The Daily 202: Biden blueprint for getting Republicans vaccinated: Faith, friends, and Francis

President Biden has launched an ambitious campaign to overcome Americans’ hesitance to get the coronavirus vaccine, including among Republicans who appear to be the most committed holdouts. The efforts center on outreach from faith leaders as well as local officials.

And they feature National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins, a devout Christian known to get up before 4 a.m. to make time for prayer and Bible study, and the author of “Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief.” He’s an apt ambassador to bring Biden’s health message to communities of faith. 

Collins and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci — joined by 25 interfaith clergy, who will be vaccinated on camera — will lead a live-streamed event at Washington’s National Cathedral tonight. The event aims to “encourage Americans to get the shot when it is their turn, especially for communities of color who are at higher risk of severe COVID-19 disease, and those who remain vaccine-hesitant.”

A CBS/YouGov poll released this weekend found 33 percent of GOP voters say they will not get the vaccine when it’s available to them. Another 20 percent say they aren’t sure.

A recent NPR-PBS NewsHour-Marist poll found 47 percent of President Donald Trump’s 2020 supporters and half of Republican men overall said they would not get vaccinated.

Earlier this month, I noted Trump had missed his chance to get vaccinated on camera, Elvis Presley-style — but also noted that, according to Moncef Slaoui, the former top science adviser to “Operation Warp Speed,” the best vaccination campaigns rely on trusted local figures (the “friends” from my headline).

“The thing that has more impact than anything Trump would say to the MAGA folks is what the local doctor, what the local preachers, what the local people in the community say,” the president told reporters.

Asked about efforts to win over Republican skeptics, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said “we know we need to meet everyone where they are, and that includes conservatives and ensure there are trusted messengers who lead the way in those engagements.”

“Yes, there are a number of prominent officials out there who, if they were more vocal about getting the vaccine, we’d certainly support that,” she said. “But also, doctors and local health-care providers are … one of the most trusted authorities in communities, regardless of people’s political affiliation, as are religious leaders and local leaders as well.”

My colleague Dan Diamond recently wrote a focus group run by longtime GOP pollster Frank Luntz that reinforced the perception that a campaign starring Trump might fall short:

“[T]he focus group of Trump voters didn’t warm to that idea, with attendees universally saying that their spouse or doctor would be more influential on their decision than hearing from the former president.”

The New York Times this week highlighted the phenomenon, citing “thousands of clergy members from a cross-section of faiths — imams, rabbis, priests, swamis — who are trying to coax the hesitant to get vaccinated against Covid-19. By weaving scripture with science, they are employing the singular trust vested in them by their congregations to dispel myths and disinformation about the shots. Many are even offering their sanctuaries as vaccination sites, to make the experience more accessible and reassuring.”

After contradictory or confusing statements from Catholic clergy about the vaccine, Pope Francis got inoculated and the Vatican told worried faithful “it is morally acceptable to receive Covid-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research and production process.” The pope later called getting vaccinated an obligation.

Which gets us back to the other Francis — Collins, the NIH director. 

Tonight’s event with Collins and Fauci had its roots in a National Cathedral offer to help, which the NIH eagerly accepted. The project ultimately made its way to the White House, according to a source familiar with how the event came together.

In her briefing on Monday, Psaki noted Collins had taken the message to religious programming.

In an appearance earlier this month on the Christian Broadcasting Network, Collins cast getting vaccinated in the context of the commandment to “love thy neighbor” as thyself because of the protection of herd immunity.

“For me as a scientist who is also a Christian, this an is an answer to a lot of prayers,” Collins said. “And it feels as if this is the way in which God is helping us get through this.”

“We humans, as God’s children, have been given the tools of science to come up with our own way, to work through God’s grace, to provide an opportunity to relieve pain and suffering,” he said. “I think that’s what vaccines are and have been all along.”

The Army initially pushed to reject D.C.’s request for a modest National Guard presence ahead of the Jan. 6 rally that led to the Capitol riot, Paul Sonne, Peter Hermann, Ellen Nakashima and Matt Zapotosky report. In an internal draft memo obtained by our colleagues, “the Army said the U.S. military shouldn’t be needed to help police with traffic and crowd management, as city officials had requested, unless more than 100,000 demonstrators were expected. The draft memo also said the request should be denied because a federal agency hadn’t been identified to run the preparations and on-the-day operations; the resources of other federal agencies hadn’t been exhausted; and law enforcement was ‘far better suited’ for the task.” 

Moderna began coronavirus vaccine trials on minors. The trial, which will include 6,750 children ranging in age from 6 months to 12 years old, will start with older children first. “Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech both have ongoing trials in adolescents as young as 12 years old that are expected to report results soon,” Carolyn Johnson reports.  

More than a dozen liberal groups said they don’t want former Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel to land an ambassador post. Emanuel has reportedly been considered for posts in China or Japan. In a statement shared this morning, the groups, which include Justice Democrats and the Working Families Party, said “such top diplomatic posts should only go to individuals with ethics, integrity and diplomatic skills.” “Emanuel possesses none of those qualifications,” they wrote. 

• “Reimagine safety,” a project by The Post’s Editorial Board: “Today, community activists and law enforcement officers who see eye to eye on precious little agree on this: We rely too much on the police. … Over-reliance on police is preventing us from imagining and investing in other public safety tools — ones that could revitalize the struggling neighborhoods that experience the most crime. We should think about public safety the way we think about public health. No one would suggest that hospitals alone can keep a population healthy, no matter how well run they might be.”
• “Death in the prime of life: Covid-19 proves especially lethal to younger Latinos,” by Akilah Johnson: “In California, which has the nation’s largest Hispanic population, state figures show that as of Wednesday, Latino people ages 35 to 49 died of the virus at more than 5½ times the rate of White people the same age. The gap was even wider a few months earlier … The staggering loss of life at younger ages, plus higher overall mortality rates, is projected to have caused Latinos’ life expectancy nationally to plummet by about three years during 2020, according to a peer-reviewed study published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.”
• “As Uber avoided paying into unemployment, the federal government helped thousands of its drivers weather the pandemic,” by Faiz Siddiqui and Andrew Van Dam: “Tens of thousands of Uber and Lyft drivers received at least $80 million in government assistance during the coronavirus pandemic — making them among the largest groups of beneficiaries of … the Economic Injury Disaster Loans program of the U.S. Small Business Administration, money intended to help struggling businesses, entrepreneurs and other workers stay afloat during the pandemic. Policy experts said it was unusual for such a vast pool of workers under the umbrella of multibillion-dollar corporations to tap into that money.” 

• “Alcatraz reopens again after three-month closure,” by SFGate’s Tessa McLean: “All tickets were sold out on opening day. ‘This day is symbolic,’ said Charlie Strickfaden, communications director for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, ‘not only for the National Park Service, but for the San Francisco tourist community.’”
• “How Do You Say ‘Stop the Steal’ in Hebrew?” by Foreign Policy’s Joshua Mitnick: “Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu stands a good chance of winning yet another national election later this month, but in case he doesn’t, some of his surrogates are already circulating an explanation: Bibi’s opponents are planning to steal the vote. The very Trumpian claim — backed up by no discernible evidence — is just one way Netanyahu’s campaign looks increasingly like the one run by the former U.S. president last year.”
• “Kim Jong-un’s sister warns US not to ’cause a stink,’” by the BBC: “In remarks on state media, Kim Yo-jong criticised the US and South Korea for conducting joint military exercises. Her comments come a day before top US officials are due to arrive in Seoul. The US government has said it has been trying for weeks to make diplomatic contact with North Korea… Biden has already announced a policy review on North Korea, which is expected to be unveiled next month.” 

• The president will visit a small business that the White House said will be helped by the $1.9 trillion law, John Wagner reports. Tomorrow, Biden will appear in an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America” as part of the “Help is Here” tour. 
• Biden’s tour “will feature a host of top administration and Cabinet officials and is expected to encompass Republican-leaning states, too,” Ashley Parker and Tyler Pager report. “Biden could visit Ohio, for instance, as early as next week, according to two people familiar with the plans.” 
• “The early itinerary reflects a clear political calculation, with the first and second families visiting four states — Georgia, Nevada, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania — that could prove crucial to maintaining Democrats’ tenuous hold on the Senate in the 2022 midterms.”

• “Key advisers are now making preparations for a package of measures that could include an increase in both the corporate tax rate and the individual rate for high earners,” Bloomberg News reports. “While the White House has rejected an outright wealth tax … the administration’s current thinking does target the wealthy. The White House is expected to propose a suite of tax increases, mostly mirroring Biden’s 2020 campaign proposals, according to four people familiar with the discussions.”

“Shots in arms and money in pockets,” Biden said of the results of his $1.9 trillion package.  

• Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Tex.), whose district hugs the border, isn’t happy with how Biden has responded to the growing number of migrants trying to enter the United States. Neither is Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the top House Republican, who yesterday took a trip to the border to slam Biden’s approach to immigration, Sean Sullivan and Nick Miroff report. “There’s no other way to claim it than a Biden border crisis,” McCarthy said during a visit to a migrant processing center in El Paso.
• Republicans are hoping that immigration will be the potent issue that will win them the House and Senate in 2022. “Republican leaders say border security is one of the most powerful motivators for their party base, and a topic that, if presented in the right tone, can appeal to suburban swing voters as well,” our colleagues note.
• Not just Republicans: “Centrist Democrats are nervous about attacks casting them as soft on border security. Liberals and immigration activists are sounding alarms about how migrants are treated. And Republicans are increasingly laying the groundwork for immigration-centric attacks in the midterm elections,” Sullivan and Miroff write.
• Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas acknowledged that the situation at the border is “difficult.” In a statement this morning, Mayorkas said the Biden administration is “making progress” in managing the situation. “We are working around the clock to manage it and we will continue to do so,” Mayorkas said. “We are executing on our plan. It will take time and we will not waver in our commitment to succeed,” John Wagner reports.
• White House response: “We recognize this as a problem. We’re focused on addressing it,” Psaki said yesterday. The Trump administration, she added, “left us a dismantled and unworkable system.”
• McCarthy said border agents told him suspected terrorists are trying to cross into the U.S. Democrats questioned his claims. “Weird as the Chairman of the subcommittee on Intelligence and Special Operations and a border state member of Congress haven’t heard anything about this,” tweeted Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.). “Gonna ask for a briefing. Pretty sure he is either wrong or lying.”

• Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), the key Democratic swing vote, said he will likely support Vanita Gupta’s nomination to be the associate attorney general. Manchin’s decision will likely lead to her confirmation among GOP opposition. Gupta faced Republican criticism for her past views and tweets, but Manchin said he is likely to back her because Biden’s new attorney general, Merrick Garland, spoke highly of her, CNN reports.
• The Senate is poised to confirm Isabel Guzman today as the head of the Small Business Administration.
• Four Republicans broke with the rest of their party to confirm Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) as interior secretary yesterday. They were: Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Dan Sullivan (Ark.) and Susan Collins (Maine).
• Michael Regan, the new EPA administrator, said in his first interview as the nation’s top environmental official that “Science is back.” His first task? Rebuilding an agency that shrunk during the Trump administration. “We’ve got a lot of work to do, starting with rebuilding the staff morale and getting all of our staff back to feeling as if they matter, their voices matter,” he told Brady Dennis and Dino Grandoni.

• Jennifer Weisselberg “is committed to speaking the truth, no matter how difficult that may be,” her attorney, Duncan Levin, told Insider. “She will continue to cooperate fully with the various law -enforcement agencies that are investigating her ex-husband’s family and the very powerful interests they represent.”
• The comments come after the New Yorker’s Jane Mayer published a story last week on Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.’s investigation of the president, which included an anecdote from Jennifer, who said the former president shared photos of naked women during a shivah she was attending.

• “U.S. taxpayers are on the hook for $24,335 in room and board,” for Kushner’s final trip to Israel, the Daily Beast reports.
• “Kushner was there to cement his 5th peace deal for Israel in 4 months. How much did John Kerry’s trips cost where he accomplished nothing?” Trump senior adviser Jason Miller said in response to questions about the bill.

The voting wars continue. Coca-Cola and Home Depot came out in opposition to a Republican-led effort to make it harder to vote in the Peach State, Christopher Ingraham reports. But civil liberties groups are pressuring major corporations based in the state to do more; they “say the state’s Black voters, who make up 30 percent of the state’s electorate and have billions in collective spending power, are watching.” Meanwhile, in Arizona, a judge ruled that the state GOP and its lawyers must pay $18,000 in attorney’s fees “that taxpayers were forced to pick up late last year to defend government officials against one of the party’s failed lawsuits challenging [Biden’s] victory in the state,” the AP reports. 

The Alaska GOP vowed to recruit a challenger to Murkowski in 2022. The party also censured their senator, the Anchorage Daily News reports, and, in a resolution, promised to “prohibit Senator Murkowski from being a candidate in any Republican primary to the extent legally permissible.” The party wrote that it is unhappy with Murkowski’s vote in favor of Trump’s impeachment and her vote supporting the confirmation of Haaland as interior secretary. 

Biden is heading to Chester, Pa., where he will visit a small business at 3:30 p.m. as part of his relief package promotional tour. He will return to D.C. in the evening. 

Vice President Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff will travel to Denver, where they’ll visit a vaccination clinic and meet with small business owners. 

Seth Meyers said the real Andrew Cuomo has caught up to the character Andrew Cuomo was playing on TV: