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Biden Rides Momentum, Scores Stunning Wave of Super Tuesday Wins; Coronavirus Spreads From New York Man to His Family; At Least 24 Dead, 17 Unaccounted for in Tennessee Tornado; Alabama Man Set to Be Executed Despite Questions About His Guilt. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired March 04, 2020 - 15:30   ET

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


[15:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: After Joe Biden's decisive victory in the Super Tuesday races, his campaign will now shift to how he can have similar results in less diverse and more unpredictable states. CNN's politics senior writer and analyst Harry Enten is here. So?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN'S POLITICS SENIOR WRITER AND ANALYST: Hello, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Hello.

ENTEN: Hello. Look --

BALDWIN: Where do we go?

ENTEN: Let me take you through the calendar. So I want to talk about March 10th, and I think the biggest state to understand whether or not Joe Biden is going to be doing well the rest of this primary contest is Michigan. Right?

That's a state in the Midwest. It's a state Bernie Sanders won last time around. But remember, last night, where did Joe Biden win? He won in Minnesota. That's a state that's pretty similar to Michigan but actually has a lot fewer African Americans than Michigan, a group that we know Joe Biden's done particularly well.

Another state I'm watching on that date are these two, Missouri and Mississippi. I think that Joe Biden's going to do particularly well there. The one state where I think Bernie probably does well is in Washington. But again, if Biden does well in these states, I'm not sure Sanders can necessarily make it up in Washington.

Now, flip toward to March 17th because this is where I really think that Joe Biden can really have a big night, specifically these 219 delegates in Florida. What does Florida have? It has a lot of old folks. Joe Biden does well among them, a lot of African Americans, Joe Biden does well among them. And it has a lot of Cubans, of course, and perhaps they don't take too kindly to the comments that Bernie Sanders made about Fidel Castro, and that's 219 delegates. That could be the state that perhaps puts Joe Biden out in front to stay.

One last thing I'll note for you here, you know, Joe Biden did something really amazing. That was he lost in Iowa. He lost in New Hampshire. He didn't get his first win until more than three weeks into the primary season, and it happened in the deep South.

But now it looks like he may very well be the front runner at this particular point, but I'll tell you this much, there is one historical comparison. It's Bill Clinton back in 1992. He lost Iowa and New Hampshire. He had to wait three weeks until his first victory, and it happened in the deep South in Georgia by a very similar margin that Biden won in South Carolina.

BALDWIN: Interesting comparison, the comeback kids.

ENTEN: The comeback kids. I kind of like that title, don't you?

BALDWIN: I do indeed, Harry, thank you.

ENTEN: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Thank you very much.

Coming up next, new cases of coronavirus popping up coast to coast as the U.S. House is set to vote today on billions of dollars just to get this outbreak under control. We'll talk to a doctor coming up to answer some of your questions about just how to stay healthy.

And later, an Alabama inmate is set to be executed tomorrow, even though someone else has come forward and confessed to the crime. We have details on this last-minute push to have the Governor save his life.

[15:35:00]

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BALDWIN: New cases of the coronavirus are now being reported in Los Angeles, Seattle, and New York prompting Los Angeles to declare a local emergency. And California is now reporting its first death today. In New York, workers are disinfecting the city's massive subway and train system after a man who commutes from Westchester County.

[15:40:00]

That's just outside of the city, into Manhattan tested positive for the virus. Today we are learning that members of this man's family are also sick. They also have coronavirus bringing the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in New York to six.

So let me bring in Dr. Michael Mina, he's an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Associate Medical Director of Harvard Medical School. And so Dr. Michael Mina, thank you so much for being with me.

DR. MICHAEL J. MINA, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF EPIDEMIOLOGY, HARVARD T.H. CHAN OF SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Great to be here. Thanks.

BALDWIN: Let's talk about these cases in New York, as we mentioned six now infected in New York. What do you do if you even suspect that you're feeling sick, someone in your family is showing what you perceive to be symptoms, what do you do?

MINA: I think right now testing remains fairly limited across the United States, although it's expanding very quickly. And I think the best thing to do at the moment is if you're feeling very mildly ill, I think the best thing is to just stay at home, try to self-quarantine. But if symptoms progress and you start to actually think that you need to see a doctor, then I would suggest doing so, and potentially calling up before hand just give them a heads-up that you are coming.

BALDWIN: How about we put this in perspective with the seasonal flu. Right. On the one hand, there are far more cases of the flu than coronavirus by a long shot, but the World Health Organization says coronavirus has a higher mortality rate. Help us understand that.

MINA: Yes, so this is -- these numbers are still coming in epidemiologically and we're still trying to figure out just how many people do get exposed to the virus and actually acquire it but don't ever get reported. And until we get a better handle on that it's very difficult to say really what the mortality rate is or what the fraction of people who become infected who get severely ill actually is.

And so those are things that we're trying to uncover still, and at the moment, we can just take estimates. The best estimates we have suggest that it's potentially somewhat more transmissible or about the same transmissibility than flu, and potentially a little bit more aggressive than the flu as well.

BALDWIN: Dr. Mina, thank you so much for your expertise. Thank you for coming on.

MINA: Absolutely.

BALDWIN: Coming up next, we will take you live to one of the area's hardest hit by those tornados in Tennessee, the man in these photos who had to be pulled from the rubble of his own home. We'll share his harrowing story.

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BALDWIN: The deadliest tornado to hit the United States in nearly seven years has killed at least 24 people including some kids, and today 17 people remain unaccounted for. This storm hit the Nashville area in the middle of the night. It left entire neighborhoods as you can see just flattened.

My next guest was inside his home in Mount Juliet, Tennessee as a tornado just destroyed the walls and foundation around him. The "Tennessean" newspaper capturing those dramatic photos of he and his wife Shirley being rescued in the middle of the night.

And Bill Wallace is with me now. And Mr. Wallace, thank you so much for being here. I am so glad you and your wife are OK. I understand that a flying cabinet hit her. How are you two?

BILL WALLACE, HOME DESTROYED IN TENNESSEE TORNADO: We're fine. We've got scrapes, bruises, and she's a little bit sore, but we're doing fine.

BALDWIN: And where you are standing, tell me what that is behind you?

WALLACE: That's what's left of the House that we lived in. I'm standing in our driveway, and the house is directly behind me.

BALDWIN: My goodness, and what does that feel like to say that?

WALLACE: Surreal, I guess. I don't know. We're still trying to deal with what all happened here, so pretty -- pretty terrible.

BALDWIN: Can you just take me back and tell me what happened? You were asleep, and at what point did you realize that this is more than just a bad storm?

WALLACE: Well, me and my wife were asleep, and then the telephone rang about a little after 12:30. It was my son, and my wife answered the phone, and my son Billy said are you guys in the basement? And we said no, and he said, well, you need to get there as quick as you can because there's a tornado just almost above -- on top of you.

So we went down to the basement and turned on the TV just to see what was going on, and just a couple minutes later, the -- everything went dark. We lost electricity.

So I went to a cabinet under the sink to get a light, right after I turned the light on, and we heard a loud noise, sounded like a train, and then we heard glass breaking, and then the house was -- was just coming apart and coming down all around us. A cabinet fell off the wall and knocked us both to the floor, and kind of -- we were kind of trapped down there. But it didn't last very long. It was over in just a few seconds or a minute.

BALDWIN: How -- how -- when you were trapped, how were you rescued? Were you shouting out for help?

WALLACE: No, I worked my way back and there was a flashlight fell that kind of dropped out of one of the cabinets that was above us.

[15:50:00]

So I got that light and I worked my back to a place where I could sit up and then the light -- I don't know exactly how long it was, maybe 20 minutes or so, and I heard a voice outside yell, is anyone in there? So I yelled back.

And I shined my flashlight in the direction of the voice came from. And then later, I could see his light on the outside. So he came closer to where we were, and he could see the light that I was holding. And he said, yes, OK, I can see you, I know where you are and I'm going to get some help, and we are going to rescue you and get you out of there.

BALDWIN: My goodness. That is quite a story. Bill Wallace, thank you, our best to your wife, your family standing there in your driveway. Lives spared. And that is what matters the most. I appreciate it. Thank you so much.

WALLACE: Thank you very much.

BALDWIN: You got it.

Just into CNN, United Airlines announcing it will scale back its flights in the U.S. and abroad as the demand drops because of the coronavirus. The airline is also implementing a hiring freeze for the time being.

[15:55:00]

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BALDWIN: An Alabama man convicted of killing three police officers in 2004 is set to be executed tomorrow despite all kinds of questions about his guilt. Nathaniel Woods has long maintained his innocence saying another defendant in the case confessed to being the lone gunman. And so now the son of Dr. Martin Luther King has joined the calls to receive clemency from the Governor.

CNN correspondent Martin Savidge explains the case.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a fact no one disputes. Alabama is about to execute 44-year-old Nathaniel Woods for the murders of three police officers he did not kill. June 17th, 2004, three Birmingham police officers are gunned down attempting to serve a misdemeanor warrant on Woods at a home on the city's west side.

Woods had surrendered to the police when another man in the house Kerry Spencer opened fire with an assault rifle killing officers, Charles Bennett, Carlos Owen and Harley Chisholm

UNIDENTIFIED MALE OFFICER: Never in my life have I ever imagined going to three funerals in two days and feeling the pain and the hurt that we have all experienced.

SAVIDGE: The shocking murders left a city grieving. Spencer confessed to the shootings and he said soon after the arrest that he had acted alone. He was convicted of the murders and sits on Alabama's death row. But for the prosecutors, one conviction wasn't enough. They charged Woods with three counts of capital murder, accusing him of conspiring or being complicit in the killing of the officers.

LAUREN FARINO, NATHANIEL WOODS' ATTORNEY: In order for a person to be convict on the complicity, they have to be involved in a plan or a scheme to kill.

SAVIDGE: Prosecutors alleged a calculating Woods intentionally lured the officers into the home where Spencer was waiting.

FARINO: Absolutely not. He was terrified when they came into the house.

SAVIDGE: Woods was found guilty and even though he did not fired a single shot, he was sentenced to death.

PAMELA WOODS, NATHANIEL WOODS' SISTER: He thought that it was the craziest thing in the world. He is like, how? How? Because he didn't do anything wrong.

SAVIDGE (on camera): How much do you think race played a role in this case?

FARINO: I think it did play a role. I mean, I think that if you are look at the victims, it's three white officers, and if you are look at the people who are sitting on death row, it's two black men.

SAVIDGE (voice over): Woods' current defense team says that the conviction is one of the many legal wrongs including years of bungled appeals by other attorneys. Now down to his final hours, Woods' family believes their only hope is for the public to convince Alabama's Governor that killing a man who killed no one is wrong.

PAMELA WOODS: I love my brother. People need to know about this.

SAVIDGE: We wanted to know what the families of the murdered police officers thought of Woods. We reached two of them who said they either couldn't or wouldn't talk to us.

But in a local radio interview last year the granddaughter of Officer Carlos Owen reflected on his loss and the hole that's left in all of their lives.

EMMA OWEN, CARLOS OWEN'S GRANDDAUGHTER: I remember how special he used to make each of the grandkids feel.

SAVIDGE (on camera): What would you say to the families of the officers who died?

FARINO: We are deep, deeply sorry for what happened that day. But the murderer of their family member is sitting on death row. He has confessed. He is being punished. They don't need an innocent man's blood as well.

SAVIDGE (voice over): Martin Savidge, Birmingham, Alabama.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Again, he is set to be executed tomorrow.

Before I let you go, let's take a quick peek at the Dow rallying more than 1,000 points after a stunning Super Tuesday in which Joe Biden won 10 of the 14 states. The health care sectors saw big jumps today.

I'm Brooke Baldwin and thank you for being with me. Let's go to Washington, "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starting right now.