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Update On Coronavirus Response Across The Country; Chancellor Philip DiStefano Of University Of Colorado, Boulder, Discusses Plans For In-Person Classes This Fall With Students In Groups Of 10; Mayor Melvin Carter (D), St. Paul, MN, Discusses Minneapolis Police Officers Placed On Leave After Death Of Man Who Pled For Air; Cuomo Rings Bell As New York Stock Exchange Reopens With Changes. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired May 26, 2020 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: We are learning a Nevada elections worker tested positive for coronavirus. This worker was at the Clark County Election Department's main office in north Las Vegas over the holiday weekend as dozens were dropping off their ballots for Nevada's June 9th primary. Officials say the person was wearing a mask. But the building had been closed and sanitized as a precaution.
Let's look now at more of our pandemic headlines from across the country.
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PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: I'm Pete Muntean, in Washington. More people are flying on commercial airlines thanks in part of the long holiday weekend.
The Transportation Security Administration says it screened a million and a half people between Thursday and Monday. The highest traffic was on Friday. TSA screening almost 350,000 passengers at American airports.
Still, it's only about 12 percent of the norm. But it is a welcome sign for the airline industry struggling in this pandemic.
SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Shimon Prokupecz, at the Brooklyn Nets' training facility which has reopened for the first time since March when the NBA suspended play because of the pandemic. This will be the first time players are allowed to return to the training facility where they can shoot hoops, train, lift weights and do other things.
There are restrictions in place. They're not allowing more than four players in at a time. Players are not allowed to practice with one another. Each player haves to stay on the own with each basketball, shoot hoops on their own, dribble on their own. They're not allowed to have scrimmages. So there are limits as to what players can do. But significant that, for the first time, teams here in New York City
will be allowed to begin training and getting ready for hopefully some kind of season to resume.
KARA SCANNELL, CNN REPORTER: I'm Kara Scannell, in New York. The Trump Organization is feeling the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. This month, the president's company permanently laid off 250 employees at his golf and hotel resort in Miami, Florida.
Those housekeepers, cooks and servers represent 45 percent of the employees there who were placed on a temporary leave in March. Those temporary lay-offs now turn into permanent job losses.
Across the Trump properties, from here to New York to Chicago to Los Angeles, about 2,000 employees have been furloughed.
AMARA WALKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Amara Walker, in Atlanta. Two SpaceX astronauts will be emerging from their ultimate quarantine, according to mission officials, after three weeks to prepare for an upcoming test flight to the international space station.
The astronauts will fly in SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft. Lift off is scheduled for Wednesday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a Falcon 9 rocket.
Mission officials say this is a very serious process to prevent the crew members on the ground from bringing the virus to members up in space. NASA says the astronauts work and live side by side and are unable to maintain a six-foot social distance.
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KEILAR: Thank you so much for those reports, everyone.
Just in, another pharmaceutical giant has entered the vaccine race with two potential vaccines.
Plus, a significant development on the vice president's press secretary whose infection sparked a scare inside the West Wing.
[13:35:14]
And just in, one university revealed the way it will deal with pandemic in the fall, and this includes separating students into groups of 10. This is really interesting to see how they're doing this. We'll talk to the chancellor of this school ahead.
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KEILAR: One of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world is jumping into the race to develop the coronavirus vaccine. U.S. drug maker, Merck, announcing today it will be collaborating with a non- profit research group to develop a potential vaccine using the same technology used as the basis for its Ebola vaccine.
Merck also announced it is acquiring the biotech company, Emis (ph), which is developing a COVID-19 candidate based on its measles vaccine. Human trials for both are planned later this year.
This just in. The University of Colorado at Boulder announced it will have in-person classes this fall. The school has a rather unique approach to their coronavirus safety measures.
What they are doing is taking new students and grouping them into groups of 10. The school says these small groups are going to make it easier to quarantine if one person gets sick.
[13:40:11]
Let's talk about this and other steps the university is taking when it comes to reopening with Chancellor Philip DiStefano.
Chancellor, thank you so much for joining us.
We sort of read through the plan but maybe you can explain this to us how this 10-person grouping would work. So if you are a new student, you come to campus, you live and you go to school or class with the same group of 10?
PHILIP DISTEFANO, CHANCELLOR, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO, BOULDER: Yes. It is a cohort group, Brianna. Students living in the same residence hall and same dormitories will take classes together as a cohort group and they may take three to four classes each.
That reduces the number of individuals that they would be in contact with. In a regular semester, they may have 50 or 40 different students that they would be interacting with rather than just 10. And we believe that by reducing that population density it will certainly help to mitigate some of the problems with the virus.
KEILAR: OK, so I want to ask you about what happens if students don't exactly follow the plan when it comes to socializing.
First, I want to ask you about maybe going in -- I went to a large university myself in the University of California system, and I don't think there was one person that I knew who was in all of my classes.
Is this going to be reducing the, I guess, options, the various choices they have per class selection to get 10 students to have the same syllabus?
DISTEFANO: Right. It will. We'll be assigning classes for first-year students. These will be classes that would count for graduation. We want to make sure they stay on schedule to graduate.
And so we'll be placing students in class. They'll be more of required courses rather than electives for their first year. We feel this is a way they can be successful in making headway toward their degrees and at the same time be safe.
KEILAR: I wonder what happens if some students decide they're going to socialize with people outside of their 10-person group.
DISTEFANO: That's definitely going to happen. We can't stop socialization. We are going to be COVID ready by requiring our students to wear masks during the day while they're on campus and also from a social distancing standpoint.
We are not going to be able to mitigate 100 percent of students socializing. We feel while they're on campus, taking classes, we can mitigate some of the problems there.
And know where you need to shut down certain groups if you limit their exposure when it comes to classrooms.
DISTEFANO: That's right.
Chancellor, thank you for coming to us. It is a fascinating idea. We appreciate you explaining it to us. Thank you.
DISTEFANO: Thank you. It's my pleasure.
KEILAR: It was New York's earliest hot spot when the pandemic began. Here the lessons that New Rochelle has learned as it reopens today.
Plus, Twitter rejects a widowers' please to delete President Trump's baseless conspiracy about his wife's death as the president attacks a TV host.
And horrifying video of a black man, pinned to the ground by police, saying he can't breathe. He later died and the FBI is investigating.
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KEILAR: A group of Minneapolis police officers are placed on leave, and FBI investigation is now under way after one of the officers was caught on video pressing his knee into the next of a black man who was handcuffed and subdued on the ground, pleading with officers that he could not breathe. That man later died after being taken to the hospital in police custody.
We'll show you that video in just a moment. But I do want to warn you, this is very disturbing.
This video does not record what leads up to the arrest, does not show parts of the arrest that police describe as the victim resisting arrest.
Here's the video that was taken.
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GEORGE FLOYD, DIED DURING ARREST AFTER PLEADING FOR AIR: I can't breathe. Please, please, I can't breathe. (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: Get up and get in the car, man.
FLOYD: I will.
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: Get up and get in the car.
FLOYD: I can't move.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: Get up and get in the car.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: Get up and get in the car right now.
FLOYD: I can't.
My stock ache hurts. My neck hurts. Everything hurts. Give me some water or something. Please, please.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: It is very difficult to watch there.
I'm joined by Melvin Carter, the mayor of neighboring St. Paul, Minnesota.
Mayor, what is your reaction when you see this video?
MAYOR MELVIN CARTER (D), ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA: It's heartbreaking. It's unacceptable. To wake up to that, another video - obviously, it's not the first one like that that we have seen. But to wake up to that and see that so close to home is just heartbreaking for us.
KEILAR: It's hard to watch without knowing what happens later that the man died.
[13:50:02]
One of things we heard -- you've heard me say the video did not record what led up to the arrest, and it does not show parts of the arrest that police described as the victim resisting arrest. What do you say to that?
CARTER: I say we have a 10-minute video of a police officers, whose sworn to protect and serve us, who we pay to protect and serve us, literally squeezing the last breathes out of a victim who was handcuffed, who was defenseless, who was helpless. There's nothing that can be explained about what happened before that, about any context or other information.
We know there will be an effort to slander or blame the victim, but we can't let anything distract us from the fact we have a 10-minute video of an officer putting his full weight into the back of the neck of a man while he begs for help and while bystanders scream that this man is dying.
KEILAR: So the mayor apologized directly, he said, to the black community. I want to listen to more of what he said and then get your reaction. Let's listen.
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JACOB FREY, (D), MINNEAPOLIS MAYOR: What we saw was horrible, completely and utterly messed up. This man's life matters. He matters. He was someone's son, someone's family member, someone's friend. When you hear someone calling for help, you are supposed to help. This officer failed in the most basic human sense.
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KEILAR: I'm sure you know the mayor of Minneapolis. When you hear him apologizing there, is that enough? What else should he be doing. Is there a role for him here that he has not fulfilled?
CARTER: I know Mayor Frey very well. We are close friends. And I have to appreciate his unambiguous statement today that being black in American cannot be a death sentence in our community.
Is an apology enough? Of course not. It's not enough for him. It's not enough for me. It's not enough for you. It's not enough for any of us.
What we see is another episode in our generations-long running case of whether our justice system is capable of protecting and serving all of us, whether it has credibility for caring for all of our lives.
You know, so you appreciate his statements. And I know he is just as distraught as the rest of us about this. We all have actions to do. It's not just on him. This is about our nation and finding the soul of our nation here.
KEILAR: I'm so glad we're having this conversation. We're going to continue to stay on this story. It deserves coverage.
Mayor Melvin Carter, thanks for joining us.
CARTER: Can I share one more thing with you?
That's this.
KEILAR: Please do.
CARTER: That's this. Whenever we see these videos -- and obviously, this is not the first one -- but one of the things that's most disturbing for me is the other officers, whether it's one, two or five who stand by and stand guard.
If there was only one, we might be able to make the argument that that is a bad apple or is a rogue officer or something like that. But when you see a handful of others or even just one other one standing guard, it undeniably speaks to a culture of normalized and accepted cultural abuse that we know is an ugly part of our history in America and cannot be part of our future.
KEILAR: I would say, looking at that part of the video, especially the part of the demeanor of the other officer standing behind him -- CARTER: That's right.
KEILAR: -- did not match the situation that we were seeing happening in the lower part of the frame.
Mayor, thank you.
(CROSSTALK)
KEILAR: Thanks for joining us.
CARTER: Thank you.
KEILAR: We showed you those pool party picture from the Ozarks. Now health officials are telling those partiers they need to quarantine, but will they?
Plus, a standoff erupts between California and churches as the CDC changes its guidance on houses of worship.
[13:54:15]
And as Governor Cuomo rings the opening bell, see what traders are having to do as the floor of the New York Stock Exchange officially reopens today.
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(APPLAUSE)
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(CHEERING)
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KEILAR: That was the scene at the New York Stock Exchange this morning. Cheers and applause as New York Governor Andrew Cuomo rang the opening bell. Traders back on the floor for the first time in two months, although there were many fewer than before.
CNN's Alison Kosik is outside the New York Stock Exchange.
Which it's so odd to see you outside, Alison. But tell us more about the changes that have been put in place.
ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: So far, one change, the media is not allowed in. The other change you mentioned, fewer traders on the floor, a quarter of the usual traders. That's all you would see. That's about 80 traders on the floor right now. That is to enable the social distancing guidelines, to make sure those are in force.
Even before the traders arrived, they had to promise to not take public transportation. Once they got here, they had to have their temperature checked, put on face masks, and make sure they maintained six feet between each other on the floor.
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On the trading floor, there will be no eating, no handshaking, no physical contact at all.
