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New Day

Trump Stokes Racial Tensions; Newcomer Beats Trump Pick in North Carolina; Seattle's Mayor to Dismantle Autonomous Zone; EU Considers Banning American Travelers; Mexico's Coronavirus Crisis Worsens. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired June 24, 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]

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: We have seen over the last couple of years is a White House enabled by Republicans in Congress and a media structure that supports them.

That actively promotes division. And considers some people in this country more real as Americans than others.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Now, I am sure there are people out there who will agree with the former president and disagree. The fact, though, as we sit here this morning, Mayor, and let me just tell people, we don't have a graphic bill (ph) for it. "The New York Times" poll that came out just moments ago has a 14-point spread. Joe Biden is leading President Trump today in "The New York Times" poll 50 percent to 36 percent. It's the same spread that we showed in the CNN poll a couple of weeks ago where the president's campaign tried to sue or filed a lawsuit against CNN. It just proves how ridiculous that was. The Fox poll had it at 12 percent.

So, again, there is an indication that the choices the president is making and the way he's behaving and maybe just the way he is isn't matching with what the electorate wants today.

MITCH LANDRIEU (D), FORMER MAYOR OF NEW ORLEANS: Well, I think there's no doubt that there are indications that that's true. And that's a very good thing.

First of all, what President Obama said just now was not an opinion, it is in -- it is a fact. There is a clear strategy that the White House has used that senators and Congress have allowed the president to get away with, to allow him to abuse his power to divide the country. That's the only pitch that he has. It's the only one that he can throw.

He's been given innumerable opportunities to bring the country together in -- in our darkest hour and what he's decided to do, because he thinks that's what's going to help him win. What he did not bank on, unfortunately, was having enough faith in the American public to know that we don't -- we're not going to buy that anymore. Having said that, at the end of the day, you have got to go to the

polls to vote. The only -- the only poll that counts is on election day. And this election's not going to be easy to win. America has been susceptible to this kind of rhetoric in the past. But we are clear now who he is. Now we've got to figure out who we are. And I think Americans are going to go to the polls and reject the president's dive toward division, trying to take us down a rabbit hole that we just don't want to go down anymore.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Mitch Landrieu, Errol Louis, we really appreciate both of your thoughts on this.

Thank you.

LANDRIEU: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Up next, two longtime Democrats who chair powerful House committees in the fight of their political lives. And a major upset in North Carolina. A 24-year-old political newcomer beating out a Trump's favorite. So we break down last night's primary results for you, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:36:42]

BERMAN: All right, breaking overnight, a major primary upset in North Carolina. Twenty-four-year-old Madison Cawthorn winning the Republican primary runoff for a congressional seat there. Chief of Staff Mark Meadows' seat. The political newcomer defeated the candidate endorsed by President Trump. One other thing I'll note here, he looks exactly like Tom Brady, which is more proof that Tom Brady never loses.

CNN's Mark Zeleny has more on this race and other key races we've seen across the country.

Jeff looks like he's having a hard time hearing me.

Jeff Zeleny, are you there?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: I can hear you.

BERMAN: Excellent, Jeff.

ZELENY: I can't hear programming.

BERMAN: I was talking about what happened in North Carolina. You have that. And also some of these other big races we're watching around the country.

ZELENY: I -- I can hear you guys, I can't hear programming. I can just hear myself.

BERMAN: Jeff Zeleny hearing himself. It's a good conversation to have. We will have it coming up, because we are getting some of the numbers in, although not all of the numbers because so many mail-in ballots with the pandemic going on. We're going to get Jeff Zeleny up in a second.

Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: One of the three Kentucky police officers involved in Breonna Taylor's shooting death has been fired. Louisville's police chief says Detective Brett Hankison violated the department's use of deadly force by wantonly and blindly shooting into Taylor's apartment while executing a no-knock drug raid in March. Taylor, a 26-year-old EMT, died after being shot eight times. No drugs were found. No charges have been brought against any of the officers who were involved.

BERMAN: All right, let's go back. We've got Jeff Zeleny back with the miracle of television right now.

Jeff, we're talking about the primary results we've seen so far from last night.

ZELENY: Hey, John, good morning.

Big results. In North Carolina, that is what so many Republicans are talking about this morning. A surprise win in a special election there in North Carolina.

This was not on the radar of many people except it was on the radar of President Trump. He endorsed a candidate to replace his chief of staff, Mark Meadows, who, of course, resigned his seat in North Carolina to work in the White House. He endorsed a candidate whose name is Linda Bennett.

Well, she was defeated by a 24-year-old from North Carolina named Madison Cawthorn. And you have to be, of course, 25 to serve in the House, but he will turn 25 in August, so he will go on to run in the general election this fall. And he could be the youngest serving member of Congress if he wins that election in the fall.

And, look, he said, this is not a referendum on President Trump, despite the fact that President Trump was campaigning for his opponent. He says he supports the president.

And, of course, this is a very conservative stretch of North Carolina. So he's expected to win in the fall. But certainly a head turner there last night in North Carolina, John.

BERMAN: So what other races at this point have been called? And I'll note you're standing in Kentucky for a big race we're watching that has not been called.

ZELENY: Exactly. We are in Kentucky, of course. There's probably not a more important Senate race than the one for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. He easily won his primary here last night in Kentucky. Not a surprise at all. But he does not know who he will face in the general election here. A very tough campaign between Amy McGrath, who was the hands on favorite -- the hand-picked favorite to take him on, but had really surprising surging campaign from a young state representative here named Charles Booker.

[06:40:03]

We are not going to know the results of that race until next week or so. It is how voting in the age of a pandemic is going to be. Patience is required because of absentee and mail-in ballots. So many people voted by absentee, election officials say they're going to take their time to count them. So Mitch McConnell is not going to know who he is going to face until next week.

But certainly an interesting day here of voting. Kentucky did not see the problems that Georgia saw just a couple of weeks ago, but there was some commotion at the final moments here in Louisville where there was only one polling place across this entire city. A judge actually stepped in and extended the hours of voting about 30 minutes so all of those people banging on the doors were allowed in.

BERMAN: Yes.

ZELENY: But, again, Mitch McConnell will not find out who he's facing until next week.

But AOC, of course, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, she did win her race last night. So we have sort of a book end here of young and old. But she has been the youngest member of the House, John. But if Madison Cawthorn (ph) wins in November, she will no longer hold that title.

BERMAN: Jeff, very quickly, a couple other key New York races. Powerful chairs of committees could be in trouble.

ZELENY: They could be in trouble, John. And this is a sign of the establishment versus new coming candidates. The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr. Eliot Engel, he is facing a very, very tough race from a Bronx middle school principal, Jamaal Bowman. And Mr. Engel is in the fight of his political life. Democrats believe he could, indeed, lose this race when the final results come in. We will watch and see those.

But also Carolyn Maloney, the chairwoman of the House Oversight Committee, also in a tough race. So, John, a sense of establishment figures have been around a long time didn't fare very well. But here in Kentucky, Mitch McConnell, of course, did.

BERMAN: A wave of change. At least sign of a wave of change in both parties in some ways across the country.

ZELENY: Indeed.

BERMAN: Jeff Zeleny, great to have you with us. Thanks so much for working through the technical issues.

ZELENY: You bet.

BERMAN: Alisyn. CAMEROTA: New questions about how and when the Seattle protest zone, known as the CHOP, will be broken up. Seattle's mayor has vowed to phase it out and at least four shootings have occurred in the area since the weekend.

CNN's Dan Simon is live in Seattle with more.

What's the status, Dan?

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, hi, Alisyn.

It is a different protest than what it was. During the day you don't have the throngs of people, nor the festival-like atmosphere in terms of what you had before. It is much more subdued. The violence in terms of what we have seen, four shootings since Saturday, seems to be keeping people away. And it has also made the city's posture now untenable. They can't continue to have the lawlessness at night in terms of what we have been seeing.

The police department also wants to reclaim the station behind me. Ultimately, how this is going to occur remains unclear. The mayor said that she doesn't want to have police force these protesters out. She says she wants community organizers to do so.

Police, when they responded to the shootings over the weekend, they were met, they say, by a hostile crowd and they were unable to reach the victims and the medics were not allowed in as well. Police also saying that there have been reports of assault, rape, and other crimes occurring at night, and that is why they want this occupation ultimately to end. But, ultimately, how that is going to occur really remains unclear.

Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Dan, thank you very much for the update.

So the European Union is now considering banning American travelers. What it says about how the U.S. is containing the pandemic or not. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:47:24]

CAMEROTA: The European Union is considering a ban on travelers from the U.S. over the coronavirus failures. The EU has been far more successful in suppressing coronavirus than America has. The U.S. is outpacing the world in terms of the growth of the outbreak with 25 percent of total cases and deaths but just 4 percent of the global population.

CNN's Richard Quest joins us now.

So, Richard, the tables have really turned.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR AT LARGE: Yes, it's embarrassing for the United States, but the government shouldn't be surprised by this. In the last hour you've been talking to experts in Texas that have been pointing out just how the numbers in the United States are seemingly rising once again out of control. And while the EU has done is put together a list of countries where the rate is as good or better than the EU and they will be allowed. If the rate of growth or the trend of -- a 14-day trend is worse than the EU, then you won't be allowed into the European Union. And so that means countries, for example, like Russia, like Brazil, and, yes, like the United States will face an indefinite ban reviewed every two weeks until they meet the same standards and levels as the EU.

They've been quite open about this, the EU. They're not messing around. They recognize that their hard work will not be undone by allowing other people in.

CAMEROTA: Also some element of retaliation because the U.S. did this to the EU back when the coronavirus outbreak began?

QUEST: There's some people suggesting that there's a bit of tit for tat, but the EU has grounded this firmly in the science. I'm sure there's an element of (INAUDIBLE) at the U.S. embarrassment as a result of this. But you have to bear in mind, world leaders are looking at the United States and saying, what on earth is going on when the leader of that country is doing exactly the opposite of what the experts say should be done. In that scenario, Alisyn, it's not surprising that the U.S. travelers will be banned.

CAMEROTA: Richard, is there any possibility that any country in the EU would break ranks and want American dollars and still allow tourists to come in?

QUEST: Oh, I'm sure they want it desperately, when you think of the number of tourists that love to visit Europe, but they won't break ranks. I'd be very, very surprised. For the simple reason, firstly, countries like Hungary, for example, might not have any direct flights from the U.S., so passengers would have to go through another country.

[06:50:08]

And that would really create the problem. Because if you allowed American tourists in, the EU would require you to have internal borders with the rest of the union. And the one thing the EU is desperate to reestablish is the travel-free single market. So, no, very surprised. It won't happen. I don't think anyone will break ranks.

CAMEROTA: Richard Quest, thank you very much for the reporting this morning.

So, doctors in Mexico are baffled by the birth of triplets who have tested positive for Covid-19, though neither of their parents did. A live report from Mexico City, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: New this morning, Mexico just reported more than 6,000 new cases of coronavirus, breaking records almost daily there.

CNN's Matt Rivers is live in Mexico City with the very latest.

[06:55:01]

Matt.

MATT RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John.

And just over the last three days, Mexico has reported more than 2,500 deaths due to Covid-19. It just shows you how serious the outbreak here is and it's why so many people in Mexico are nervous about the fact that the economy is reopening.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RIVERS: Once he gears up, Juan Carlos Cruz Gonzalez doesn't take off his equipment at the crematorium where he works housed in the public cemetery. There's no downtime between bodies.

Honestly, this epidemic hasn't ended, he says. It's still going on every day.

The furnaces didn't stop firing in the hours we were there, but they couldn't keep up. Some families who brought loved ones had to wait hours for them to be cremated. It's a morbid illustration that Mexico's epidemic is far from over.

And the numbers back it up. This chart shows the daily trend of new cases of the coronavirus in Mexico. It's not hard to see that things are only getting worse.

So is reopening the economy dangerous, we ask?

Yes, Juan Carlos says, it is still too early to go back to normal.

But Mexico's president disagrees. He says, we have to go back out, little by little, carefully, to exercise our freedom.

Mexico's economy is in dire straits and Lopez Obrador knows it, so he has backed a phased reopening plan that for most of the country started June 1st, sending hundreds of thousands back to work across different industries. And he has plenty of support.

And Mexico City's massive Centrale (ph) Avasto (ph) wholesale market, vendor Rodolfo Machorro sales have dropped 70 percent since the outbreak began.

We want everyone to go back to normal, he says.

Months of quarantine, it's too much. It's a very common sentiment here and amongst the millions of Mexicans who have lost their jobs recently.

If I don't go out to work, who will feed my family? That's why we have to come here. But the market itself reinforces the high cost of reopening. Officials

say more than 600 people that work here have tested positive for the coronavirus since April.

Thirty percent of me wants to reopen and 70 percent doesn't, says this vendor. It's necessary, but people aren't being safe enough.

Mexico's death toll has more than doubled in just the last three weeks. A model from MIT predicts it could pass 50,000 by early August. And back inside the crematorium, that death toll becomes real. Of the five bodies we saw brought in, four were likely Covid-19-related deaths.

Those that work here see it, he says. We know this is not over.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RIVERS: And there's still so much about this virus that we don't know. For example, just yesterday, the Mexican state of San Luis Potosi, doctors announced the birth of a set of premature triplets who all tested positive for Covid-19, but neither of their parents did. Doctors are not sure how they got the virus. They're investigating several different sources of contagion. Thankfully, the infants are all in stable condition.

But, John, it's just further proof that health experts still have so much to learn about this disease even as economies are reopening.

BERMAN: Yes, that's obviously just odd and we've got to find out more about that, Matt. But the trend lines we're seeing in Mexico and, frankly, a lot of other countries in the region so troubling. And it's just not clear to me what will turn it around.

Matt, thanks so much for that report.

NEW DAY continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've all done the best that we can do to tackle this virus. And the reality is, it brought this nation to its knees.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The coronavirus is serious, it's spreading.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to continue to tell people to stay home if their symptomatic and encourage social distancing and try to contain the situation.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE: None of us have ever been told to slow down testing. In fact, we will be doing more testing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You see Texas, Arizona, Florida, cases exploding. The increase in cases is not from more testing, it's from more disease. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Without everyone aligning behind doing the right

thing, we are in real danger of slipping back to a worse situation than we were in several months ago.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

CAMEROTA: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY.

And this morning, more than half of the states across the country are reporting a surge in coronavirus cases. Here's what the map looks like this morning. Seven states are reporting a record number of hospitalizations, including Texas, where the Republican governor is now urging residents to stay home.

The nation's top health officials say they see a disturbing surge that is not under control.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE: We're now seeing a disturbing surge of infections.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As we get to the fall, we're going to have influenza and Covid at the same time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some of the biggest limitations, and I know everyone is working on this, is the national data infrastructure that we need.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have an access to information issue.

FAUCI: Right now, the next couple of weeks are going to be critical.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[07:00:02]

CAMEROTA: The European Union, which has been far more successful in containing the virus, is considering banning Americans from traveling there.

END