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Growing Concern over Coronavirus Resurgence; Chauvin Eligible for Pension; Stocks Rise after Worst Day Since March; Milley Didn't Give White House Notice of His Apology; NFL Future for Colin Kaepernick. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired June 12, 2020 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:30:00]
DR. PETER HOTEZ, DEAN, SCHOOL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: To improve our public health infrastructure. But the bottom line is, I still think those numbers are going to continue to increase. It really started happening after the Memorial Day weekend. We saw that big rise. And, remember, we have July Fourth weekend coming up too soon as well. So I don't know -- see how this gets better, other than reimplementing social distancing.
I think by next week, if these numbers continue to show this same intensity and acceleration, we're going to have to do something. We just can't let so many people parish in intensive care units in our Texas medical center and elsewhere.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Is there talk of doing that? Is there talk of enforcing new rules there in Texas?
HOTEZ: Well, certainly among the scientists and among the physicians there's -- there's a lot of discussion about that. How much of that filters up -- you know, I've been having discussions with the mayor, Mayor Turner. You've had him on a few times. He's terrific. And the county judge, Lina Hidalgo, she's really concerned, especially in the low income neighborhoods, you know, where it's even more difficult to practice social distancing and we have higher rates of diabetes and hypertension. They're the ones that are going to disproportionately wind up in the intensive care unit. So everyone's very concerned.
We'll see what the picture looks like by next week, but I think anything's on the table at this point.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, Professor, political rallies. The president is going to host one in Tulsa next week. The campaign is asking people who go to sign a waiver saying if they catch coronavirus at this rally, they can't sue the campaign or the venue. What does that tell you?
HOTEZ: Well, I don't know the legal aspects of it, but I can tell you about the virus. I've had a conversation with the virus and it turns out the virus doesn't care if it's -- if you're a Republican or a Democrat or anything else. There's going to be risk anyplace where you have congregations of large numbers of individuals. This is not a time to be holding rallies of any type.
And then, of course, I'm a little worried about these very large gatherings through the conventions, like the Republican National Convention, which I think now is going to be in Jacksonville. If you look at the Kinsa heat map using that app based (INAUDIBLE) surveillance system, the county of Jacksonville, Duval County, is bright red. So unless that subsides, I don't see how you hold a convention under those types of circumstances.
CAMEROTA: Do you think that maybe the mayor or the governor should also have people sign waivers that are going to go, promising that if they get sick they won't use the emergency room, they won't show up at the hospital?
HOTEZ: You know, I don't know how you enforce something like that. I think the bottom line is if -- if you hold these types of rallies, people will get exposed, people will get sick, and that's the reality. I think, you know, we've got to have leadership at federal, state, and local levels to protect our population and to have good discussions with our public health leaders. We've got some good county, state public health epidemiologists throughout the country and they have to be consulted.
CAMEROTA: Yes.
Dr. Peter Hotez, thank you very much for giving us all of the information and the view from Texas this morning.
HOTEZ: Thanks so much.
CAMEROTA: So, Derek Chauvin is accused of murdering George Floyd, but he could still get a police pension payout. We have the new reporting on that, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:37:27]
CAMEROTA: CNN has learned that Derek Chauvin, the fired Minneapolis police officer accused of murdering George Floyd, could still be eligible to get his police pension even if he's convicted.
CNN's Lucy Kafanov is live in Minneapolis with details.
What it you learn, Lucy?
LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, that's right. Good morning.
Even if Derek Chauvin is convicted of killing George Floyd, he could be eligible for a salary benefit of more than a million dollars. Now, of course, he was fired quickly from the police department where he served since 2001. He was eventually charged with second degree murder. But he still stands to benefit from a pension partially funded by taxpayers that could stretch into over a million bucks.
And this boils down to state law. In some places if you're convicted of a felony you would have to forfeit your pension. That's unfortunately not the case. That's simply not the case here in Minnesota.
Now, this reporting is based -- has been done by my colleagues, Blake Ellis (ph) and Melanie Higgin (ph). They found that Chauvin would be eligible for annual payments in the ballpark of $50,000 a year starting at the age of 55. He's 44 years old right now. This was calculated by a CNN analysis that effectively looked at his tenure, payroll data from 2019, as well as Minneapolis Police Department's salary schedules. And that calculation showed that over a 30 year period he could get payments of more than $1.5 million. That doesn't even take into account, for example, cost of living increases.
Now, I should note that less than half of states in America have laws on the books that would require a police officer who was convicted of a felony to forfeit the salary. Less than half of states in America. And as we have these growing calls to defund the police, to divest that money into social services and other parts of city budgets, this could become a growing flash point.
John.
BERMAN: Yes, no doubt it will be a flash point.
All right, Lucy, thanks very much for being with us this morning.
U.S. stock futures up this morning as Wall Street tries to rebound from the worst day since March. This plunge, huge plunge, came amid concerns about a resurgence in coronavirus.
Joining me now, CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans, and CNN anchor and correspondent Julia Chatterley.
Romans, it was fascinating yesterday.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
BERMAN: The market seemed to realize, you know what, this pandemic is not over. The economic challenges are not over. The Fed chief doesn't think it's over. And maybe we should begin to take account of that.
ROMANS: A big old reality check. One economist this morning calling yesterday brutal and inevitable. I mean you've got the 2 million mark crossed for infections.
[06:40:03]
You've got hospitalizations rising in some of these states that have already reopened. Big concerns about big numbers of people dying from this virus as we head into the fall. And the stock market had been oblivious to this it looked like for many weeks. I mean some of these averages were up 40 percent from their March low.
So yesterday was a big selloff, a reality check that we're not out of this. A lot of economists are predicting a recovery starts to begin in the third quarter, but it will take time to recover from this. Millions of people are still out of work. Main street certainly wasn't feeling all that -- all that joy that Wall Street was over the past few weeks. So coming back to reality, I think, here.
BERMAN: One of the things that's been interesting, that Christine Romans has been pointing out, Julia, is that as confidence goes up, chances of new stimulus go down. As confidence goes down, chances of new stimulus go up. So all of a sudden the markets got nervous yesterday and in Washington they may get serious again about pumping more money into recovery.
JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: I think that's why what Jay Powell said this week was so important. He held the line here and said, nobody should be getting complacent. Don't mistake the optimism that we're seeing in the stock markets with so much cash from the Federal Bank -- from the Federal Reserve sloshing around here for what's going on in the underlying economy.
And if I just pick two stocks out of the market, because I think this really tells the story, and we've spoken about this before, Amazon is up 35 percent year-to-date. This is one of the real winners here. Then take a look at one of the banks, like JP Morgan. That's down 30 percent. And that reflects the risks for the real economy, for the pain, for individuals paying things like mortgages and credit cards. Even within the optimism in aggregate of these stock markets, the stories beneath them tell a very different story. And I think this is important too.
BERMAN: It's interesting, Christine, because Steve Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, in talking about the weapons that the United States has in dealing with the pandemic, seemed to draw a line.
Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVEN MNUCHIN, TREASURY SECRETARY: We can't shut down the economy again. I think we've learned that if you shut down the economy, you're going to create more damage. And not just economic damage, but there are other areas. And we've talked about this of medical problems and everything else that get put on hold.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: That might be a bit of a false (ph) choice, stay at home doesn't mean shut down the economy necessarily, Christine, but he does seem to be drawing a line.
ROMANS: You know, absolutely. And, look, the only tool that we really have that we know that works is our own behavior. And that behavior is staying home. That's really what works. And we know that that works. So he's declaring this, I think, for the benefit of the markets and market participants who don't want to see the economy shut down. But if you have another snap back wave, you could have consumers retrench, worker retrench, businesses retrench, and that might not be a choice that a government makes, it might be the choice that people make.
BERMAN: You could have a lot more people die as well.
ROMANS: Absolutely.
BERMAN: Christine Romans, Julia Chatterley, thanks so much for being with us.
America's top military officer breaking with President Trump, apologizing for being part of this controversial photo op. New details about the White House knew about this apology, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:47:39]
CAMEROTA: New this morning, CNN has learned that Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley did not give the White House a heads-up before releasing a video in which he admits it was a mistake to do this, what you're seeing on your screen, and to appear in this controversial photo op last week with President Trump.
CNN's Barbara Starr is live at the Pentagon with more.
What does this mean, Barbara?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Alisyn.
Our congressional team being told by two sources that Milley did not seek the White House's permission or warn them this was coming. He didn't have to, really. He can be an independent voice. He had already -- he was apologizing for appearing in that walk across Lafayette Park as -- because he felt it showed that he might have been involved in what turned out to be a political event. Hard to, you know, fathom that he would then go to the political side of the house to seek approval for an apology for all of that.
And this morning he is getting critical support from Senator Lindsey Graham, a key ally of President Trump. Senator Graham, in a statement saying, and I quote, I have nothing but deep admiration and total confidence in General Milley as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. I support his statement in both substance and spirit regarding the recent presidential visit to St. John's, the church. General Milley is a tremendous military leader who understands the long tradition of maintaining and apolitical, non-partisan military. And, of course, that was the object of General Milley's apology.
This morning, the Pentagon is beginning what they call an after action review, looking at the entire deployment of National Guard across cities in the United States where they were called to help out in this unrest situation. Defense Secretary Mark Esper ordering the review, wanting to get a clearer picture of everything that transpired.
And there's good reason because, still, so many Americans believe, even though there were no active duty troops on the street, this turned out to be a militarized operation.
Alisyn. CAMEROTA: And, Barbara, just remarkable to hear him say out loud, you know, I made a mistake, I shouldn't have done this, I'm paraphrasing, but a public apology seems to be out of favor in some quarters and so it was just remarkable to hear all of that from him.
Thank you very much.
STARR: Sure.
CAMEROTA: So one NFL coach says he regrets not signing Colin Kaepernick and at least one other team is interested in bringing him back.
[06:50:07]
So we have all the details in the "Bleacher Report," next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: So will Colin Kaepernick finally get a job back in the NFL this season? According to one head coach, he is drawing some interest.
Andy Scholes with more now in the "Bleacher Report."
This would be big, Andy.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Certainly would, John.
And, you know, Colin Kaepernick hasn't played in the NFL since that 2016 season, which is when he began kneeling to protest social injustice and police brutality.
[06:55:01]
Now, in 2017, Seahawks Head Coach Pete Carroll says they almost signed Kaepernick and he now regrets not doing so. Carroll says his team is set for now, but another team did give him a call about Kaepernick.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETE CARROLL, SEATTLE SEAHAWKS HEAD COACH: After all of the time that, you know, the years that have passed, I never received a phone call about -- about him. I never talked to another head coach about it. I never talked to anybody about it. Until today. I got a phone call today. I'm not (ph) going to tell you who it was. I got a phone call today in asking and inquiring about the situation. So I know, you know, somebody's interested.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: All right, well, we'll have to wait and see.
Now, one week after Roger Goodell pledged to support players fighting for social injustice, the league says it is going to donate $250 million over the next 10 years to fight systemic racism. The league says the money is going to go towards addressing key issues like criminal justice reform and educational advancements.
All right, the PGA tour, meanwhile, returning yesterday for the first time since March. The 8:46 a.m. tee time was left open. At the time, the entire field in Texas stopped to stop play and they bowed their heads in a moment of silence to honor George Floyd, 8 minutes and 46 seconds representing the amount of time Officer Chauvin kneeled on Floyd's neck, killing him.
And, Alisyn, there is going to be that same moment of silence every single round of this tournament at the same time, 8:46, to pay respect to George Floyd.
CAMEROTA: I mean when you're silent for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, you realize how long 8 minutes and 46 seconds is.
Andy, thank you very much.
So Hollywood is responding to the nationwide calls for reforming police. Two hit reality shows were canceled this week and TV police dramas, even the popular kids show "Paw Patrol" are under new scrutiny.
CNN's Tom Foreman has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): From the "Law and Order" franchise, to "NCIS," to "Blue Bloods," police dramas as iconic, hugely popular and now under intense fire from activists who say these shows far too readily portray cops as good and trustworthy, while undermining real life claims of systemic racism and abuse.
RASHAD ROBINSON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, COLOR OF CHANGE: These shows, for years, have normalizing injustice.
FOREMAN: Rashad Robinson is the executive director of Color of Change, an activist group which is leading the charge. And he points out that TV dramas routinely buy into the trope of the bad apple cop but almost never go further.
ROBINSON: They oftentimes show a world where black and brown people exist, but racism and particularly structural racism doesn't exist at all.
FOREMAN: Reality shows have so far been the easiest targets. "Cops" has been canceled after three decades of wild success.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sit down. Sit down.
FOREMAN: And furious complaints about glorification of police violence. Now, "Live PD" has also been pulled off the air to the surprise and dismay of the host.
DAN ABRAMS, HOST, "LIVE PD": I'm disappointed, frustrated. I fought very hard to try to keep the show on the air. I thought there was a way to have a national discussion on the show about policing. FOREMAN: Not likely according to Color of Change, which says crime
television encourages the public to accept the norms of over-policing and excessive force and reject reform while supporting the exact behavior that destroys the lives of black people.. And in the highly popular and lucrative world of police shows, they suggest that goes all the way down to kids programs like "Paw Patrol."
MARISKA HARGITAY, ACTRESS, "LAW AND ORDER SVU": I can't trust you right now.
FOREMAN: But do these made-up stories really make a difference? Consider this, a 2015 study found viewers of crime dramas are more likely to believe the police are successful at lowering crime, use force only when necessary, and that misconduct does not typically lead to false confessions.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOREMAN: What's more, that study found when TV cops use excessive force or violate civil rights, and they do that a lot, it is portrayed by a wide margin as not merely effective, but also justified.
John. Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: Tom, I'll take it. Thank you very much.
NEW DAY continues right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After protesting against police brutality, the Trump administration is preparing an executive order on police reform.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You always have a bad apple. No matter where you go, you have bad apples. And I can tell you, there are not too many of them in the police department.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any serious person who wants to be honest about these issues understands that there is systemic racism not only in police institutions, but in most of our American institutions.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am more concerned about Covid-19 in South Carolina than I have ever been before.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: By October 1, they now project that nearly 170,000 Americans will be dead, killed by Covid.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[07:00:03]
ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.
CAMEROTA: We want to welcome our viewers.
END
