Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

New Screening Procedures for Travelers to the U.S.; Italy Reports Increase in Coronavirus Cases; South Korea Deals with Coronavirus; Refugees Stranded At Turkey's Border; U.S. Weather Outlook; Democrat Race after South Carolina. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired March 02, 2020 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:33:54]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: A second American has died from coronavirus in Washington state. There are now 89 confirmed cases in the United States, including the first cases in New York, Rhode Island, and Florida. President Trump announcing new airport screening procedures for people arriving to the U.S.

And CNN's Brynn Gingras is live at Newark International Airport with more.

So what are these screening procedures going to look like, Brynn?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Alisyn, and these are for the high-risk designated countries by the Trump administration for now. Of course, this could always be expanded. But for now it includes Italy, South Korea, Iran, and China. And what we're learning from the administration is that there is going to be twofold screening for international travelers. One, when they board their plane from those four designated countries and then again stateside when they get here to the United States.

We also learned from this rare press conference that happened over the weekend that the Trump administration is going to expand its travel ban with Iran, meaning, any foreign national who goes to the country within the last 14 days is not going to be allowed back into the United States.

And then we also heard the vice president, Mike Pence, urging Americans to not visit South Korea and Italy, where that outbreak is really happening, by the day growing in numbers, essentially raising the advisory to a level four, the highest level it could be.

[06:35:10]

And in response to that, we're actually seeing flights be canceled. American Airline and Delta both announcing that they are canceling flights for the time being until later months to Milan in response to all of this because really there isn't a demand for this as of now. So certainly if you are an international traveler heading out to some of these countries, this is changing by the moment. Best, of course, to contact your air carrier.

Back to you.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Brynn, thank you very much. The country with maybe the greatest concern this morning might be Italy. That is the country with the highest number of cases outside Asia. Officials there now report a 50 percent increase, 50 percent increase in just one day.

Let's get the latest from Italy now. CNN's Ben Wedeman live in Milan.

You can hardly get flights to Milan anymore, Ben.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's correct. That's just one of the things that's been impacted by the coronavirus. I mean the numbers themselves are fairly disturbing. Yesterday we heard from Italian civil protection that the total number of recorded cases of coronavirus in Italy have reached 1,694. That's up 566 from just the day before. The number of fatalities now at 34.

Now, another rather disturbing statistic is that 10 percent of those who have been afflicted by coronavirus are medical personnel.

Now, the virus is clearly having a huge impact on life in this city. La Scala, the famous theater where Vivaldi (ph) and Verdi performed, it is closed and it will continue to be closed for at least another week. In Paris, the Louvre, the most visited museum on earth, closed its doors yesterday and will be closed for the foreseeable future.

Now, here in Milan, this is a Piazza del Duomo, which under normal circumstances would be full of tourists, although today is rather drizzly. We spoke to the few tourists who are still here. Most of them from eastern Europe. One young couple from Montenegro said we are strong people, we have nothing to fear. Another young Russian we spoke to said my girlfriend said there's no reason to worry.

Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Ben, let's hope that that's right. Thank you very much for the report from one of the epicenters.

Meanwhile, South Korea is reporting 26 deaths and more than 4,200 people infected with coronavirus, and a religious group at the heart of the country's outbreak is now facing possible murder charges for its role in the spike in infections.

CNN's Paula Hancocks is live in Seoul with the latest. .

So how does this work, Paula?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, there's really growing anger and criticism against this one religious group, Shincheonji, which accounts for well over half of all the confirmed cases here in South Korea, in particular in the city of Daegu, in the southeast of the country. So what we're hearing is that the Seoul city government is going to file a legal complaint against the group, against the group's leader, Lee Man-hee, who carried out a -- an apology today to the Korean people, bowed (ph) very deeply on the ground to give his apologies, but said the group was doing everything they could.

But the Seoul city government says that they believe that they haven't. They believe that there have -- they have been withholding members' names when authorities are trying to do contact tracing. They believe that they have been hampering the fight against the virus and that it could account to homicide.

Now, this is something similar we've been hearing from the Daegu mayor as well, saying he believes that they have been withholding information. Something which the leader has been denying, saying that they had administrative issues because they're all in self-isolation, so they found it difficult to actually get this information up.

But also, today, we did also have confirmation of the youngest patient so far in South Korea. A 45-day-old baby has been confirmed positive with the novel coronavirus. Both of the parents as well have been confirmed.

John.

BERMAN: All right, Paula Hancocks for us in South Korea. Thank you very much. That is frightening.

We're going to have much more on the major developments concerning coronavirus all around the world coming up, including a check on the markets, looking to recover slightly after the worst single week in years.

Also, thousands of people stranded, running from a war with nowhere to go. We have a live report, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:43:23]

BERMAN: Happening now, thousands of refugees stranded at Turkey's border with Greece. The Turkish president said he would not stop migrants from crossing into Europe, but Greece is refusing to let them in.

CNN's Arwa Damon is live in Istanbul.

And, Arwa, you've been -- Arwa, you've been shining a light on the plight of these people caught in the middle of all this conflict.

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, we spent the weekend up there. And President Erdogan is basically saying to the west, you have not taken on a share of this burden. Now the borders are open and you are going to be forced to take on your share of the refugee burden. But on the ground, this is how it is impacting the lives of those migrants and refugees stuck on the Turkish side of the border.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAMON: They just spent a night cold and wet out in the open. And for what? A sliver of hope sparked by Turkey saying it would no longer stop refugees crossing to Europe and facilitating their transport here to the border with Greece.

Abdullah (ph) is the sole survivor of a bombing that killed the rest of his family in Syria.

DAMON (on camera): They thought it was open. They thought the whole border was open.

DAMON (voice over): It's not. Greece is not letting anyone through.

DAMON (on camera): But it's quite chaotic. It's quite intense. People are just trying to bust through towards what they think is going to be a better life.

DAMON (voice over): Europe doesn't want them. Never really has. Striking a financial aid deal with Turkey back in 2016 that it never fully paid up on to stem the refugee flood.

[06:45:03]

Turkey hosting upwards of 3.5 million refugees, mostly from Syria, have long threatened to open the gates if left to shoulder the refugee burden alone. And now Turkey is even more angered by the west's refusal to support it in Idlib with anything more than rhetoric. Many here are aware they are being used as leverage.

The tear gas wafts over and mixes with smoke from multiple fires, as those here try to stay warm. Sameda's (ph) husband was killed in Iraq by ISIS. She came to Turkey with her children, elderly mother, and disabled brother.

Where are we supposed to go then, she wonders.

This Syrian mother doesn't want to talk. When we ask how she's doing, she just strokes her child's face.

It's all horribly reminiscent of the desperation we witnessed years ago as throngs crossed through Europe. At night, we meet some of those who tried to cross the river to Greece but failed. Greek authorities deny this, but Halid (ph) from Idlib says the Greeks forced him back, tore up his ID, and took his phone.

DAMON (on camera): He hasn't spoken to his parents in almost four weeks. And they're in Idlib. They're in the camps. He's worried about them. And now he has no way of getting in touch with them.

DAMON (voice over): This family from Afghanistan says the same thing happened to them. But even worse, they were separated from their men.

DAMON (on camera): Her father, your brother, her husband are over there. And you're stuck here. DAMON (voice over): They are scared, vulnerable, alone, burning

discarded clothing, not knowing where to go or how to find those they love. What are they supposed to do when their misery and desperation has become little more than a political weapon?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: What are they supposed to do, indeed, Arwa. And, once again, I think it's so important for you to shine the light and show people what's happening here. And it's so interesting to hear from them. So many of them thinking their hearts are still back in Syria or Afghanistan or where they're coming from, but they're thinking about the future. Where do they want to get to? What's the end goal?

DAMON: They want to get to Europe. They want to basically get to a country where they'll be able to build a better life.

Look, many of those people who you saw there have actually been in Turkey for a few years, but they're saying that trying to survive in Turkey is very difficult for them at this stage. It's hard for them to find employment, put their kids in school. It's hard for them to find housing.

Turkey has been feeling the effect of bearing the bulk of the burden of the refugee crisis, plus its economy has been in a downward spiral and prices have been going up. That's one contributing factor.

But the other also is that right now, as you saw in that report, Turkey is using these refugees as leverage against Europe. While we're up at the border, you do see them being encouraged into certain directions to go and try and get across at this part of the border fence or to try this part of the river.

The problem is that we talked to a number of them who say they actually did make it across, but then were forced back by the Greeks. So right now they're really stuck in this stage of limbo, not knowing how long they should wait out in the open, how long should they force their children and themselves to suffer like this before all hope is gone. They're really being played right now by all sides.

BERMAN: Arwa Damon, thank you so much for your reporting on this.

CAMEROTA: All right, back here, which candidate will benefit the most from Pete Buttigieg's exit? And what will happen tomorrow on Super Tuesday?

Harry Enten breaks down the numbers, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:53:09]

BERMAN: So 48 hours straight of gale force winds spray lake water onto homes in upstate New York. Take my word for it. Look at that. Look, left behind that incredible scene. Houses just covered in ice there. Looks like "Frozen." There's a movie like this where they're singing. Milder conditions, I'm told, are on the way.

CNN meteorologist Chad Myers has the forecast.

Chad.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I love that last picture, John, where you can see even like the shutters on the house that are completely caked in ice. It is melting today, though. That is the good news. I mean this is -- there you go, you can see -- you can see the shingles, you can see everything. It's like you can take the house out of the inside and it would still -- the ice would still be standing there.

Anyway, we're going to melt some of that today. We're going to be in the 40s and 50s up there. Even almost 60 degrees across parts of D.C. and New York.

This weather is brought to you by Boost, the nutrition you need, the taste you deserve.

So here we go. Here's the rain for today. All the way from really the Ohio Valley all the way down to Tennessee. It will be mild for the next couple days. Three solid days of very nice weather across the eastern half of the country. Then it cools down for the weekend. But cold is a relative thing. We've dealt with this already. It isn't going to be that bad.

Let's focus on the rain today because there will be some very heavy rain. Even the potential for some severe weather not that far from Memphis or Nashville later on this afternoon. More severe weather around Atlanta for tomorrow morning at this time. And then a little bit by the time we work our way into tomorrow morning we will see that. I think Super Tuesday, though, really shapes up very well. For as many states as we have voting tomorrow, the weather is very, very good.

Now, after that, Wednesday, Thursday, it starts to get very soggy across the southeast with that rain right along the front. But look at the temperatures, 50s, 60s, well above normal all east of the Rockies.

Back to you.

CAMEROTA: Wow. OK, good to know. Thank you for the Super Tuesday forecast, Chad.

So, Joe Biden is trying to maintain his momentum after his big win in South Carolina.

[06:55:02]

Meanwhile, Mayor Pete Buttigieg has dropped out. So what will happen tomorrow on Super Tuesday?

Joining us now is CNN's senior politics writer and analyst Harry Enten with that.

OK, and that's a wrap. HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICS WRITER AND ANALYST: That's a wrap.

CAMEROTA: Harry, first, before you get to your thing, were you surprised to hear last night when Pete Buttigieg --

ENTEN: I really wasn't, though I will say, it interrupted dinner with my mom, who I was having dinner with for the first time in two months and then all of a sudden he drops out, ended up staying up a few extra hours. But it's all for the love of the job, right, folks?

All right, look, here's the deal in terms of Buttigieg dropping out and how it might affect things. So this is the ideology of support. The average of the first four primaries. And what do we see here? We see Buttigieg was doing very well among moderate voters, just like Biden, Klobuchar as well, not as well among very liberal voters, and you see the difference in their support, right, between the moderates and the very liberals. And we see Biden, Buttigieg and Klobuchar all doing considerably better among moderates than very liberals versus someone like Bernie Sanders, who is doing considerably better among very liberals than moderates. So if you were to make your first estimate based purely off of ideology, you would say someone like a Biden and perhaps a Klobuchar would benefit most from Buttigieg getting out.

BERMAN: Obviously tomorrow is Super Tuesday. It's some of the biggest delegate prizes we're going to see, period. What are the biggest and how does this play into that?

ENTEN: Yes, exactly right.

So the big -- three biggest, California, Texas, North Carolina. And what we see in them specifically in California is Sanders doing very well with 34 percent.

But I want you to notice here, Warren, Biden and Bloomberg all hovering right around 15 percent. Buttigieg's exit may help those candidates reach that 15 percent threshold. So even though he was only at 8 percent of the vote, that could help those other candidates reach that 15 percent and may keep Bernie Sanders' delegate win coming out of there down considerably.

BERMAN: Just tell us why 15 percent is so important.

ENTEN: Because that is the amount that you need to win pledge delegates. It's the threshold on the state-wide level and the congressional district level. So be watching 15 percent tomorrow.

CAMEROTA: So, meaning, if bidden gets 14 percent, as the polls suggests he'll bring, he gets no delegates?

ENTEN: He will get none of the state-wide delegates. He'll probably reach 15 in some of the congressional districts. So he won't come out of there empty handed. But it certainly helps to be 15 percent or higher, especially on the state level.

And you see that same thing going on in Texas, where we have somewhat of a closer fight between Sanders and Biden. Again, that 15 percent. And, again, here, look at Bloomberg and Warren hovering right around that 15 percent threshold.

CAMEROTA: OK. What is baseline?

ENTEN: Yes, so, you know, I just want to kind of point out here, look, 34 percent of the delegates in the entire Democratic process are allocated tomorrow. And, you know, you see sort of the national baseline again here with Sanders out in front, which is basically what we saw in California and Texas in a landslide. But all of these polls, folks, all of them were taken before South Carolina and before Buttigieg got out. That's a pretty big asterisk.

BERMAN: All right, now one of the things people are saying is, oh, Joe Biden has this big win in South Carolina, but there's no time for the bounce to take hold. You have a counterintuitive look at this.

ENTEN: In fact, I actually think it's a better thing for him that it's happening so quickly because I want you to take a look at back at 2012 out of South Carolina. What did we see? We see, before South Carolina, Romney was ahead of Gingrich back in the 2012 Republican race. Just three days out, Gingrich shot up, right, took an eight-point lead nationally, and then he fell back -- I'm almost coming out of the frame there -- fell back and Romney regained the lead. So someone who has very little resources like a Joe Biden, in fact, it may be better to ride that media wave by having the primary, Super Tuesday, just being three days after South Carolina.

CAMEROTA: Unless people have already done early voting.

ENTEN: Unless people already did early voting. But, you know --

BERMAN: But --

ENTEN: But -- but -- but --

CAMEROTA: Another asterisk?

ENTEN: Another asterisk. So, you know, California, everyone's talking about the early vote, right? But there's actually some statistics suggesting that in 2020 people -- Democrats who voted in the last five elections, fewer of them, just 46 percent have voted early, versus 62 percent in 2016. It signals more people are holding back their ballots.

Who might that benefit? Well, we know in the first four primaries the people who decide in the last few days, they were far more likely, 37 percent, to be non-Sanders voters than Sanders voters. So, in fact, you may see this benefitting the non-Sanders candidates.

BERMAN: That said, Bernie Sanders sitting pretty right now in California. We'll have to wait and see how that plays out tomorrow.

Let's talk about Michael Bloomberg, though.

ENTEN: Yes. BERMAN: What do we know about him and where his voters might go.

ENTEN: I wouldn't be surprised if Michael Bloomberg voters start changing their mind, especially after South Carolina, right, where, obviously, Biden did very well. Seventy-three percent of Bloomberg supporters say they may change their mind. Just 25 percent said their minds were made up in a Quinnipiac poll earlier this month, or last month. And who might that benefit? Well, look at this, the second choice of Bloomberg, number one, Biden at 33 percent, Buttigieg was actually the second most likely, but he's out. So Biden could be the big beneficiary of those Bloomberg supporters perhaps going somewhere else.

CAMEROTA: We just got the weather report from Chad and so do you have anything to add to that?

ENTEN: I just want to say, meteorological winter is over in New York, but the truth is, who really cares, folks? Just 4.8 inches. Terrible winter for a weather lover, snow lover like me. Awful.

BERMAN: All right, we're sorry for your loss, Harry.

ENTEN: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: (INAUDIBLE).

BERMAN: The deadly outbreak of coronavirus in the United States is growing.

NEW DAY continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: A second person in Washington state has died from coronavirus.

[07:00:01]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The epidemic was probably already spreading in the community for three to four weeks potentially.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At this point it's a suspected community transmission.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that's concerning, right?