Shifting messages from Biden admin on teacher vaccinations & reopening schools; More than 3m customers still without power in freezing Texas; Trump slams McConnell as a “dour, sullen, & unsmiling political hack” despite voting for acquittal; WH wants vaccines for teachers, but leaves it up to the states
The Lead with Jake Tapper
CNN
3.5 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 17 February 2021
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Biden pushes back timeline, says vaccines widely available for public by end of July; Biden admin: early shipments of Johnson & Johnson’s single dose vaccine will be smaller than expected; Warren & Schumer push back on Biden after he shoots down cancelling $50k in student loan debts; Trump slams McConnell as a “dour, sullen, & unsmiling political hack” despite voting for acquittal; CDC: variants could lead to “rapid rise” in Covid-19 cases despite recent drop; Former Biden advisers want White House to recommend wide use of N95 masks; More than 3m customers still without power in freezing Texas; Operator: working around the clock to avoid catastrophic blackout; Texas officials turn storm failures into political blame game; States warn severe weather causing vaccine distribution delays; NY Gov. Cuomo’s office denies he threatened fellow Democrat over nursing home controversy; CNN analysis: Covid cases in kids align more with state virus rates than school status; Lousville mourns beloved local football coach lost to Covid-19
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the lead M. Jake Tapper. Any minute we expect to hear from President Biden and |
| 0:05.6 | Vice President Harris speaking at the White House about their proposal for a $1.9 trillion |
| 0:11.6 | economic relief bill. President Biden is fresh off the CNN town hall last night in Milwaukee |
| 0:16.4 | where he pitched his plan to get the country back to some sense of normalcy. Normalcy, |
| 0:20.7 | he says he does not expect until Christmas. This is one of a few predictions, President |
| 0:25.5 | Biden made, though. He did reset some expectation amidst conflicting and confusing messages from |
| 0:32.7 | the White House, shifting messages, we should say, Biden now vowing widely available vaccines by |
| 0:38.2 | the end of July, not April, May or June, as Dr. Fauci said this week, Biden also promising a |
| 0:45.0 | majority of elementary schools, elementary schools, opened for five days a week by spring, |
| 0:51.1 | not at least one day a week, as the White House has said. And Biden claims his economic |
| 0:56.0 | relief plan will bring the economy, quote, roaring back. Plus, as we reported yesterday, the White |
| 1:01.1 | House is now publicly acknowledging that Johnson and Johnson, which is expected to be the first vaccine |
| 1:06.0 | authorized under President Biden, will likely have a slower rollout than hoped with fewer doses |
| 1:12.4 | ready than previously expected. As CNN's film maddeningly reports for us now, this is all part of a |
| 1:17.0 | critical test for President Biden. President Joe Biden may have pledged to reopen a majority |
| 1:24.4 | of schools in his first hundred days. So when do you think that would be K through eight |
| 1:28.4 | of these five days a week? I think we'll be close to that at the end of the first hundred days. |
| 1:34.6 | But his administration can't seem to settle on what that means. You're now saying that means |
| 1:39.6 | those schools may only be open for at least one day a week? No, that's not true. That's what |
| 1:44.2 | was reported. That's not true. That was a mistake in the communication. That communication came |
| 1:50.0 | directly from the White House press secretary, Jen Saki. Teaching at least one day a week |
| 1:55.6 | in the majority of schools by day 100. Saki clarified this afternoon. When I initially said |
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