Here & Now

Here & Now for January 15, 2021

Announcer:

The following program is a PBS Wisconsin original production.

Frederica Freyberg:

Governor Tony Evers delivers a virtual State of the State address during a week when COVID legislation moves from the Assembly to the Senate where Republicans modify the bill and frustrate party members in the lower house. Meanwhile, outside the Capitol windows boarded up under the threats of rioting by extreme Trump supporters.

I’m Frederica Freyberg. Tonight on “Here & Now,” Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu explains changes to the COVID bill sent over by the Assembly. Will extreme Trump supporters cause trouble this weekend at the state Capitol? The director of Dane County Emergency Management is here. He’ll tell why law enforcement is taking the threat of violence seriously. And Wisconsin needs more vaccine. The deputy secretary of Health Services will talk about how the state will get it? It’s “Here & Now” for January 15.

Announcer:

Funding for “Here & Now” is provided by the Focus Fund for Journalism and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

Tony Evers:

From our health care workers to our students, Wisconsinites have been stretched to the limit, making immeasurable sacrifices for neighbors, for our families, for our loved ones and I know so many are tired. Our statewide efforts to contain this virus were met with costly litigation and resistance nearly every step of the way.

Frederica Freyberg:

Governor Tony Evers from his State of the State address. The governor isn’t the only one at the Capitol feeling the resistance to COVID legislation. The COVID bill passed last week by the Assembly got a face lift in the Senate this week. Senators made changes seen by Speaker Robin Vos as more favorable to the Democrat governor than to Assembly Republicans.

Robin Vos:

Last year, we spent time negotiating with Governor Evers, again as he just mentioned. We did that with our Senate colleagues because we wanted to find common ground. It seems unfortunately some would think the only way to find common ground is to cave to the governor’s demands. We will continue to work to reach a consensus as equals, but we will never compromise our conservative ideals in the name of political expediency.

Frederica Freyberg:

While the Assembly Speaker may have been frustrated with Senate changes to the COVID bill, those changes garnered bipartisan support with only one Democrat and one Republican voting against the Senate version. Governor Tony Evers called it a “good start.” The Senate bill stripped several items from the Assembly version, including limitations on local health officials’ authority to determine COVID-related public health guidelines. The Senate bill also took out limits on school districts’ ability to run virtual instruction. The Senate bill would no longer bar getting a vaccine as a condition of employment and it threw out a provision that would have given the Senate legislature — the state Legislature rather, oversight of federal COVID-related money. The biggest thing that’s in both versions is a liability shield for businesses against COVID lawsuits. Why the departure from the Assembly version of the long-awaited COVID relief package? We take that question to the new Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, who joins us from Oostburg and thanks for doing so.

Devin LeMahieu:

Thank you for having me on. The goal all along with the speaker, myself and the governor even back in December when we were talking was to get a bill that we could get passed to make important changes for the state of Wisconsin. That’s what we did in the Senate. We found a path forward to make sure the state can still respond to the COVID pandemic crisis that’s going on but also make sure there’s protections not just for businesses or employers as you pointed out, but for churches, for non-profits, for private schools, for public schools, main street businesses. It was important to provide that liability so that these entities can operate as they currently are without the fear of frivolous lawsuits.

Frederica Freyberg:

So you wanted to get something done. What’s more important to you, negotiating with the governor to learn what he will sign into law or negotiating with Assembly Republicans to make sure the legislature is all on the same page?

Devin LeMahieu:

I think both those areas are important. You know, I’m going to continue to work with the speaker and the Assembly. I mean there’s some important things that we need to try to get done that the governor may veto. Some of the provisions that were taken out of the bill, we have now a stand-alone bill. So we’re going to try garner support for. Hopefully the governor will sign them. There’s going to be things going forward where when there’s an opportunity to work with the governor, we’re going to work with the governor and get things done for the state. But I also want to work with the speaker to make sure we advance great, conservative legislation throughout this session.

Frederica Freyberg:

What is your working relationship like with Speaker Vos? Who’s going to drive the bus on legislative issues, you or him?

Devin LeMahieu:

That’s a great question. You know, my — I’ve obviously known the speaker for six years now but it’s a new role for me. So I will continue to work with the speaker to find ways where we can draft and get good legislation during the process.

Frederica Freyberg:

Okay. On this, the FBI has warned of attacks, as you know, by pro-Trump conservatives on state capitol grounds over the next few days. What are your concerns about that happening here?

Devin LeMahieu:

You know, I haven’t been privy to much of the information of why the Capitol Police and the Department of Administration have been putting up barriers and boarding up windows again. All we’ve heard is that there’s about some Twitter chatter about some demonstrations that may go on in all 50 capitols. We condemn violence as a Senate GOP caucus. A week ago, put out a statement saying that violence in any form, whether it’s in Madison last summer, in Kenosha last fall, in the Capitol just last week, it’s totally unacceptable. You know, we have a right to peacefully protest in this country. That’s a very important right. But violence is never the answer. It needs to be condemned.

Frederica Freyberg:

It is clear that much of the anger from these insurrectionists is related to misinformation repeated by Donald Trump and many Republicans about how the election was stolen. Do you believe Wisconsin’s elections were legitimate?

Devin LeMahieu:

The courts have decided that all processes were in place. We’re going to continue to work on legislative solutions to a make sure the Elections Commission isn’t providing guidance that’s contrary to what I think is pretty clear Wisconsin law. The courts have decided that he won and just — there’s a lot of close states, but we live under a nation of laws and we need to follow those laws.

Frederica Freyberg:

And so to be clear, you believe that the elections were fair and that the allegations of fraud have been rightly debunked?

Devin LeMahieu:

I don’t think there was mass fraud in the state of Wisconsin. I don’t know about other states. But it was unfortunate that parts of state law were — such as harvesting ballots in the park went above and beyond Wisconsin election law.

Frederica Freyberg:

That was not so determined. But I just want to ask you this. Will you tell your constituents truth when it comes to our elections, that Joe Biden did win and he will be the next president?

Devin LeMahieu:

Joe Biden will be our next president.

Frederica Freyberg:

Okay. Senator LeMahieu, thank you and we look forward to talking with you again.

Devin LeMahieu:

Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:

On Wednesday, one week to the day after Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol and killed a Capitol Police officer, the House of Representatives voted to impeach President Trump. The second impeachment of the president came with ten Republican votes in favor. Wisconsin members voted along party lines.

Mark Pocan:

The U.S. Capitol has not been breached for over 200 years, since the War of 1812 that is until last week when it wasn’t another country that attacked us, but our own president. President Donald Trump asked his supporters to march on the Capitol, inciting domestic terrorism that cost five lives, including a Capitol Police officer.

Glenn Grothman:

I rise today to strongly object to the Articles of Impeachment proposed against President Trump, which make the preposterous claim that President Trump wanted or expected the riots that took place last week. He clearly said he wanted peaceful and patriotic demonstration. He did say he wanted people to fight like hell or we’re not going to have a country anymore, but that’s obviously standard hyperbole and was not meant to aim at physical fights.

Tom Tiffany:

In yet these last two days, we have seen just how fast they can move when they want to exact political retribution on their opponents. My friends on the other side now have complete control of both Houses of Congress and in a few days they will control the entire executive branch as well. Madam Speaker, Joe Biden has talked about unity and healing. Is that what this is today?

Gwen Moore:

While people died, he watched with glee. That is why even though it’s only seven days before the end of his term, we have the fierce urgency of now. Seven days is too long for him to be in power.

Frederica Freyberg:

The violence in our nation’s capital and FBI reports of possible attacks on state and federal buildings around the country led Governor Tony Evers to call up the National Guard to protect the state Capitol over the next several days. He also ordered ground floor windows at the Capitol boarded up against the threat of violence. The director of Emergency Management in Dane County says people should take the possibility of this kind of attack seriously. Charles Tubbs is also an instructor for the Department of Homeland Security and the former chief of the Wisconsin State Capitol Police. Thanks very much for being here.

Charles Tubbs:

Thank you for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:

So the FBI today said that they are concerned about the potential for violence at state capitol buildings where rallies, they say, might bring in armed protesters. What is the latest that you can tell us from here in Wisconsin?

Charles Tubbs:

Well, we’re taking the threats very serious and we’re preparing and planning for the absolute worst, praying for the best, while at the same time we’re preparing ourselves to deal with the situation at hand and try to reduce any type of injuries or property damage or any situations of that nature. At this time we currently have the information that’s been shared by the FBI and has been looked at and discussed with emergency responders and other people involved here. At this time, we do not have a specific threat, current threat on a specific location other than the state capitols. But we’re taking the position that we’re going to protect the entire Dane County area and not only protect the entire Dane County area, but the entire state.

Frederica Freyberg:

Wow. Well, I know that some rallies are planned for Sunday, kind of midday. There is a rally for Jacob Blake and then there is a rally of Trump supporters and they kind of intersect in their times. And so how well fortified are potential target sites like the capitol in Madison, if you can tell us?

Charles Tubbs:

Well, the Capitol, you know, we saw what happened on January 6 where there was no respect, no regard taken for our United States Capitol. That situation we recognize can happen anywhere at any given time. So we have put together a team and we are working together as an entire county and state together to try to make sure that doesn’t happen. This is a real incident that could happen here and we’re going to do everything we can to avoid that from happening while at the same time keeping the entire community safe in dealing with those types of situations.

Frederica Freyberg:

Now, Wisconsin has seen one arrest, to my knowledge, of an Eau Claire man for being inside the U.S. Capitol last week. From what you know, should we expect more arrests?

Charles Tubbs:

I believe without divulging any information, I believe there could be additional arrests involving people from Wisconsin.

Frederica Freyberg:

You have described to me your very real concern about Wisconsin’s home-grown kind of domestic terrorists or extremists. Describe that. Why?

Charles Tubbs:

Because our home-grown terrorists have been growing over the years and a recent report we were an area of concern. I think you might have saw recently on CNN news where they named five states and Wisconsin was one of them in dealing with home-grown terrorists and dealing with people who didn’t always respect the rule of law and play by the same rules that you and I and others would play by. It’s a real concern because at times some of these groups have no respect and will do just about anything to prove their point and carry out their mission who they are, what they think they are and how they can be above the law.

Frederica Freyberg:

And yet authorities track these people, I trust, know who they are and where they are?

Charles Tubbs:

Yes, they do. Some of the difficulties with that, authorities do a really good job of trying to track them and stay on top of it, but sometimes it’s just small groups. Sometimes it’s a one loner type of person who feels the world is caving in on him and responds in a very destructive way and causes great bodily harm and death to people. So it’s a really tough thing to get your arms around. But I can say in this state we’re doing the best and a great job of trying to stay on top of what’s going on.

Frederica Freyberg:

How much do you think President Trump’s very recent message calling for no violence will help any of this?

Charles Tubbs:

I pray it will help. I really do. Sometimes when the horse is out of the barn, it’s hard to put the horse back in the barn. But I’m praying that he has taken up a better road, a higher road, on addressing the issues that the country is facing right now. And I’m praying that people will listen to what he had to say now versus what he had to say on the 6th. That appeared to be not very positive at all, what took a place on that particular day. So our hopes and prayers is that people will listen and people will follow those directions.

Frederica Freyberg:

I really only have about a half a minute left, but I want to ask you as the former chief of the Wisconsin Capitol Police, your reaction when you saw what was happening at the U.S. Capitol on the 6th.

Charles Tubbs:

I was devastated, disappointed, heart-broken, saddened. I felt awful. I was in Washington on 9/11 when the planes hit and the terrorist attack happened in this country and I can tell you I had some of the same empty feelings. I was hurting really just like the rest of America, and hoping we could get our arms around this and solve that problem immediately.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. Thank you very much. Wish we had more time. Charles Tubbs, thank you and good luck.

Charles Tubbs:

Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:

Our digital reporter Will Kenneally will be closely monitoring fallout of the attack on the U.S. Capitol as well as any threats of violence to public buildings here in Wisconsin. You can find his reporting by going to PBSwisconsin.org and then clicking on the news page.

Now to COVID-19 news. This week Assembly Speaker Robin Vos wrote a letter to Governor Evers describing the state effort to secure and distribute vaccine as “woefully inadequate.” Not positive feedback for the officials now embarked on the most complicated public health effort of their lifetimes. We get the latest on the state’s vaccine supply and distribution plans now from Julie Willems Van Dijk, the deputy secretary of the Department of Health Services. Thanks very much for being here.

Julie Willems Van Dijk:

You’re welcome.

Frederica Freyberg:

What is your response to those words from Speaker Vos?

Julie Willems Van Dijk:

Well, I think we have taken on a herculean effort and we have people across the state who are doing everything they can to move vaccine quickly and get it in the arms of Wisconsinites. There is always going to be a delay between when vaccine is allocated, shipped and in arms, but we are now over 200,000 vaccines given and we will continue to march forward in protecting the people of Wisconsin.

Frederica Freyberg:

Is it true that — I mean, so you’ve given 200,000 vaccines, but are there another 200,000 kind of waiting here in Wisconsin to be given?

Julie Willems Van Dijk:

Well, that 200,000 number represents both vaccines that are in transit and that are in inventory. So if you look at that number in any given week, about half of them, 100,000, are actually the vaccines that are currently being shipped. So you can’t give a vaccine that’s still on the FedEx truck. And the other 100,000 are in the inventory to be delivered in a week. So proportionally there’s always going to be these vaccines in transit. But as we go on, it will be a smaller percentage of the total number administered.

Frederica Freyberg:

Are there issues in Wisconsin with getting these vaccines out as fast as possible? I know that you have said we need more vaccine from the feds.

Julie Willems Van Dijk:

Mm-hmm. Yes. There’s not a problem with getting vaccine out to our vaccinators. We have a great system moving that forward although it does take a little bit of time. For the Pfizer vaccine, it’s delivered to our regional hubs and then re-distributed. We made over 156 deliveries last week. So again, that’s going to take a few weeks. But just to give you a sense, if we’re going to get to 80% herd immunity by September of this year, we need over a million doses a month to do that. And right now we’re not receiving half of that. We’re only receiving about 457,000 doses a month. So we’ve got to increase the vaccine supply if we’re going to achieve those goals.

Frederica Freyberg:

I believe that we are still in the first phase where health care workers and those in nursing homes are being given the vaccine. Is Wisconsin micromanaging the allocation as the U.S. health secretary claims of states?

Julie Willems Van Dijk:

I think Wisconsin is being very deliberate about how we’re managing this. There’s over 550,000 people in that first phase. We’ve given vaccine to about 185,000 people. So we know there’s more people to be vaccinated in that phase. We don’t want to create chaos of health systems, phone systems and IT systems crashing by opening up to everybody and not having enough slots for appointments or enough vaccine. So we’re doing this in a methodical way.

Frederica Freyberg:

So with that said, who’s next and how will they know that they’re next in line?

Julie Willems Van Dijk:

Yeah. We have a proposal open for public comment right now, but it will be older adults, police and fire, educators, people who live in congregate settings is what is on the table and I’m confident much of that will move forward. And they’ll know through a variety of mechanisms. The media, our website. We’ve set up a new email people can sign up for to get updates on vaccine. And we’re working with our health care providers that as we identify a group, like people over 65, they can reach out to their patients for scheduling.

Frederica Freyberg:

Awesome. All right. Well, thank you very much. Julie Willems Van Dijk, we appreciate it.

Julie Willems Van Dijk:

Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:

This afternoon, Governor Evers announced he was declaring another emergency health order and extending the mask mandate for 60 days, which takes it into March. Across the country, communities of color have experienced a higher burden of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths. In Wisconsin, one city saw the warning signs early and mobilized to address these inequities. Marisa Wojcik brings us this report from Milwaukee.

Cecilia Garcia:

This pandemic is surprise for everyone. You know, we are not prepared from this. We are not.

Marisa Wojcik:

COVID-19, in one way or another, has touched all of our lives. But Wisconsin’s communities of color have seen a disproportionately larger impact for a number of reasons.

Zeno Franco:

I think there was a recognition early on that public health information, actually critical public health information, wasn’t getting out to communities of color as rapidly.

Marisa Wojcik:

The alarm of this sounded early in Milwaukee.

Que El-Amin:

The focus was on addressing those disparities that often happen in those communities and then how the messaging — cuz how it’s said to one person isn’t going to be effective to how it’s said to another person. We were making sure that the messaging that was going out had specific and very specific aims at who it was targeted towards.

Marisa Wojcik:

Centered around a grant, it quickly turned into a collaboration between the City of Milwaukee Health Department, the Medical College of Wisconsin and the Milwaukee County Office on African-American Affairs. It became the Creative Health Collective.

Michael Stevenson:

The first tier was to quickly adapt communication that had already been developed by the CDC, the World Health Organization and the state of Wisconsin for communities of color within the state, or within Milwaukee: Southeast Asian, African-American, Latino and Native American.

Marisa Wojcik:

There was a recognition that most public health messaging is generally geared toward a white audience and it matters not only what the message is, but who it comes from.

Que El-Amin:

It matters because people trust who they trust. And you can’t fake that.

Marisa Wojcik:

To gain that trust, the collective took their work two layers deeper. One layer being hiring local artists and influencers to create media for the different communities.

Katinka Hooyer:

I think this is most clearly represented through the choice of symbolism, imagery, the traditional practices that people would recognize but that would also invoke a sense of cultural pride.

Marisa Wojcik:

The final layer of gaining trust was hiring community health workers, people who already knew their community and could not only directly deliver public health messaging, but could deliver supplies like masks, hand sanitizer, food and diapers during the crisis.

Zeno Franco:

We’ve actually had situations come up where folks who were undocumented or have a complex situation don’t want to come to the city for help and that household might be COVID positive and really need the help. Frankly, need groceries to be able to shelter in place. And they would trust a community health worker to provide that.

Marisa Wojcik:

The community health workers brought forward the reality of what was happening to families on the ground, many forced to choose between health and paying the bills.

Cecilia Garcia:

The company owner sometimes says, “Go, doing the test and don’t coming back. When you have results, you coming back.” But some people is just scared.

Marisa Wojcik:

Cecilia says when people are scared of losing their housing, work takes priority. If employers aren’t enforcing health guidelines, COVID-19 has a better chance of spreading. What’s more, when one family has many people living in one household, if one person catches COVID, everyone does. Public health has known for a long time how things like housing, food insecurity, even racism impacts a person’s health.

Michael Stevenson:

The numbers have told the story of the impact racism is having very blatantly through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Marisa Wojcik:

Officials are hoping the lessons learned can be used towards the next phase of addressing racial health disparities in the pandemic: trusting the COVID-19 vaccine.

Que El-Amin:

It is going to be different from all of the different groups because African-Americans and the Tuskegee experiment relate to is different from maybe American Indians and small pox. So we all have our individual nuances in the health field.

Michael Stevenson:

Communication is going to be important around addressing vaccine hesitancy within the community. These one-on-one conversations that community health workers or other health professionals are going to have with community members are probably going to be one of the most effective tools we have in really addressing some of that hesitancy.

Marisa Wojcik:

Despite existing gaps, there’s optimism in the approaches taken by the collective.

Otis Winstead:

And this project is a project of hope. And to be part of a project of hope that impacts human beings across all ethnic groups, it is like — it’s amazing.

Marisa Wojcik:

For “Here & Now,” I’m Marisa Wojcik reporting from Milwaukee.

Frederica Freyberg:

The Milwaukee Health Department is working to expand their Creative Health Collective elsewhere in the state.

And that’s our program for tonight. I’m Frederica Freyberg. Have a good weekend.

Frederica Freyberg:

Funding for “Here & Now” is provided by the Focus Fund for Journalism and Friends PBS Wisconsin.