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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Record Number of Single-Day Coronavirus Deaths In California, Texas, And Florida; Merkel: Populism And Denial Are No Way To Battle Coronavirus; Seoul Mayor Found Dead After Secretary Alleges Sexual Misconduct. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired July 10, 2020 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[05:31:28]
LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: Grim new numbers this morning on coronavirus cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. Will the U.S. states be forced to pause on reopening plans or even shut down all over again?
Good morning, this is EARLY START. I'm Laura Jarrett. Happy Friday.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Happy Friday, I'm Christine Romans. It is 31 minutes past the hour.
And we begin this morning with the struggle to contain coronavirus outbreaks in the U.S. It now has Dr. Anthony Fauci talking about states shutting down again or holding off on reopening.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: I would hope we don't have to resort to a shutdown. I think that would be something that is obviously an extreme. I think it would not be viewed very favorably even by the states and the cities involved.
So rather than think in terms of reverting back down to a complete shutdown, I would think we need to get the states pausing in their opening process.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Here's why. Another single-day record of more than 63,000 new cases in the U.S. with new daily records for deaths set in at least three states.
Our coverage begins with CNN's Erica Hill.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MAYOR FRANCIS SUAREZ (R), MIAMI: We need contact tracers in our community immediately. ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR AND NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The mayor of Miami blasting the Florida Department of Health Thursday, the same day his state posted a daily high for Covid-related deaths.
SUAREZ: We have to make very serious decisions, very tough decisions that affect many, many people -- their livelihoods -- and we can't make that in the absence of information.
HILL (voice-over): According to the mayor, the health department was able to trace 92 percent of cases on June 15th. By July eighth, that number had plummeted to just 17 percent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now -- I mean, this should keep people awake at night.
HILL (voice-over): Two hundred fifty tracers will now be sent to Miami-Dade County.
Testing also a major concern -- long lines and an even longer wait for results.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have likely eight to 10 more times people getting the cases every day than can get tested. So this is both a failure of containment, it's a failure of the tests -- and, of course, it's a failure to tell the truth.
HILL (voice-over): The reality, cases are surging. Thirty-three states moving in the wrong direction. Arizona has added more cases per capita in the past week than any other country.
ROSS GOLDBERG, PRESIDENT, ARIZONA MEDICAL ASSOCIATION: We all hoped for a flattening and a stabilization. We haven't seen it yet.
HILL (voice-over): And it's not just hotspots like Florida and Arizona. In Kentucky, new cases jumped 40 percent in the last week. In Oklahoma, they're up 45 percent.
FAUCI: Any state that is having a serious problem, that state should seriously look at shutting down.
HILL (voice-over): Hospitalizations rising in nearly a dozen states. Forty-eight ICUs in Florida are out of beds. Another 52 have less than 10 percent available.
Texas ordering more counties to suspend elective surgeries.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's no immediate fix to this. We are going to have to really put in the work to get ahead of this epidemic.
HILL (voice-over): California announcing a new daily high for Covid- related deaths.
GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D), CALIFORNIA: The mortality rates are still front and center and should be in your consciousness.
HILL (voice-over): Even in states holding steady, like Maryland, officials remain cautious.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look, we're very concerned about what's happening around the country and I don't want to take any kind of a victory lap.
HILL (voice-over): Maryland is seeing a spike in cases among those under 35. Michigan reporting one in five Covid patients is between 25 and 34 years old.
[05:35:01]
In New York State, the early epicenter, less than one percent of tests are now positive for the virus.
A sliver of hope among grim numbers in the new hotspots. Positivity rates skyrocketing in Arizona, Texas, and Florida.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is an outbreak that's uncontained in free fall.
HILL (voice-over): And for those who expected a dip in the summer, a blunt assessment from the nation's top infectious disease expert.
FAUCI: For the people who expected to see a sharp decline in the number of cases as the weather became warm and moist, I think we're seeing that that's absolutely not the case.
HILL (on camera): Dr. Fauci went on to single out Florida as an example that heat and humidity -- neither one of those killed the virus.
He also, in a separate interview on Thursday, singled out Florida and Arizona, saying the states reopened too quickly -- that they jumped over a couple of checkpoints and that allowed the virus to come roaring back.
In New York, Erica Hill, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JARRETT: All right, Erica, thank you so much.
President Trump is once again falsely claiming that the only reason the U.S. has more cases is because it's doing more testing.
Here's what he told Sean Hannity.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And let me just make one statement, though. We do testing like nobody's ever done testing. And when we test, the more you test, the more cases you find.
Other countries -- you know when they test -- and I ask them all -- they test when somebody's not feeling well or when somebody walks into a hospital. So they don't have tests. They have tests that are very limited. We have these massive -- 40-45 million people have been tested. It's a record. And our tests are the best.
So we have cases all over the place. Most of those cases immediately get better. They get -- you know, people -- they're young people, they have sniffles and two days later they are fine. And they're not sick -- to sort of -- they're asymptomatic.
A lot of things happened and what we're doing is with all of these tests that we're doing all over the country -- test -- everybody test -- pull-up parking lots, everything else. What we've done is we've created a tremendous number of cases.
Everybody else -- can you imagine if China tested like we test? They don't.
Can you imagine if other big countries -- the bigger countries tested like we -- or Germany? We've tested many, many, many times, even proportionately the number of people that other countries have tested.
But I was with, as an example, a great gentleman yesterday -- the president of Mexico. And they're having a hard time, especially in Mexico City. They test when somebody's sick or when somebody goes into the hospital. And that's a different way of doing it and it's just fine.
And we are testing and creating. It's the greatest thing that ever happened for the opposite party. But we're doing something that nobody's ever done to the extent, and we're going a great job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JARRETT: OK, there's a lot to unpack there, Christine, obviously.
ROMANS: Indeed.
JARRETT: His answers all over the place.
But here's what people, I think, should really take away is the positivity rate in this country is what's spiking -- it's what shows. You can see in that graph an uptick moving over seven days. It shows the number of infections when people actually go in to get tested is actually spiking.
And look at just like a place like New York where they're testing all over the place. They're testing like crazy --
ROMANS: Right.
JARRETT: -- as the president says, but the positivity rate is under two percent. So it just shows you it's not about more testing. It's about how many people are actually getting sick -- the percentage of positive tests.
ROMANS: And people are dying. More testing doesn't create cases, it finds cases. And when you look at how many people are dying in the U.S. -- it's more than, I think four percent at the moment -- and you compare that with some other countries, and you can see it's worse than in Brazil, in Russia, and in Chile.
And the president, Laura, likes to bring up Germany as an example. There's something really important about Germany. It had a very aggressive early testing regime --
JARRETT: Yes.
ROMANS: -- way earlier, way more robust than the United States. And so, now, it tests people when they are symptomatic or there's a problem.
Another thing. The United States has four times the population --
JARRETT: Yes.
ROMANS: -- as Germany.
JARRETT: Right.
ROMANS: Fifteen times the number of deaths as Germany. So --
JARRETT: Really, apples to oranges.
ROMANS: -- it's not doing a great job. It's just -- it's just not true that it's a great job.
All right, German Chancellor -- speaking of Germany, German Chancellor Angela Merkel appears to be taking a shot a President Trump for his response to the pandemic. In a speech to the European Parliament, she denounced disinformation and went on to say populism and denial are no way to respond to the crisis.
CNN's Frederik Pleitgen joins us live from Warsaw, Poland. And a lot of people took that comment as directed at the United States.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they certainly did -- and especially those comments by Angela Merkel were certainly some of the strongest comments that we've heard from her, really since the coronavirus pandemic started.
She was saying that lies and disinformation, so far, have proved futile in combating the coronavirus crisis, as had incitement and hatred.
Now, she said that Germany, within the European Union, would obviously aim to do things very differently. And as you guys just mentioned, obviously, so far, Germany's response to the coronavirus crisis is seen as having been very successful.
[05:40:07]
At the same time, of course, right here in Poland where I am right now, we are on the eve of what many people are calling a referendum on what many Europeans calls Trump-style populism here in Europe as the incumbent president, Andrzej Duda, is really on a hair's edge of whether or not he's going to get reelected.
He, of course, got a lot of help from President Trump, being the first head of state -- foreign head of state to visit the White House since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Whether or not that's going to be enough is going to be something that we are going to see on Sunday.
But certainly, a very important vote here for this country -- a very important vote for the European Union. And, of course, the White House is going to be looking at that very carefully as well, as we hear some serious criticism also coming from the German chancellor -- guys.
ROMANS: All right, thank you so much for that, Fred Pleitgen. Nice to see you this morning.
JARRETT: Breaking overnight, authorities in Hong Kong announcing the suspension of all schools as fears of a third wave of coronavirus spreads through the city.
Will Ripley joins us live from Hong Kong. Hi, Will.
WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, there. Yes, just a few dozen cases today, Laura, but it's been a consistent pattern because these cases are not travelers coming from other places. Hong Kong has a very good system set up to identify -- to test people and quarantine people to make sure they're not bringing Covid-19 into the city.
But these are community-spread and they're now getting some more information about where these cases are coming from. One, a particular housing complex here in Hong Kong with a lot of people who are older. You're talking about senior citizens who are more prone to hospitalization, which could potentially put the hospital system here under strain.
Also, there are other clusters that have been tied to taxi drivers, clusters tied to restaurants and nightclubs, and also elderly care centers.
And so, what they're doing is they're trying to test as many people as possible, isolate these people, and get them out of the general population. Because the problem with community spread, especially in a densely-populated city like Hong Kong -- seven million people here -- is that these numbers could go up very quickly if authorities don't get a handle on this.
As you mentioned, schools will be closing on Monday and there could be other steps that Hong Kong could decide to take. They're keeping it this way for now, but it depends how serious this gets in the coming days.
JARRETT: Yes. It's good, at least, they're able to target and figure out exactly where these new spikes are coming from.
All right, Will. Nice to see you.
ROMANS: All right.
The New York City rental market took a hit in June as a growing number of residents fled the city.
New data from real estate firm Doug Elliman shows the vacancy rate on rental apartments in Manhattan hit a record-high 3.67 percent. That's more than double the rate last year, the highest level in the report's 14-year history.
June also saw the lowest number of new lease signings for that month in a decade. Landlords and brokers are now offering incentives to entice renters.
Meanwhile, data from the Federal Reserve shows Americans are rapidly shrinking their credit card debt during the coronavirus recession. Consumer revolving credit plunged by another $24 billion in May -- just unbelievable. It's now below a trillion for the first time in nearly three years.
And the decrease makes sense. Consumers' spending habits have changed. Stay-at-home orders forced the shutdown of malls, restaurants, bars, and sports -- places where we're more likely to swipe our credit cards.
With the backdrop of mass unemployment and economic uncertainty, though, Americans are wisely paying down outstanding balances and avoiding racking up new debt.
JARRETT: All right.
Well, Never-Trump Republicans trying to make Donald Trump a one-term president with some scathing new campaign ads.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JACK SPIELMAN, MICHIGAN VOTER: I'll vote for a tuna fish sandwich before I vote for Donald Trump again.
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JARRETT: More on what they're up to coming up next.
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[05:47:50]
JARRETT: Welcome back.
The mayor of Seoul, the second-most powerful person in South Korea, has been found dead on a mountainside. His body was discovered several hours after his daughter reported him missing and days -- just days after someone filed a sexual misconduct allegation against him with police.
CNN's Ivan Watson is live in Hong Kong with the very latest. Ivan, what more do we know about what happened here? IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Laura.
This was one of South Korea's most powerful politicians, Park Won- soon. He was elected three times to the post of mayor of the South Korean capital.
He called in sick to work on Thursday and his disappearance subsequently triggered a manhunt. You had hundreds of police and emergency workers scouring a park in Seoul for him until the sniffer dogs found his body on this mountainside.
The police have ruled out foul play. But city government officials say that a handwritten note was found on the desk of the mayor in the official residence and it sounds very much like a suicide note where he apologizes to his family and to everyone. He asks that he be cremated and his ashes sprinkled on his parents' graves. And his last words are "Goodbye, everyone."
Now, you mentioned this complaint. We don't have confirmation of the contents of it. But when journalists asked police on Thursday was there a sexual harassment complaint filed against the mayor, the police did confirm that a legal complaint had been filed on Wednesday against him, though we don't know exactly what the contents of this were. The timing, of course, very suspect here.
The mayor, himself, prior to becoming a politician, had been an activist, a human rights lawyer. He had fought for women's rights, for LGBT rights.
It indicates that there's a big problem of suicide in South Korea. It's got the highest rate of suicide out of 37 countries in the OECD -- Laura and Christine.
JARRETT: All right, Ivan. Thank you so much for all your reporting.
Well, Never-Trumpers are Republicans who are working to prevent President Trump from winning reelection. The president has been dismissing them but CNN's Jeff Zeleny reports the movement is growing with Election Day just four months away now.
[05:50:10]
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JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When President Trump said this about spiking cases of coronavirus --
TRUMP: So I said to my people, slow the testing down, please.
ZELENY (voice-over): -- a new television ad quickly sprang to life.
TRUMP: Slow the testing down, please.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Slow the testing down? Slow down our chance to save tens of thousands of lives. ZELENY (voice-over): It's not the work of Democrats but, rather, the Never-Trump movement -- a small slice of Republicans trying to make Trump a one-term president.
After failing four years ago, the movement is back and multiplying with The Lincoln Project and Republican Voters Against Trump, along with new groups like Bush Alumni for Biden whose slogan is "We work for W. We support Joe."
TRUMP: Within a couple of days it's going to be down to close to zero.
ZELENY (voice-over): This time they're using the president's words against him, hoping to get into his head. At least that's the goal of The Lincoln Project whose videos made by former aides to George W. Bush, John McCain, and Mitt Romney are designed to relentlessly mock and needle the president.
George Conway, whose wife Kellyanne Conway is a top Trump adviser, is a co-founder.
GEORGE CONWAY, CO-FOUNDER, THE LINCOLN PROJECT: He's thoroughly unfit for office.
ZELENY (voice-over): The president has long-mocked Never-Trumpers, taking delight in taking over the Republican Party.
TRUMP: Some of these people don't get it -- Never-Trump. By the way, Never-Trump is disappearing rapidly.
ZELENY (voice-over): While polls show as many as nine out of 10 Republicans say they support the president, the second act of the movement may be different than 2016. Two reasons why: the Trump record and Joe Biden is not Hillary Clinton.
SARAH LONGWELL, STRATEGIC DIRECTOR, REPUBLICAN VOTERS AGAINST TRUMP: Joe Biden just simply isn't as scary to them. I think women are going to lose this election for Donald Trump. I think that is going to be the decisive and defining group of people.
ZELENY (voice-over): Sarah Longwell calls herself a proud Never- Trumper. She founded Republicans Voters Against Trump where she's been studying Trump voters since 2016. She's watched them stand by the president but now, she senses a different moment.
LONGWELL: The health crisis, the economic crisis, the racial crisis. People are tired. They feel like Trump isn't fit for the moment. They feel like the stakes are higher.
ZELENY (voice-over): But it's an open question how many voters the Never-Trumpers can actually persuade in an electorate more polarized than ever.
Her group is collecting testimonials, believing the power of individual stories will make other Republicans comfortable saying it out loud. SPIELMAN: I'll vote for a tuna fish sandwich before I vote for Donald
Trump again.
ZELENY (voice-over): That's Jack Spielman, a 33-year Army veteran and Michigan Republican. He voted for Trump in 2016 but believes he's failed the country on foreign policy and handling the pandemic.
SPIELMAN: Just as what happened with the Reagan Democrats, now it's the Republicans' turn to become Republican-Democrats. The Biden Republicans kind of returned the favor to say the nation needs us right now to get on a corrective course.
ZELENY (voice-over): Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right, Jeff, thanks for that.
Let's get a check on CNN Business this Friday morning. Taking a look at markets all around the world, Asian markets are closed now for the week and they closed lower. But, European shares have opened slightly higher here.
In the U.S., futures on the final trading day of the week -- shortened trading week -- down a little bit here. It was a volatile trading day Thursday as reminders of store closures, bankruptcies, and millions more Americans filing for unemployment claimed -- claims weighed on investors.
The Dow closed 361 points lower. The S&P 500 also finished down. But the Nasdaq hit another record high as tech stocks soar.
All right, Sur La Table, known for upscale kitchenware and in-store cooking classes -- it has filed for bankruptcy. The retailer said it's putting itself up for sale. Half of its 120 stores in the U.S. will close permanently. It said it's optimistic about the future because more people have been cooking and eating at home because of the pandemic.
And more job cuts to tell you about. Harley-Davidson announced it would cut about 700 jobs as part of a global overhaul. The manufacturer has been struggling for years as demand in the U.S. falls. Harley said the layoffs are part of a larger restricting plan and not a response to the pandemic.
Starbucks will start requiring customers to wear masks in all its American stores. This starts next week. Starbucks said the mandate is part of its efforts to prioritize the health and well-being of its employees and its customers during the pandemic.
Requiring a mask supersedes local laws in some states or cities that might not require wearing one. Starbucks said customers who refuse to wear a mask, they can order from the drive-thru, curbside pickup, or delivery.
But making a big stand there on its locations. They want people to wear masks.
JARRETT: Got to wear that mask --
ROMANS: Yes.
JARRETT: -- and get your Starbucks fix.
ROMANS: Yes.
JARRETT: All right, thanks so much for joining us. Have a great weekend. I'm Laura Jarrett.
ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. "NEW DAY" starts right now.
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[05:59:22]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We did it right, we shut it down. Now it's time to get back to work.
HILL: The reality, cases are surging. States moving in the wrong direction.
FAUCI: It really is the perfect storm and an infectious disease and public health person's worst nightmare.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can speak for all the E.R.s here, a lot of us are overwhelmed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are in a much worse place than we were back in March. We have multiple epicenters all around the country.
NEWSOM: For those who just think that now people are getting it and no one's died, that is very misleading. In fact, it's fundamentally untrue.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Friday, July 10th, 6:00 here in New York.
We begin with another record-breaking day in the coronavirus.
END
