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New Day

Vanessa Bryant, Wife Of Late Kobe, Has Finally Spoken Out About Losing Her Husband And Daughter; Life Expectancy In The United States Is Rising; The White House Has Announced A New Task Force To Deal With The Threat Of Coronavirus In The U.S.; House Democrats Decided Not To Issue A Subpoena Because They Were Worried About How Long The Resulting Legal Battle Would Likely Take. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired January 30, 2020 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

OMAR JIMINEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: But they'll all be united under and remembering Kobe and the eight who was killed here. Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Omar, I mean I think that the words that you used, that people are trying to just creep forward is really apt. This is going to be a slow process. Thank you very much for reporting from L.A. for us.

And we want to read that Instragram post by Vanessa Bryant. It's long, but we think it's important to hear in its entirety. So, let me read it to you. She writes,

"My girls and I want to thank the millions of people who've shown support and love during this horrific time. Thank you for all the prayers. We definitely need them. We are completely devastated by the sudden loss of my adoring husband, Kobe, the amazing father of our children; and my beautiful, sweet Gianna, a loving, thoughtful, and wonderful daughter, and amazing sister to Natalia, Bianka, and Capri.

We are also devastated for the families who lost their loved ones on Sunday, and we share in their grief intimately.

There aren't enough words to describe our pain right now. I take comfort in knowing that Kobe and Gigi both knew that they were so deeply loved. We were so incredibly blessed to have them in our lives. I wish they were here with us forever. They were our beautiful blessings taken from us too soon.

I'm not sure what our lives hold beyond today, and it's impossible to imagine life without them. But we wake up each day, trying to keep pushing because Kobe, and our baby girl, Gigi, are shining on us to light the way. Our love for them is endless and that's to say, immeasurable. I just wish I could hug them, kiss them and bless them. Have them here with us, forever.

Thank you for sharing your joy, your grief and your support with us. We ask that you grant us the respect and privacy we will need to navigate this new reality. To honor our Team Mamba family, the Mamba Sports Foundation has set up the MambaOnThree Fund to help support the other families affected by this tragedy. To donate, please go to MambaOnThree.org.

To further Kobe and Gianna's legacy in youth sports, please visit MambaSportsFoundation.org.

Thank you so much for lifting us up in your prayers, and for loving Kobe, Gigi, Natalia, Bianka, Capri and me."

And John, I just think that that was a real gift that she gave to fans by posting that. Because so many people, myself included, have wondered if she can even function today. If she's even getting out of bed. And so, to hear her say, basically, that they're trying to put one foot in front of the other, I think really helps everybody's grief.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Look, I'm glad she took her time to collect her thoughts, that is her right and that was a beautiful note. I'm so glad she also focused on the other families that were affected by this. And she's so right, that Kobe Bryant And Gianna, their light is shining on that whole family.

CAMEROTA: So, we want to remember all nine victims of the crash. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:37:45]

BERMAN: For the first time in four years life expectancy in the United States is rising. A new report over night finds that Americans, on average, are living 78.7 years, that's up about one month from the year prior.

CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now. And Sanjay, this has been one of the most alarming things for me the last few years, right. On top everything else, life expectancy was going down, that's not supposed to happen in a developed country like the United States. So, that was bad. It's rising again, do we know why?

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. No, I -- I -- I felt the same way as you John. I mean, we spent $3.5 trillion on health care every year in the United States, most expensive by far in the world, and the -- the biggest metric by which we measure ourselves as a society was going in the wrong direction.

Life expectancy was dropping, 2014 was the peak. That was the highest life expectancy ever recorded in the United States, 78.9 years, and then it was going down. As you point out, for the first time it's gone up. So, this is -- this is good news, John. There's really -- there's several things that are driving it. Two main ones.

First of all, cancer -- you know, cancer deaths have gone significantly down. They peaked in 1991 and they've steadily been coming down. Have had some significant drops over the last few years, and for a lot of the reasons we've talked about on your program. You know, the advances in immunotherapy, diagnosing cancer early and particularly lung cancer gains have driven that.

But the other one, John, another topic we've talked we've talked a lot about on this show have been around drug overdose deaths. We showed this graphic quickly earlier, let me show it again.

There -- there's a -- when it comes to prescription, that sort of darker blue line in the middle, natural and semi-synthetic opioids, those numbers coming down. Heroin, coming down, those are big drivers. Now you see the -- the other line, the synthetic opioids, that's Fentanyl. Fentanyl continues to go up. That's an area of concern.

Not on the graph, cocaine. Cocaine deaths also continue to go up, and so do meth. So, there's work to be done, clearly, but some of the biggest drivers, some of the things that have, really over the last three years, made a -- made an impact on life expectancy. We're really starting to go in the right direction there.

BERMAN: Great news on cancer. A glimmer of hope on opioids.

GUPTA: Yes.

BERMAN: I think we see another year or two of data on that to know we've turned the corner there.

GUPTA: That's right.

BERMAN: But certainly positive. How do we compare? How does the U.S. compare to the rest of the world?

[07:40:00]

GUPTA: Well, you know, it's interesting and despite the fact that we spend again far more, far more on healthcare than any other country in the world, take a look at the list here. These are the top ten countries in terms of life expectancy, Monaco, Japan go down to number 45 to get to where we are on that list. So overall in the world, life expectancy you know 45th, we're not where we should be. We're not where we want to be and a lot of it will tell you is self inflicted. Nearly all of it is self inflicted.

What I mean by that is if you look at chronic disease in this country, 70 percent of it is likely preventable and the vast majority of that due to diet, to what we eat. We talk about a lot of the other stuff but in terms of chronic disease, it's sell inflicted. That's bad news, it's also an opportunity. I mean, we're starting to see some correction in terms of these overdose deaths, but also in terms of some of the chronic disease as well.

BERMAN: They're cutting me off Sanjay. Alisyn's got some questions for you now.

GUPTA: OK. CAMEROTA: All right, Sanjay, stay with us, if you would. Yes, my

turn. Because the White House has announced a new task force to deal with the threat of coronavirus in the U.S. Meanwhile, there was this plane carrying about 200 American citizens who were evacuated from China. It landed at a military base in southern California. We want to get ap update with those passenger, so CNN International Correspondent David Culver has been carrying this story from China. He joins us along with Sanjay. So David, first tell us about the Americans who were evacuated and those that were not able to get on board and are still behind in China.

DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They there Alisyn, yes, roughly 200 Americans arrived back into the U.S. in California. They're at a military base currently undergoing more health evaluations. Most of them were U.S. diplomats and their family members. We know a few private citizens were allowed to apply for select spots but the folks I've been talking to who are still within the city of Wuhan, still within the epicenter of all of this have been expressing a lot of concern. They want to get out.

They were upset because they felt like this was their only opportunity and they missed the plane. Well now it looks like the U.S. State Department is going to be offering them another flight. We are seeing just in the past hour or so that the U.S. Embassy posted that they're going to have additional flights, they say plural, that U.S. citizens can apply to be on and they'll likely take off on or about February 3rd.

They initially were talking about some ground transportation but it looks more and more folks just want to get out of China altogether not just out of Hubei providence. Meantime, it's not just people within the lockdown zone. We are also hearing from people in other parts of mainland China. Shanghai, a massive city, 24 million people. You would think okay that's still bustling and going along. Well one American college student who is studying abroad there, she just arrived a few weeks ago. We spoke with her by video chat. She describes a ghost town of sorts. Take a listen to what her experience has brought her.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

JENNA DAVIDSON, U.S. COLLEGE STUDENT STUDYING IN CHINA: They shut down our campus. We almost felt as though they didn't realize that we are still living on it because we didn't even have like hot water for a few days and the cafeterias on campus are closed. So we started realizing, well, we need food and most stores within walking distance have been shut down or it's like Zombieland and everyone is fighting for what's left on the shelves.

(END VIDEO)

CULVER: Zombieland. That is how she describes it. An incredibly dire situation that she's seeing in a massive city. I asked her, Alisyn and John where she was going. She says she was able to get a flight out going to Africa. I said, who do you know in Africa? She said, no one. It was just a seat available and I jumped on it; $2,000 is what that ticket cost her. Meantime she says her friends are also trying to get out. They're going to Hawaii, they're going to London, anywhere they can find an open seat.

CAMEROTA: I mean Zombieland really says it all. It is so haunting to think about what is happening back there in this zone where people are still so scared, but Sanjay, for those 200 passengers who have made it out to California, I understand that the quarantine is voluntary. Sanjay, why isn't it mandatory?

GUPTA: Well, these are tough sort of questions and there are balances between the health risks, what they are seeing among these passengers these patients and just individual freedoms. I mean other countries have chosen to make these - these quarantines mandatory but here, at least so far, they've said these can be voluntary. They have a discussion with these passengers and what they have found as we have looked into this, is that the passengers, they want to be quarantined because they recognize that they could potentially be a risk to their families if they go back home.

So the quarantine is in some ways of self interest as well. They also get to know their status. They get tested. They get monitored. So, so far the voluntary quarantine has worked. If somebody says look, I absolutely need to leave, the CDC has said we will have discussions with those individuals and say look, potentially you can self quarantine within your own home but are the - the - the sort of, you know the things that you need to monitor and the things that you need to keep on top of.

[07:45:00]

That could change. You know we've gone through this. I saw this with Ebola in the past as well Alisyn and sometimes the policy changed as things went along but so far they're going to - they're going to keep this as voluntary. Again, different from other countries but that's how the United States wants to handle this.

CAMEROTA: So Sanjay, the White House has announced that they're setting up a task force to deal with this. What can a task force do?

GUPTA: Well this task force is going to be - it's going to be chaired by the Secretary of Health, Alex Azar. It's being sort of run through the National Security Council and you can see the members of the task force there. Many subject matter experts, so people who are actually monitoring coronavirus from a scientific and medical level but also people from the economic divisions and National Security Council. So they recognize that there is many different impacts that the coronavirus can have on the United States, not the least of which is the medical aspect but also how would the economy respond? Are there national security concerns here as well?

And again, in 2014, you saw a similar task force sort of come together for Ebola. It was a short-lived task force because after a while that threat was gone and we saw this in SARS back in 2003. So they sort of handle sort of the - the -- the most pressing concerns and sort of forecast the impact. You find that the fear of this virus in some ways leaves a much longer-lasting impression than the virus, itself. So how do you deal with that? How do you deal with the potential impact on the economy? That's what this task force is going to deal with.

CAMEROTA: Sanjay, David, thank you both very much for the update.

BERMAN: Yes, thank you. So there's a lot said in yesterday's impeachment trial.

CAMEROTA: It was. It was pretty fascinating.

BERMAN: The question is how much was based on fact and how much it was based on what we like to call bumpkiss (ph). That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:50:00]

BERMAN: So a new storm system is moving through the Southeast. Forget the millions of people it could effect, what's it going to do to the Super Bowl in Miami?

CNN Meteorologist Allison Chinchar has the answers. Allison?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, that's right. A lot of people really want to know, because it's not always just about Sunday, there's a lot of activities that they do on Saturday as well. A lot of family activities that are done outside. So, yes, that becomes the big question.

We do have that main system that's been impacting the Southeast, that's finally exiting the region now, but when we look at that forecast, you'll notice another system starting to develop and that forecast is brought to you by Kay, where your love story is always the most important one of all.

Here's a look at the satellite. You can see the rain finally exiting areas of Florida, portions of the Carolinas, but we don't have much time in between before this next low develops over the Gulf of Mexico and begins to push into many of those same areas.

It is going to bring rain, it's going to bring some thunderstorms. The good news is, at least at this point, by the time we get to Sunday, for the actual Super Bowl, the rain does push out. But if you plan to go to any of the outdoor activies that they have planned pre- Super Bowl on Saturday, you're likely going to want to take a poncho with you.

Also keep in mind, Friday into early Saturday, Alisyn, there's also the potential for some severe storms as well.

CAMEROTA: Oh, ut-oh. OK, thank you very much, Allison.

CHINCHAR: Thanks.

CAMEROTA: So, just a few hours from now the question and answer session in President Trump's Impeachment Trial will resume on Capitol Hill. Today's questions -- before we get to those, we want to fact check some of the claims that were made yesterday on the Senate floor. Were they truthful.

Joining us now is Daniel Dale, he's our CNN Reporter and Resident Fact Checker who works overtime, as we have established. OK, Daniel, let's just talk about some of the claims that we heard yesterday. I know you've been looking into them.

One of the claims that we've heard not just yesterday but throughout all this, is Republicans and the -- President Trump's legal team, saying those House Democrats didn't even try to get John Bolton. You know, shame on them, they're the ones who should have gotten him, but they didn't. So, let me play that moment for you yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PATRICK PHILBIN, DEPUTY COUNSEL TO THE PRESIDENT: They didn't even subpoena John Bolton below. They didn't even try to get his testimony.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK. What are the facts?

DANIEL DALE, CNN REPORTER: House Democrats did not subpoena John Bolton, but they tried to get him to testify. In fact, on October 30, the Chair -- the Chair people of the three committees overseeing the inquiry sent Bolton's lawyers a letter saying we would like him to testify on November 7, and warning him that a failure to appear would constitute obstruction of inquiry. He didn't appear because the Trump White House told current and former officials not to.

Now House Democrats decided not to issue a subpoena because they were worried about how long the resulting legal battle would likely take. So you can say, well, they didn't try hard enough, but the certainly did try.

CAMEROTA: I'd also -- I mean, what I think Chairman Schiff said, is that his Deputy threatened to sue them.

DALE: Yes. Yes, there was a -- there as an initial legal battle. House Democrats then dropped the subpoena of his deputy of trying to expedite matters. So, yes, they -- they made an effort and they thought, well, if this is going to take months or even years, we can't do it.

CAMEROTA: OK, moving on. Senators Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham asked a question, in which they somehow suggested that Joe Biden was trying to help his son and that Joe Biden was trying to protect Burisma by firing the prosecutor. This has come up over and over because, as you know, there was a time when Republicans also wanted that prosecutor, Shokin, fired for corruption. What's the fact?

[07:55:00]

DALE: There is no evidence that Joe Biden tried to help the company where his son sat on the board by getting Ukraine to fire Chief Prosecutor Viktor Shokin. In fact, all the evidence suggests Viktor Shokin was widely seen as corrupt, at very least highly ineffective, unwilling to pursue corruption of the kind Burisma's owner was being accused of and the widespread perception of not only the U.S. government, whose official policy was to get rid of Shokin but also European allies, was that companies like Burisma would stand a greater chance of being investigated if another prosecutor was in office, not Shokin. So Republicans are consistently making this allegation, but we've seen no evidence whatsoever for it.

CAMEROTA: I mean it's the opposite of the allegation that they're making. That's the part that's so head-slapping. Then let's talk about the moment where we all remember the Mick Mulvaney press conference where he seems to suggest, yes, it was a quid pro quo, get over it. So yesterday, President Trump's team said that that has somehow been misconstrued. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

PATRICK PHILBIN, DEPUTY COUNSEL TO THE PRESIDENT: It's been clear in the record since that press conference that what he was saying was garbled and/or misunderstood and he immediately clarified and said on that day, quote, the president never told me to withhold any money until the Ukrainians did anything related to the server, end quote.

(END VIDEO)

CAMEROTA: OK, Daniel, what's the truth there?

DALE: It just wasn't garbled or misconstrued no matter how much they want to blame the media. At this press conference in October, Mick Mulvaney was very clear that Trump had linked the withholding of aid to Ukraine to this issue of the Democratic Party server. Listen to what he said at that press conference.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

MICK MULVANEY, ACTING WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: We do - we do that all the time with foreign policy. I have news for everybody. Get over it. There's going to be political influence in policy.

(END VIDEO)

DALE: So Mick Mulvaney then issued a statement saying, no basically what I said earlier no longer applies; the opposite is true. Trump never told me that the server was an issue with regard to this aid. Trump never made any kind of quid pro quo. But we had all heard what he said in that briefing room just hours before.

CAMEROTA: I mean if there's one thing that statement wasn't, it was garbled. He was clear as a bell.

DALE: He was absolutely clear and the statement wasn't really even a clarification. It was JUST like ignore everything. All the words you heard me say, they don't apply. That was all wrong and it's your fault in the media.

CAMEROTA: OK, how about this false Ted Cruz tweet that ended up going viral that suggested that Lev Parnas was ejected from the Senate gallery during these proceedings.

DALE: Yes so Ted Cruz got more than 20,000 retweets last I checked for this claim that Lev Parnas, the indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani, had been ejected from the Senate gallery during the trial because he wears a court-ordered ankle GPS monitor. In fact, Parnas never entered the gallery. Cruz's tweet is especially funny because he ended it with the #can't make it up. He said this was a scene from impeachment suggesting he'd seen it. It had happened just minutes ago. Now to his credit, Cruz acknowledged to some extent later that this was wrong. He said he had been slightly inaccurate and he suggested this is something he had heard secondhand and was passing on. I think it was more than slightly inaccurate given that Parnas never even entered the Senate.

BERMAN: Can't make it up.

CAMEROTA: #can'tmakeitup. That's our new motto.

BERMAN: Can't make it up.

CAMEROTA: Daniel Dale, thank you as always. We really appreciate you bringing us the facts. And thanks to our international viewers for watching. For you, CNN Newsroom with Max Foster is next for our U.S. viewers. The president's team using a defense that could change the fabric of America. "New Day" continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're headed right to the critical moment, the vote to determine whether or not there should be witnesses in this trial.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you have any lingering questions about direct evidence, you can subpoena Ambassador Bolton and ask him that question directly.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've heard the evidence they don't have a case. Let's vote.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My Republican colleagues can't complain about not seeing anything if they put blinders on and history will haunt them.

UNIDENIFIED MALE: I would welcome a bipartisan acquittal of President Trump and I want to get that done this week, Friday.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER, (D) NEW YORK: My gut tells me we're making progress, progress, progress.

(END VIDEO)

ANNOUNCER: This is "New Day" with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your "New Day." It is Thursday, January 30th, 8:00 in the east. We're just hours away from the next round of questions and answers in the impeachment trial of President Trump and Republicans say they're confident they have the votes to block witnesses. At this hour, only two Republicans, Senator Collins of Maine and Mitt Romney of Utah appear to be leaning strongly towards voting yes for witnesses. A third Senator, Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, seems inclined to join them, but Democrats need four Republicans so all eyes are on that man on your screen. That is retiring Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee.

[08:00:00]

END