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This Week: WH Could Meet With Potential High Court Picks; Governors Say They Told White House They Need "Clear Guidelines" On How To "Move Beyond The Pandemic"; Biden Demands Release Of U.S. Hostage Held By Taliban. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired January 31, 2022 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:01]

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN REPORTER: Those sacrifices, John, those sacrifices are what have so many in the British public outrage. Remember what we learned in school, a government for the people by the people. Right now, this government does not appear it is for the people.

It is behaving as if it is above the law. Two-thirds of people in this country want the Prime Minister to resign. But it's all going to come down to his own party who are right now parsing through that scathing report, parsing through that scathing review, waiting on that police probe to make a determination is Prime Minister Boris Johnson still fit to lead the country.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Forgive me for interrupting. That's what gets fascinating in the sense that sometimes time is your friend, when you're trying to run out the clock on a political scandal or political questions. People move on to other things in the interest fades. Time here is not the Prime Minister's friend because with more investigations, we get more details.

I just want to read a little bit from the gray report, there were failures of leadership and judgment by different parts of number 10 and the Cabinet Office at different times. Some of the events should not have been allowed to take place. Other events could not have been allowed to develop as they did. Then it goes on to say the excessive consumption of alcohol is not appropriate in a professional workplace at any time.

Steps must be taken to ensure that every government department has a clear and robust policy in place covering the consumption of alcohol in the workplace. This is just damning. And then, of course, is the photo of Boris Johnson holding the birthday cake. Again, the problem for you here is it's the elites saying, you know, the rules are not for us, right? The little people have to follow the rules, we don't.

ABDELAZIZ: That's absolutely right, John, and it's exactly what I've been hearing from so many families across this country. We spent last week speaking to some who'd made some of those great sacrifices. I talked to a mom whose 18-year-old daughter died during lockdown, John, and she was able to hold a funeral for her 18-year-old daughter because of COVID restrictions, because the thing you have to remember is rules here were not just set by this government, they were enforced by this government.

There were police on the streets handing out fines. Parties were crackdown on. People paid up to 10,000 pounds if they held an illegal gathering. So it begins to make people wonder, how is it that these rules only apply to us? Again, going back to that mother who couldn't hold a funeral for her daughter, she told me when she saw that image of the Prime Minister sitting in the garden with wine and cheese. She said it looked like they came from another planet. And that's the point here. This country was living one reality while the people behind me here are living another one.

KING: Salma Abdelaziz, appreciate the live reporting, interesting days ahead for the Prime Minister. We know you'll stay on top of it. We'll see you again soon, I bet. Selma, thanks so much.

Up next for us, why some Republicans don't like President Biden's promise to put a black woman on the Supreme Court.

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[12:37:25]

KING: President Biden's promise to name a black woman to the Supreme Court is stirring a debate among Republicans. Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi, for example, thinks the promise is a bad idea.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ROGER WICKER (R-MS): The irony is that the Supreme Court is at the very same time hearing cases about this sort of affirmative racial discrimination.

PAUL GALLO, THE GALLO RADIO SHOW HOST: Yes.

WICKER: And while adding someone who is the beneficiary of this sort of quote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: The reporters are back with us to discuss. Astead Herndon, the beneficiary of this sort of quota loaded, language loaded language Republicans sometimes have a hard time when our political conversations wander toward race.

ASTEAD HERNDON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Absolutely. And this is loaded language that's meant to imply but we all know that there is some that the implication that there is somehow something that is at odds between a qualified candidate and a candidate that is a black woman.

The President's choice to say that he was going to nominate a black woman comes in line with previous presidents who have made the determination to prioritize diversity and inclusivity on to the core, while at the same time trying to say that this will be someone who is qualified. You know, I think this conversation is kind of in the abstract right now, because we are just talking about those identity features. But when the White House makes a selection, we will then have an actual person on the court to do this. But Republicans are already trying to kind of muddy the waters on this nomination, kind of delegitimize this nominee to be. Can I just say about the Biden campaign, though? They have been saying that this was a pledge that they needed to make in order to prioritize that diversity.

But on the trail, this was a political pledge, right? This was a pledge that they may specifically in terms of trying to get that Clyburn endorsement and others, the question is now whether they would have been best off just selecting someone who was a black woman, rather than making that pledge on the forefront.

The White House certainly hasn't made a reason why the pledge in the campaign front was necessary rather than just making the straight up decision to go through the process and choose the one person that, you know, that option was still on the table.

KING: It's an interesting point you make there. And what's interesting also, Melanie Zanona, is Republicans we can show on the screen here list there's several, there's eight or there's eight we know who were on President Biden's list. The White House says it could even go beyond that. Eight African American women who are potential nominees, the White House says it may even expand the list. One you see there is Judge J. Michelle Childs of South Carolina. Lindsey Graham was asked about what Senator Wicker said and listened to this.

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[12:40:02]

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): Put me in the camp of making sure the court and other institutions look like America. Michelle Childs is incredible qualified. There's no affirmative action component if you pick her, she is highly qualified.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: So he disagrees with Senator Wicker, or at least he wants to know, part of that. But he's also essentially trying to bait the President into picking the judge from his states. It's also Jim Clyburn state. What's up with that?

MELANIE ZANONA, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORTER: Yes, I think that the idea of a bipartisan pick could have a lot of sway with Biden. We know he likes the idea of things that can get bipartisan support on Capitol Hill. And Lindsey Graham was essentially telegraphing. I will support this nominee if you put her forward.

That being said, I don't think there's going to be many more Republicans, aside from a handful that support the nominee. Ultimately, besides Lindsey Graham, maybe Susan Collins, maybe Lisa Murkowski, it is going to be partisan. These things usually come down to party lines.

I think the question for Republicans is how hard do they want to fight knowing that the balance of the court isn't going to shift, knowing that they can't block it, and knowing that there could be a backlash to going scorched earth against the first black female nominee to the High Court.

KING: Right. And we know Childs was confirmed by a voice vote. So we don't know what the Republican vote would have been on that. Another leading contender, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, she did get three Republican votes when she was confirmed. Margaret Talev that is sort of the question of the moment, how hard will Republicans fight? Do they just want to make key points that they think are important to them? But then three or four Republicans maybe more, go over vote? Yes. Or does this become a dividing line?

MARGARET TALEV, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, if you -- if anyone has been watching the Senate the last year so we all know the two votes that it always comes down to are Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. As long as Manchin and Sinema are on board, it seems like Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is and has always been the perspective justice to beat here. And it's not clear that the Childs, the spectrum, Michelle Childs changes that.

One thing that's interesting about Childs is that when you talk about diversity, she also represents a different kind of diversity, which is she did not get her education at Harvard and or Yale. And it's that background USF for undergraduate and, you know, then the law school at University of South Carolina that adds kind of a the nanny leader anti elite dimension to the talking points around her. I still think ultimately a Biden will -- is more inclined to go with the short thing which is a nominee who has literally just been confirmed with bipartisan support.

KING: Well, it's interesting. We're about to turn from January to February. The President says they'll have his pick by the end of the month, so some interesting days ahead. Appreciate it everybody coming in to talk about it. We will continue that conversation.

Up next for us, a COVID case map you very much want to see, and with that map, the debate about when to ease mask, and other COVID restrictions.

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[12:47:26]

KING: The COVID trend lines are improving dramatically so in some places. As you can see, when we take a look at the state by state map, we've shown a lot of red over the last few years green is good. Green means each of the green states reporting fewer new COVID infections now compared to a week ago, have only five states reporting more new COVID infections all of them in the northern more cold part of the country. Only five states reporting more new infections this week compared to last week. You see there 40 States going down, five states holding steady.

So this map you would seem to believe much better, right? It is from a case perspective. But this is how the CDC defines transmission. Still almost 100 percent, 99.8 percent of the 3,200 plus counties in the United States still by the CDC are graded high transmission, because Omicron is so contagious, but most of the cases tend to be less severe, a lot of people think you need to redefine this, because a lot of mayors use this, a lot of businesses use this high transmission means indoor masks, maybe a vaccine mandate, which is why a lot of people in this Omicron age think we need to change that. Some public health experts say that just moments ago at the White House, a bipartisan agreement among governors too, we need the government to give us new rules.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ASA HUTCHINSON (R-AR): We need to move away from the pandemic. And we asked the President to help give us clear guidelines on how we can return to a greater state of normality. And we want to partner with the administration and be able to move beyond the pandemic.

GOV. PHIL MURPHY (D-NJ): What is the road from pandemic to endemic look like? Broad agreement that that's the task at hand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Let's get some insights and expertise from Dr. Ali Raja. He's the executive vice chairman of Emergency Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Dr. Raja, grateful for your time. Does the government need to change the standard if you will, somehow redefine a high transmission is the CDC or set some other standard that helps mayors, helps governors decide, you need a mask, you need a mandate?

DR. ALI RAJA, EXEC. VICE CHAIR, MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSP. EMERGENCY MEDICINE DEPT.: John, that's a great question. And this is the time to start asking it. The first graph you showed was fantastic. As you said, most of the country is actually looking better than it did a week ago. But the second graph is really key. The CDC defines high transmission is more than 100 cases per 100,000 people or 10 percent test positivity. The fact that the entire country is still in that state says we're not there yet.

But we need to think about using prevalence data, transmission data, hospitalization data as we start thinking about how we can come out of it. So this the right time to talk about that is right now.

KING: So as we tee it up, where do you see the sweet spot because I just want to show you, number one, if you look at the overall national case count down 39 percent from the January peak that is certainly the trend you want to go. But we're still looking at you know nearly 500,000 cases on Sunday. That is still an enormously high case count. If you look at Washington, D.C., there's an indoor mask mandate, there's an indoor event vaccine mandate here in D.C.

[12:50:18]

When the indoor mask mandate was lifted back in November, it was 15 cases for 100,000, then the mayor reinstated it when it was 134 cases for 100,000. Now we're back down to 53 cases for 100,000. So the question is, you know, what is low enough? And I just want to bring this in. But you say this has to be part of the equation, there are still 136,767 as of yesterday, Americans hospitalized with COVID is sort of how do you set that scale, Doctor?

RAJA: And that's exactly right. And I think the thing to keep in mind is that number that you just showed us of hospitalizations, it's just as high as it was during the surges in the fall last year. So the fact that our hospitals are still full of patients who are hospitalized with COVID means that we're not quite ready, we'll probably end up as you mentioned, with the case positivity, or the case rate being somewhere in the 20ish range for when we can start lowering restrictions.

But we also have to keep into account that a lot of places around this country have hospitals that are completely full. So, even then it might take time for the hospitalization to go down so that we're ready for any sicker patients who come in.

KING: So to that point, you make a very key point, how much of this should be guided from Washington and how much of it should be left to local decisions? Because the hospitals, you know, in your state might be different from the next day, the hospitals within your state, maybe in Boston is better off than out in Springfield, or Worcester. So how much of it should be guidance from the CDC and the federal government? How much of it should be rules?

RAJA: I think that it really has to be guidance. It has to be recommendations, because the CDC and the federal government are the place and the people that people around the country look to for guidance. But the individual states, the individual counties, the individual cities, are the ones who are going to make a distinction between whether or not they turn on or turn off mandates based on their specific situations. It has to be a local decision.

KING: Well, let's hope this trend continues with the green on the map and we can continue to have this conversation about just how to find that sweet spot. Dr. Raja, grateful for your time, sir, appreciate it.

RAJA: Thanks, John.

KING: Ahead for us, President Biden demands the release of an American kidnapped by the Taliban two years ago, and some brand new CNN reporting reveals just how close then Vice President-elect Harris came to a pipe bomb planted outside the Democratic Party headquarters.

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[12:57:04]

KING: Topping our Political Radar today, a new statement from President Biden demanding the release of a U.S. Navy veteran who was taken hostage in Afghanistan two years ago. Mark Frerichs was kidnapped in January 2020 in Kabul. He is believed to be in the custody of a Taliban link network. Let's get to our senior White House correspondent Phil Mattingly. Phil, this was the first time President Biden himself has issued a statement on this. PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and a very forceful statement in that. He was referenced or he referenced Mark Frerichs back in June. But a very forceful statement that I think comes at a critical moment obviously today marks the two year mark since Mark Frerichs a symbol civil engineer was kidnapped in Afghanistan. And the U.S. mostly works behind the scenes as it relates to hostage issues of the State Department taking the lead with its team and effort.

The Department of Defense has also weighed on this. But the President making very clear on a couple of levels how important it is to bring Mark Frerichs home saying in part in his statement, threatening the safety of Americans or any innocent civilians is always unacceptable and hostage taking is an act of particular cruelty and cowardice. The Taliban must immediately release Mark before it can expect any consideration of its aspirations for legitimacy. This is not negotiable.

Now that's important for a couple of reasons. First, obviously, the Taliban now running Afghanistan, having major issues in terms of just basic governance, in part, because of the fact they have not been recognized for legitimacy, so that is a lever that the U.S. can pull as it tries to get Mark Frerichs home. But it's also kind of a window into the President at this critical moment of geopolitical issues, trying to show strength, trying to make very clear that the U.S. does not intend to leave its people behind.

One thing to note, Mark Frerichs sister wrote an opinion piece in "The Washington Post" just a few days ago. The pressure from the families as it always is continuing on the administration. The President trying to respond to that and making very clear he expects the Taliban to respond as well, John.

KING: Fascinating to watch this one play out in the days ahead. Phil Mattingly live at the White House, appreciate it very much.

Some new details about just how close then Vice President-elect Kamala Harris was to a pipe bomb that was planted outside the Democratic National Committee headquarters. That of course, you remember it was the same day as the January 6th Capitol insurrection last year. Multiple sources now revealing to CNN, Harris was inside the Democratic National Committee headquarters for nearly two hours before that device was found nearby outside. The bomb was safely neutralized by a robot. The FBI has made clear the bomb was viable.

Today, a federal judge sets rule and a plea deal offer to two of the men who pled guilty to the killing of Ahmaud Arbery. Gregory and Travis McMichael were both sentenced to life in prison without parole last month, but both also faced federal hate crime charges. A court filing reveals a plea deal was reached in the federal case, but it doesn't give the exact details. The Arbery family's lawyer though is vowing to fight that plea in court today calling it quote, a backroom deal and a betrayal of the family.

The Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is tested positive for COVID-19. The Prime Minister went into isolation last week after one of his children tested positive. In a tweet this morning, Prime Minister Trudeau says, he's feeling fine and will continue to work remotely.

[12:59:58]

Thanks for your time on INSIDE POLITICS today. Hope to see you back here this time tomorrow. Don't forget you can also listen to our podcast. Download INSIDE POLITICS wherever you get your podcasts. We'll see you back here tomorrow. Ana Cabrera picks up our coverage right now.