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Cities Monitor Meat Plant Outbreaks Amid Reopening Debate; Correction Officers & Inmates Vulnerable Amid Outbreaks In Jails; 10 Killed In Chicago Over Memorial Day Weekend. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired May 26, 2020 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Paul TenHaken, Mr. Mayor, it's good to see you again. City Council meeting today, that's an important step beginning to reopen and capacity. I've asked you this every time you've been on. It's always a question for me. Are you better off today than you were yesterday and last week? How are you feeling right now?

MAYOR PAUL TENHAKEN (R) SIOUX FALLS, SOUTH DAKOTA: Well, John, yes, thanks for having me back again. I feel good where Sioux Falls sits today, you know, you mentioned in the lead and the Smithfield outbreak that we had here at our pork plan, which was really what put us on the map nationally.

We had over 850 confirmed COVID cases at that plant. Today, we're down at 12 active cases of employees tied to that plant. In the meantime, we've had a continual downward trend for the last several weeks in the number of positive confirmed cases.

So I attribute some of that social distancing, some of that to the testing that we're doing, some of that just smart actions by our citizens and residents. So I feel pretty good where we sit today in Sioux Falls.

KING: And out of just put up the daily cases, because you can see, if you go back, you go back to May and you come across this. You know, you see some days where you spike up. But overall, you're at a pretty low number there. And then you mentioned the Smithfield plant. Last hour, I spoke to the union president out in Vernon, south of Los Angeles, where they have a product -- another problem at one of their plants out there.

I'm trying to get your sense as the whole country goes through this, the world is going through this, but when you have an issue like this, the union president now in L.A. complaining of it saying, you know, he's getting on the phone with a company today, but he thinks they need to do more.

Walk us through, what's your experience? Did they listen when you said hey, we need help. We got to get the -- you got to reimagine your plant. You got to give the workers testing. Did they listen? TENHAKEN: You know, initially there was some tension around that topic. I think, like a lot of people in the country, they maybe didn't take it as seriously as I would have liked to see them take it. They then stood up a -- with the help of the state and the city of Sioux Falls, a testing site where about 4,000 Smithfield employees and their close contacts were tested at a single site across four days.

So we've had some mass testing of Smithfield employees. And as a result, we feel very confident in them reopening because of that testing operation. So I think those producing plants are getting there. They're starting to understand the gravity and the severity, that this has to be taken seriously, or, you know, in the matter of a few days, it shut down, you know, an entire industry, as we've seen.

KING: And if you look at the map of your part of the country, you're in the urban area of your state. You got a ton of rural space around you. One of the states that deals with this in very different ways and at times, there's tension, you early on have a little tension with your governor, about, you know, the pace of reopening and the like.

What lessons have you learned as you -- when you come to work in the morning now, as opposed to three months ago, what's the biggest difference?

TENHAKEN: Well, one thing that I've learned and I don't know if it's good or bad, but it's been hard to trust the data in this, John, because the data has been so wildly inaccurate at times.

And so as local leaders, we're trying to make decisions off the best projections that we had. And at one point, we were projecting 6, 700 hospital beds just in Sioux Falls for COVID. The peak we've had a 71 people as inpatients for COVID.

So making decisions on that wildly swinging data has been a challenge. And so that's why we've had to be nimble. And so, you know, if there's one thing I've learned in this process, it's that government leaders, elected officials have to be nimble, have to realize they need to change their positions at times when the facts and the data tells them that they need to change those positions. And that's something I think we've done pretty well in Sioux Falls.

KING: Mayor Paul TenHaken, Sir, we wish you the best going forward. Let's keep in touch as we go through this. Let's be nimble.

TENHAKEN: Thank you, John.

KING: Alrighty, Sir, take care.

[12:33:29]

Coming up for us, the heavy toll that coronavirus is taking on America's correctional officers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Essential employees working in tight quarters with a vulnerable population, that of course a dangerous combination for a coronavirus outbreak and that is the reality correction officers are facing across the country today.

Joining me now, Elias Husamudeen. He's the president of the New York City Corrections Officers' Benevolent Association. Sir, thank you for joining us today.

I just want to look at your numbers here. New York Department of Correction staff, 1,387 cases, six, six of your brothers and sisters have died here and among the inmates, 352 cases and three deaths. You have been mad at the mayor, mad at the Department. Are things better now than if we were having this conversation a month ago?

HUSAMUDEEN: Well, hi, John. Thank you for having me. You already know for the past three months, New York City Correctional Officers we've served on the front line with this epicenter. And right now, 13, more than 1,300 correctional officers are still tested positive, and more than eight of my correctional officers have died.

To answer your question, I think they're doing a little bit better. I think I still think that they have a long way to go. And I appreciate you bringing me on the show because I'm here today to call on Congress to pass the heroes fund, which will provide essential workers like New York City correction officers with hazardous pay.

As you know, or maybe not, we've been the hardest hit municipal jail force in the country. And our heroes, we need to be financially compensated for the sacrifices that we're making and the risk that we're taking day to day because unlike everybody else, again, New York City correction officers, we could not work from home. We don't have the ability to run the jails and do these things from home.

And our numbers are still there, 1,300 people testing positive, eight correction officers who have died from COVID-19. And we're still looking for the mayor and the city to do more and as much as they possibly can to help prevent this thing from taking any other lives of New York City correction officers or even the inmate population.

[12:40:05]

KING: I'm a son of a corrections officer so I know what you do. And I know that tight spaces and I know the proximity. How can you change? How inside a jail, inside a prison, there's been, you know, some prisoners have been released. What has changed inside at the office, if you will, in a way to make both the inmates and your officers safer?

HUSAMUDEEN: Well, one of the things that can change is right now, New York City has the lowest population of inmates and they've had in the last 30 years. And we have under 4,000 inmates and we have almost 18,000, 12,000 beds.

So if the city actually wanted to do some social distancing, if the city actually would go about changing the officer, the inmate ratio, we could actually do a little bit more, you know, and broaden the protection that we have for our correctional officers and for our inmates, it's just a matter of whether or not they have the will, you know, whether or not they're willing or that, you know, to do to take these things in a union. We're right there on the front line.

I mean, I now sit on the mayor's task force for reopening the city. And like I explained to everybody in New York City jails would never close. So we're not reopening. We're simply going about restoring or things that have been suspended.

But at the same time, if this is not done correctly, if they do not give us the PPEs, if they don't do it right, then we can end up with more correction officers testing positive, and we can end up with more correction officers who are frontline, first responders dying as a result of the city not taking heed to what the union has been saying for the last three months.

KING: I certainly hope the mayor and others listen and you can work this out for the well being of everybody, the inmates and the offices. Elias Husamudeen, really appreciate your time today, Sir, best of luck.

HUSAMUDEEN: Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

KING: Thank you, Sir.

It was one of the deadliest Memorial Day weekends in years for Chicago. Despite an ongoing stay at home order, police say 10 people, at least 10 people were killed almost 50 more injured in shootings in the city.

Ryan Young joins us now live from Chicago. Not what you want to hear in the middle of already troubled times, Ryan?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Not at all. And this has been the deadliest in the last five years. You think about 10 people killed, 49 other people shot. We just walked out of the news conference with the new top cop here in Chicago. And they talked about the strategy they have for the summer.

But this is a precursor. This summer marker is usually when we can usually guide, to see what's going to happen next when it comes to violence in Chicago. The numbers have been going down for years, but there's been a leadership change. And those numbers seem to spike.

And that's despite COVID-19. This city's been hit hard by COVID-19. And despite the stay at home orders and even bad weather on Saturday, people were still out trying to get through their beef, sort of speak, as that they were saying in the news conference between gangs, violence, guns, and drugs. This all played out in the streets.

But there were innocents who were involved in this. But listen to the top cop as he was talking just a moment ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUPERINTENDENT DAVID BROWN, CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT: People are feeling restless after being cooped up for weeks. The court system and jails have also impacted the outbreak, have been impacted by the outbreak. All of these factors played a part in a violent weekend that saw murders and shootings post numbers not seen since 2015.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: John, as you know, the real impact though is in the neighborhoods. And we had some Black African-American leaders who were here just about a half hour ago who are upset. They believe the strategy here at the police department is not working. They also call on the mayor to do more. They want to see more resources surge into this area before the summer starts because they say bloods on everyone's hand. John?

KING: Ryan Young on the ground for us, sad days in Chicago. Ryan, thank you very much.

[12:43:54]

Up next for us, coronavirus is disrupting everything, look at the jumble of legal challenges these lock downs have created.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Coronavirus also keeping the courts busy. Hundreds of Americans have filed legal complaints linked to this pandemic. The top grievances tend to fall into the following categories, confinement conditions for prisoners, civil rights issues, insurance, and education.

Here to discuss, CNN contributor and law professor, Steve Vladeck, who teaches at the University of Texas in Austin. Good to see you, Steve.

So walk us through how many of these do you view as serious constitutional questions about government overreach? And how many of them are, my words, not a legal term, sort of nitpicking about the particulars?

STEVE VLADECK, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS SCHOOL OF LAW: You know, John, probably the vast majority are either nitpicking or at least what we might think of is just more standard commercial disputes, you know, questions about insurance and contracts that are affected by the closures.

I would say of the 1,300 or so suits we've seen, you know, it's really probably under 10 percent that are significant, you know, federal constitutional claims, whether from, as you say, prisoners, whether from individuals who believe that the shelter in place orders are violating their constitutional rights, religious institutions, we see the number of abortion cases. But, you know, those have really been I think the minority of these cases when taken in the aggregate.

KING: Right. And since March 1st, about 1,355 total, probably it went up some today after the holiday weekend, 400 plus in New York, nearly 200 California, 116 in Florida. In a federal case, the Ninth Circuit the other day essentially said no to people protesting Gavin Newsom closing houses of worship. [12:50:11]

And then the decision, it was two to one. But in the decision, the judges essentially said, you know, if this were four months ago, you might win. But we're in the middle of this pandemic. We're going to give the governor a little bit of grace. That was my reading. Are the courts saying, you know what, this is different, so maybe we're not going to follow the letter of the law?

VLADECK: So I think, John, it's a little tricky. I mean I think some courts are and some courts aren't, some courts are saying, you know, we're going to apply the ordinary rules. But just as we require the government to have an especially strong reason for infringing upon civil liberties, well, maybe now the government does have a stronger reason than we're used to, you know, the pandemic, protecting public health might justify actions today. That would have been justified four months ago.

We've seen that across the -- really the spectrum, whether it comes to the Fifth Circuit here in Texas, upholding Texas's treatment of abortion as an elective medical procedure because of the pandemic and the press on medical resources, or the impact that a lot of these orders are having on houses of worship and the ability to go to religious institutions.

I think we're seeing courts, John, really tried to sort of balance the need, the felt need, for government to have a little more power in this time of crisis with a real concern that that not become a pretext for infringing upon civil liberties that are just as pressing during crisis times, if not more important.

KING: And we know the attorney general has asked his team to keep an eye out for state restrictions that they might view as constitutional overreach or overly aggressive or civil rights violations. We've heard the talk of that. Are we seeing in the courts aggressive steps by the Trump administration or not yet?

VLADECK: Not yet. I mean, you know, John, I think there's been a lot of noise coming out of both the President and the Attorney General when it comes to a strong federal role in these cases but really not a lot of actual impact on the ground.

And so just to take one example, there's a lawsuit that was filed in Illinois by the Illinois Assemblyman against Governor Pritzker challenging the state shelter and place order. And the Justice Department showed up and filed something called a statement of interest, but didn't actually suggest there were any federal constitutional problems with Governor Pritzker's order.

The best it could do was identify a couple of ways in which the order might have been inconsistent with Illinois State procedural rules. And, you know, John, I mean I'm a lawyer, so I'm always happy to fight about procedural rules. But that's not the kind of, you know, great debate over civil liberties that you would think we'd be having based on the tone and the rhetoric coming out of the White House in the Justice Department. KING: Steve Vladeck, appreciate your insights. We'll continue to track these cases as they wander through, there'll be more.

VLADECK: Thanks John.

KING: Thank you so much.

Just head for us, sports making a comeback in New York, the Brooklyn Nets get to resume practice today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:57:20]

KING: More science today that slowly and hopefully surely sports is returning to America. We had the match you remember over the weekend. Today, the National Hockey League scheduling an announcement on resuming the season.

The League's Commissioner Gary Bettman will lay out the NHL's plans at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time today. Early reports suggest 24 teams would qualify for this year's Stanley Cup Playoffs when play resumes.

And the first New York professional sports team taking its first tentative steps toward getting back in action. The NBA's Brooklyn Nets are holding voluntary player workouts today. The league gave teams the green light to have limited workouts back on May 8th, just this past weekend. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo also gave his go ahead.

Shimon Prokupecz is in New York outside the Nets practice facility. Shimon, take us inside.

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So it's open. We have not seen any people arrive here. You could see there are some people upstairs I could -- if you will see from a distance walking away, there are people upstairs.

Now it's very different than any normal practice of course, John. As you know, they're limiting how many players are allowed. Its four players, you know, you could get in some free throws, some dribbling, perhaps maybe a dunk or two. But they're not allowing any kind of scrimmage.

So, no real team practice that you would normally see in a NBA type of style practice or game, these are all solely meant for individuals, individual players to work on some skills, to get themselves back on the court.

And of course, the governor, as you said, allowing this to happen over the weekend. I mean, he's really hoping the governor here said that he's really hoping that this is the start of where we can see professional sports come back. He wants to see it come back. Many fans want to see it come back.

So by starting this, this perhaps begins the first phase of this. And it's important, certainly, for everyone. Now, as to whether or not it's going to increase at what point? We don't know. Of course, as you know, there's some talk that NBA games could resume in June. So we're waiting to hear on that.

But certainly, John, a very good first step here, as players start to come back, to practice, get together, workout in the gym, and perhaps maybe we could see a season resume in the coming months or so.

KING: And yet, you mentioned how tentative it is. Limited number of players, limited number of activities, that's sort of a metaphor, if not just for the Nets but for the city that you live and report in.

PROKUPECZ: Yes. It is. And really all about social distancing that still continues and we're going to see it everywhere we go, whether it's professional sports or whether it's our offices, which we all are going to return to at some point.

But again, this is all part, John, as you know, to get the city back up and running to get life to resume to hopefully what it once was.

[13:00:05]

KING: A nice psychological boost just to see players practicing. Shimon Prokupecz, appreciate it.