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Protesters and Police Clash Outside White House; Impact on Kentucky's Primary; Baseball May Return. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired June 23, 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]

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Appears to do so. I mean you can choose the side of Bull Connor (ph), Lester Maddox (ph) and George Wallace if you want to. But even Richard Petty and Bubba Wallace and -- I mean that just feels good to say. Oh, and don't forget, John, Taylor Swift, are all moving the country into a more positive direction. And the president of the United States can either get on this train and be a unifier or not.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Alexi, you haven't been on our program for the past week, but Bakari is very high on Taylor Swift right now and her role -- her role on all of this.

ALEXI MCCAMMOND, POLITICAL REPORTER, "AXIOS": I mean we can laugh at that, and I think it is funny, but it is another example, Bakari, of the buy-in from white folks in this moment to your point about it being different.

SELLERS: That's right.

MCCAMMOND: I mean that's what's crazy. The Nascar rally was another example of that. Like, there is so much buy-in from so many types of people who previously were so afraid to say anything, and I'm just heartened that people are afraid to speak out against racism, which like, you know, we shouldn't be afraid to speak out against that.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Something else the president has done over the last 24 hours, and I really don't think it's completely disconnected, Bakari, is to really lean into these false claims about voting and mail-in voting, and suggesting that the election in November, four months away, will be rigged. Why? Why do you think he's doing this? It's kind of a pregame prebuttal here.

SELLERS: Yes, and I -- I think what we're seeing is a president -- is a president who sees his poll numbers dropping precipitously. And so he's trying to use every tool he has in the toolbox to reshape the narrative. He's going to give his base red meat, as we've been seeing. He's going to have these false claims about mail-in balloting, because we do know two people who vote via mail-in ballot -- well, three, Kaleigh McEneny, Mike Pence and Donald Trump all use mail-in ballots, right? And so it's a bit ironic that he's now talking about the fraud in this process. But he is going to do absolutely everything he can, using all of the

power of the executive branch of government. And that's why Democrats need to be cautious, that's why, you know, everyone needs to be cautious about counting -- counting your proverbial chickens before they hatch.

Joe Biden hasn't won anything. And Donald Trump is going to do absolutely everything in his power, everything that he has under the auspices of the executive branch, to make sure that doesn't happen. This misinformation is just one. And don't -- we haven't even gotten to the point of foreign interference or who he may solicit to help him in this race as we go down the road.

CAMEROTA: Well, I mean, we have gotten to some of it. We have seen some examples of it, and it's in John Bolton's book, and of course, he was impeached.

Alexi, Bakari, thank you both very much. Great to talk to you this morning.

BERMAN: And swifties (ph) everywhere.

SELLERS: There you go.

MCCAMMOND: Thank you.

BERMAN: Health officials this morning are growing more concerned about this new trend of young people fueling the spread of coronavirus. We're going to discuss, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:36:53]

CAMEROTA: This morning, half of the states in the U.S. are seeing increases in new coronavirus cases. And there's another interesting development this morning, the growing amount of young people testing positive. New data from the CDC shows that more than 50 percent of the new cases are people under the age of 50.

Joining us now is William Haseltine. He's the chair and president of ACCESS Health International. He's also the author of a new online book. It's available today. And it's called "A Family Guide to Covid: Questions and Answers for Parents, Grandparents, and Children."

Mr. Haseltine, great to see you. I look forward to talking about your book in a second.

But, first, let's just get the status report of where we are. So, 25 -- half of the country -- 25 states are seeing a spike in cases this morning. And that development -- let's just put it up on the screen one more time -- of the age distribution. That now we are seeing more young people, at least 50 percent, under the age of 50 than over. And what are we to make of that?

WILLIAM HASELTINE, CHAIR AND PRESIDENT, ACCESS HEALTH INTERNATIONAL: Well, first of all, we know that young people need to get out. It's -- I would call it -- let's call it part of the biological imperative of being young. You need to be with your peers. Men need to be with women and women need to be with men. It is natural.

And, by the way, the virus is counting on that. We know that viruses decode who we are and how we behave.

But there's something that I think most of those young people don't realize, and that is, they may be infected, and they think they're invulnerable. Young people think they're invulnerable. But we now know from new studies, when you have a CAT scan, of those people who are asymptomatic, up to 60 percent of them have lung damage, serious lung damage. It's called ground glass opacity. Sixty percent in one study had one lung affected, and 30 percent had both lungs infected. And they may not feel it today, but as they get older, they may have permanent damage from the asymptomatic infection.

So, not only are they putting their families at risk by getting infected and the people they are with infected, but they're damaging their own health. And I don't think -- that's -- that's new. People don't know that yet. They don't think that they're hurting themselves, so they can behave as they want, but they can't.

CAMEROTA: Yes, there's no way to spin ground glass opacity as something that sounds positive.

But on the flip side, in terms of young people, I hear you. I mean I hear that it's dangerous for young people to get infected because of the ripple effect and to their own health long term.

HASELTINE: Right.

CAMEROTA: But in -- since we don't have a vaccine yet, is there something to be said for young people and herd immunity at the moment?

HASELTINE: Well, you know, I call this virus the get it and then your body forgets it. This is not the standard virus that you're going to get herd immunity. There is no evidence of herd immunity for coronaviruses. It does not exist. Every year the same four coronaviruses come back to give us colds. And they give -- if you have one of those coronaviruses, it can cause the exact same disease a year later.

[06:40:07]

And we now know from studies that you can just watch immunity fade over a two-month period. It doesn't disappear, but it fades in that short a period. So there isn't such a thing as herd immunity. It's a fantasy. It happens for some viruses. It doesn't look like it's going to happen for this one.

CAMEROTA: So that's really good information for people to hear today, that young people need to wear masks, young people need to isolate --

HASELTINE: Right.

CAMEROTA: Socially distance and stay out of crowds as much as they possibly can, even though, of course --

HASELTINE: Right.

CAMEROTA: We're coming up to July 4th.

And this is part of all of this is why you wanted to write your book because you're getting so many questions from all generations --

HASELTINE: Right.

CAMEROTA: And from families.

Here's one. I mean this is one of the most burning questions that my family asks all the time. Here it is. When can I start to spend time with my grandchildren again?

HASELTINE: Absolutely.

CAMEROTA: And you have that in your book. And what is the answer?

HASELTINE: The answer is, you have to be aware of your environment. Now we have to change the way we think about our lives. We have to be really aware of risk.

Now, if you're going to see your grandchildren, which I am dying to see. I haven't seen them for three months. That you have to be in a situation where the number of people infected in your area I would say is less than ten a day. In most cities, my city, it's more like 100 a day. It's still not safe. There are people -- and you actually have to measure the -- multiply the number of people infected in any one day by ten to get the number of people in your environment.

So if there are 1,000 people a day infected in your city or your state, there are 10,000 people infected. In Florida, there are more like 50,000 people spreading the virus. So, there it's not so safe.

As soon as the number drops to a very low level, you can be confident, or reasonably confident, that you're going to be safe to see your grandchildren.

So, if you were in, let's say, Seoul, Korea, or you were in New Zealand, or you were in Australia, fine, see your grandchildren. If you're in a place like North Dakota, where there are very few -- part of North Dakota, very few cases, see your grandchildren. We're not going to stop our lives, but we have to live differently.

And that's what I tried to do in this book. I tried to ask the questions that kids are going to ask their parents, parents are going to ask themselves, and grandparents, who are hurting, and grandchildren -- I'll tell you a story. My five-year-old grandson, who's now isolated differently, said, I can't fly to see you, but can I dig a tunnel? Can I dig a tunnel to come to see you? They want to see us and we want to see them. So those are the kinds of things that I think, if people are aware and do reasonable things, we can get back to a normal economy, pretty normal economy. We lived many, many years before we had vaccines or drugs,

antibiotics. We were more careful then. You know, when I was a kid and they said, there's going to be, you know, there's polio around, we couldn't go out with more than three kids. We couldn't go to a swimming pool, even though it was boiling hot where I grew up in the desert. We couldn't go to a cool movie theater to see "Hopalong Cassidy." We had to be isolated. And that's how we lived, with awareness. Live with awareness.

CAMEROTA: That's really interesting context, and we do hope that your five-year-old grandson can find a way, tunneling or otherwise, to see you -- to see you soon.

HASELTINE: (INAUDIBLE).

CAMEROTA: The book again is called "A Family Guide to Covid." Really interesting information and questions and answers in there.

William Haseltine, thank you very much. Great to have you on.

HASELTINE: You're welcome. Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Polls are open in Kentucky, where the Democratic primary is underway. What impact will recent protests over Breonna Taylor's death have on this race? So, we have a live report from Louisville, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:48:02]

BERMAN: Happening now, polls opening in New York and Kentucky for Democratic primary elections. Here in New York, longtime Congressman Eliot Engel being challenged by progressive candidate Jamaal Bowman. And in Kentucky, Amy McGrath and Charles Booker are vying to take on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in November. That state has been roiled by the police killing of Breonna Taylor.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny live in Louisville with the latest here.

And these elections just look so different than we would have predicted five months ago, Jeff.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: John, good morning.

There was no question about that. I mean the pandemic has delayed this primary here in Kentucky by more than a month, and protests over racial justice and police brutality have changed the politics dramatically, particularly in this Senate race here in Kentucky. Democrats have had this -- had their eye on this for so long, trying to unseat Mitch McConnell, as he seeks a seventh term. Suddenly, though, this race has changed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STATE REP. CHARLES BOOKER (D), SENATE CANDIDATE, KENTUCKY: This is happening in Kentucky right now! We are in a moment, y'all. We are in a moment.

ZELENY (voice over): A sleepy Senate primary race suddenly electrified in Kentucky.

BOOKER: This time has to be different, for my cousins, for my little ones, for y'all. This has to be different for Breonna, for Mr. McAtee, for everybody that's a hashtag.

ZELENY: A national reckoning on racism and police brutality is resonating loudly here, where Louisville police killed 26-year-old Breonna Taylor, an EMT, in March, and David McAtee, the owner of a barbecue restaurant in June.

Weeks of protests have injected fresh uncertainty into the campaign over who Democrats will choose in today's election to take on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in November.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's Kentucky's best chance to move on from Mitch McConnell.

ZELENY: Amy McGrath, a former Marine pilot, is the hand-picked choice of party leaders in Washington. Her primary victory was seen as a foregone conclusion, but State Representative Charles Booker is now riding a wave of momentum.

[06:50:01]

BOOKER: From the hood to the holler! From the hood to the holler!

ZELENY (on camera): You've said that you are campaigning from the hood to the holler. Explain that.

BOOKER: Well, I'm trying to build a movement here by speaking to our common bonds. And there's a reality that there are so many similarities in the hood that you would see in the -- in places in the hollers of eastern Kentucky and in the mountains, that if we realize our common bonds, we can change the world.

ZELENY (voice over): With a political awakening underway, McGrath has struggled to find her footing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have you been on the ground in Louisville with the protesters the last three days or in Lexington or elsewhere, Ms. McGrath?

AMY MCGRATH: I have not.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And why?

MCGRATH: Well, I've been with my family and I've had some family things going on this past weekend, but I've been following the news and, you know, and watching.

ZELENY: Booker turned that moment into a TV ad. While she's dramatically outspending him, $14 million to his $1 million on advertising alone, the closing momentum is on his side. The race is playing out here in Trump country, where the president won

the state four years ago by nearly 30 points.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Trump and Mitch McConnell, delivering for Kentucky.

ZELENY: From the streets of Louisville, to small towns like Campbellsville, Booker is making the case for progressive change. His policies closely align with Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, both of whom have endorsed him.

BOOKER: We've got to be that change. We've got to bend that arc.

ZELENY (on camera): Do you wonder if he's too progressive for Kentucky?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sometimes I think about that, but it's time for a change. Everything is evolving, man.

ZELENY (voice over): A more urgent test is the mechanics of voting. While more than 500,000 have voted early or absentee, only one polling place is open today in Louisville, with precincts consolidated because of coronavirus.

BOOKER: It's been hard to vote in Kentucky for a lot of us for a long time. And what we're seeing now is really a continuation of that. It's just naturally going to disenfranchise people. And that is a concern.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZELENY: Now, the mechanics of voting certainly at play here in Kentucky. Normally, there would be some 3,700 polling places across the state. Today, only 170.

But, John, these are no ordinary polling places. Take a look at this. We are standing inside the Kentucky Exposition Center, where the polls open at 6:00 a.m., and there have, you know, been a steady stream of voters coming in. And what they do is they find their precincts. There are some 527 precincts right in this very building. And then they come across and they vote at these polling places, more than 300 of these little stations here you can see behind me. And then they scan their ballot.

So, election officials designed this to allow a lot of voters to come. But more than half of voters they believe have already casted their ballots absentee. And we should point out, this is a plan that was reached by the Democratic governor and the Republican secretary of state.

So, John, we will see if Kentucky repeats the errors of Georgia and Wisconsin. Election officials here tell me they believe that they have it under control because most of the voters have voted absentee, but we'll see as this day progresses.

John.

BERMAN: Really interesting pictures behind you, Jeff. You have to get creative in this day and age to get people out to vote.

ZELENY: Yes.

BERMAN: Appreciate it.

So, it looks like we might have a baseball season after all. How many games? When will it start? Is it all just too late after all that fighting? Details in the "Bleacher Report," next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:57:40]

CAMEROTA: Even though the players and owners never agreed on a deal, we are going to have a baseball season.

Andy Scholes is here to explain in the "Bleacher Report."

How's this work, Andy?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, you know, it's funny that this entire time it seems like the owners and players have agreed only on one thing, and that that -- this negotiations has been a disaster for the sport. Commissioner Rob Manfred now going to implement a schedule, but that means no expanded postseason. We're going to only have ten teams, like normal. That also means that we're likely not going to see players miced (ph) up to try to make these empty-stadium games more entertaining.

A source familiar with the talks tells CNN that the league is aiming for a 60-game regular season, provided that the players consent to the health and safety protocols, that they can report to their team's city by July 1st.

Reds' Trevor Bauer sounding off on how these negotiations went, tweeting, it's absolutely death for this industry to keep acting as it has been. Both sides. We're driving the bus straight off a cliff. How is this good for anyone involved? Covid-19 already presented a lose- lose-lose situation, and we've somehow found a way to make it worse. Incredible.

A lot of fans feel that way.

All right, the National Women's Soccer League, meanwhile, suffering a setback in its return to action. The Orlando Pride announcing it is pulling out of the upcoming tournament in Utah because six players and four staff members have tested positive for Covid-19. The NWSL is set to be the first pro team sports league to resume play in the U.S. starting on Saturday.

And, Alisyn, this really is every professional league's nightmare. As you resume play or as you are playing a team has to shut down because so many of its players tested positive.

CAMEROTA: Understood. And it is a distinct possibility at the moment.

Andy, thank you very much.

NEW DAY continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The more the virus spreads, the more everybody is vulnerable. We've really got to find a way to curtail the virus spread.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Record-high hospitalizations right now in Arizona, the Carolinas, and Texas.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Total number of cases are going up in the state of California. Wear your masks. Practice physical distancing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These young people who think they're getting off scot-free, they are affected, and it will cause them harm.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The president's going ahead with that event for young voters in Arizona.

[07:00:01]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The risk here is exacerbating this pandemic. Arizona, over the weekend, recorded essentially record new cases.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

END