and they're being prompted in their home districts. That's going to be problematic.

And you know, our reporters were even told that a member who voted for impeachment was with Liz Cheney on that was isn't for her staying as conference chair, because it is bringing up things that they don't want to talk about.

KING: Bringing up things they don't want to talk about, although and they're outnumbered that Liz Cheney and her - and the colleagues who want to keep bringing this up or not numbered. But one of them is Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who just gave a speech in town at the press club last hour. And listen to this actually on the other side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R-IL): I was on a phone call with Kevin McCarthy on the Republican conference a couple days prior to January 6, I said, you know, Kevin, with all this. Basically BS were saying about we can make sure the election isn't certified, it was stolen, et cetera.

I really, really am concerned about violence on January 6. The response I got was basically that cricket sound and then OK, Adam operator, next caller.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Is that evidence that now that Cheney is going to get kicked out of the leadership that her allies are going to go after McCarthy, openly and publicly and with specifics?

RAJU: Yes, it'll be interesting to see how she responses because she is going to be ousted no matter what that's going to happen on Wednesday. There's nothing she could do about it.

Will she become outspoken and join the Kinzinger wing of the House Republican conference in going after McCarthy going after Trump in vocal terms, of course, the kids are going to the conference is very small.

It's a handful of people; the vast majority of them do support Donald Trump. You know, in her Op-ed last week, she did also call out Kevin McCarthy and said that he changed his position, which he did after calling out Donald Trump initially in the aftermath of January 6 and then McCarthy has aligned himself with the former president going forward.

For McCarthy, this is all about one thing is regaining the house majority next year. And his calculation is, if she's in leadership, that's a problem because it creates, in their view, a distraction, it puts them crosswise with the former president, we all need to be on Trump's team.

That's his calculation, a different calculation that Mitch McConnell is making on the senate side. But that's what McCarthy believes. And that's what the vast majority of the conference believes. We'll see how Cheney responds though when she's kicked out on Wednesday.

KING: Right. And again, the country that's not too far away from DC, but you have some Republican Governors who are the more moderate voices who were never Trump fans to begin with. But like Larry Hogan who say, so to stay in leadership, you have to pledge allegiance to Trump. I don't like that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. LARRY HOGAN (R-MD): It just bothers me that you have to swear fealty to the dear leader or you get kicked out of the party. It just doesn't make any sense.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: That's the view for more moderate Maryland without a doubt, but you were mentioning earlier that even people who voted with Cheney, again uncomfortable back home about this because you know, 70 percent of Republicans believe Trump and believe the big lie.

This is just some headlines the Columbus dispatch Friday, Ohio GOP calls on Representative Anthony Gonzalez to resign for impeaching ex- President Trump back in Louisiana. The daily advertiser Senator Cassidy still has work to do to win back Trump loyalists.

So out there, if all politics is local if you will, tell him the truth, standing up to Trump gets the blowback.

KUCINICH: But even Cassidy has stood up and said we need Republicans like Liz Cheney in the party because there are Republicans that think like that out there. And if you're going to have a tent, that's any bigger than, you know, just the Trump folks, that it kicking them all out isn't a way to grow the party or to keep or to have, you know, any sort of ideological differentiation.

RAJU: And this is just so emblematic of how Republicans have dealt with Trump ever since he came into the public sphere. He did something outrageous does something controversial and they try to ignore it. They dodge it, they try not to answer questions and hope the new cycle completely moves on from that given controversy.

[12:20:00]

RAJU: Of course, January 6 is much different than a tweet that was an attack against the Capitol. But here they want to - they don't want to talk about that they want to go after Biden's agenda, Liz Cheney being in leadership and those critics they distract from that effort.

KING: Well, you could get the idea that Republicans why as Liz Cheney keep talking about this, but she wouldn't have to keep talking about this if Donald Trump would stop talking about it. And just about every day in the last week, he's put out a statement repeating the big lie so you can look at this from either side of the sheet I guess.

You guys stand by, up next for us middle school, high school students about to be eligible for COVID vaccines.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:25:00]

KING: There are still some challenges with the vaccine rollout. But most of the COVID numbers are looking better. So let's take a look and just start right here. Take a look what's missing? No red, no red. There are no states.

New Jersey has a data issue right now. So we have that in gray. We just don't trust the numbers right now. They're working through some problems. But look at this. Look at this. No states reporting more new COVID infections right now compared to a week ago. Zero, you see 16 states in beige holding steady and you see 33 states in green, trending down fewer COVID infections now than a week ago.

The map has not looked like this in a very long time, a very, very long time. Let's hope it stays that way. The reason is this the case timeline you see the drop from the horrors of the winter, Sunday 21,392 new COVID infections reported numbers often dip over the weekend.

So let's watch as this plays out the seven day average just above 40,000. It's not been below 40,000 since September, so the week ahead, let's watch those numbers. Let's see if this continues to go down.

There was never any good news on this graphic, but it is improving news. You see right here Sunday 238 of our fellow Americans passed away from COVID still a horrific number. But the death total the lowest since back in March 2020, March 2020, way back at the beginning.

So that is an improving graphic, even though it's still a painful graphic, it's coming the better numbers because of this 34 percent of American population is fully vaccinated nearly half 46 percent as at least one dose among those 18 and over 44 percent fully vaccinated and among those 65 years and older 71 percent fully vaccinated. So progress here. Now you deal with the hesitancy issue, right look, now - the vaccine

on average 2 million shots in arm in the United States that dipped 1.9 million on Saturday. But 2 million is the average right now the seven day average of vaccinations, the administration tried to deal with some hesitancy issues.

This is not look at the numbers week to week to week allocations to the state's 30 million two weeks ago, 29 million last week. You see the vaccine allocations relatively steady with a couple of spikes, but relatively steady high 20s if you're right around there.

So on that point, let's bring in our Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen. Elizabeth, when you look at this, it's not an issue of vaccine supply to the states. Is it?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Exactly right. And we remember John, you and I talking about how there just wasn't enough out there back in December, January, and February. Well now there's actually plenty of vaccine.

And so we were wondering, - how many people could get any vaccine they wanted within a reasonable drive? So we asked the folks that vaccine finder.com they power vaccines.gov, how many people live within a five mile radius of the vaccine?

Nearly 80 percent of Americans live within a five mile radius of any of the three vaccines, they have their choice. The hope is this will help with vaccine hesitancy when people realize they actually have a choice. Let's take a look.

For example, New York City, we pick CNN headquarters in New York City, you can walk within minutes to any of the three vaccines maybe not so surprising, given that it's a big city. But now let's look at Zeppelin North Carolina.

I'd like to say we chose it randomly, but that's where one of my producers grew up. So we chose a town of less than 6000 people, you can drive to Pfizer or Moderna within three minutes, Johnson & Johnson, you have to drive an extra two minutes. That'll take you five minutes.

Now let's look at Freeport Kansas, again not so random near where another producer of mine grew up. Population for four people in Freeport, Kansas, they would have to drive about 20 to 30 minutes to get Johnson & Johnson or Moderna.

They'd have to go an hour to get Pfizer but consider how Freeport is really quite a remote town that's still quite amazing. So again, John, the hope is that when vaccine hesitant people and you mentioned this before was they hear that it's in their control; they get to choose which one they want.

80 percent of Americans get to choose probably even more than that, if they're willing to drive a little bit more. That's good news for vaccine hesitant people. Hopefully it will help them roll up their sleeves, you can go to vaccines.gov, put in your zip code, see where to find your shot, John.

KING: Amen to that Elizabeth Cohen grateful for the great context. That's a great way to look at it. And joining me now to continue the conversation is Dr. Michael Smith. He's a Professor of Pediatrics at Duke University and an Investigator for Pfizer's Adult and Pediatric Vaccine Trials.

Doctor, thank you so much for being with us today, so the big question now we expect this week and the OK would be authorized for next week. Those who are in the 12 to 15 age group to get their vaccines we can just put up on the screen right there.

That would be mean 85 percent of all Americans would be eligible for vaccine at that point. 16.7 million Americans in the age group 12 to 15. How important is it to get to move down if you go all the way down to 12 years old middle school, middle school students and get them in line for shots.

DR. MICHAEL SMITH, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF PEDIATRICS AT DUKE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: I think it's critical and for a couple of reasons.

[12:30:00]