Return to Transcripts main page

Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

More Mandates On Masks As U.S. Looks To Slow Pandemic; Trump Demotes Campaign Manager As Poll Numbers Fall; NYT Reports U.S. Considering Sweeping Travel Ban On China's Communist Party. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired July 16, 2020 - 05:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[05:30:00]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Pennsylvania and New York. Temperatures across the country, 91 for Atlanta; 76, though, for you, in New York.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: All right, thanks so much for that.

EARLY START continues right now.

Officials race to add restrictions as coronavirus cases expand, mask mandates are growing, more schools will be online, and hospitals are filling up.

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: And a big change at the top of the Trump campaign, but will it make any difference if the president won't change course?

Good morning, this is EARLY START. I'm Laura Jarrett.

ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It's 30 minutes past the hour. Good morning, everyone.

Across America, local politicians and business leaders are doing what the federal government will not, making hard decisions to fight this pandemic. Decisions made harder partly because America's top infectious disease doctor -- the one the nation turns to for guidance in a crisis -- he is constantly being undermined by his own government.

In a new interview overnight, Dr. Anthony Fauci says "It's pretty tough walking a tightrope while trying to get your message out and people are trying to pit you against the president."

JARRETT: Now, as the White House is in this battle with Fauci, 39 states are struggling with rising caseloads. Only two are headed in the right direction. Another 66,000 cases reported Wednesday, just short of the record one-day earlier.

In Florida, Miami-Dade County has run out of ICU beds. Some patients are being moved to improvised ICUs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARLOS MIGOYA, PRESIDENT AND CEO, JACKSON HEALTH SYSTEM: Gov. DeSantis has given us an extra 150 nurses to help us with the extra staffing that we need. So we have a little bit of room, but this room is not going to last forever. In another three to five weeks we could run out if we keep up this kind of pace.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: A consensus does appear to be emerging on masks. Thirty-seven states now require them, most of them statewide. The White House is resisting a federal mandate.

But this tide is beginning to turn. Alabama's Republican governor is mandating them as hospitals near capacity. Ninety percent of ICU beds are filled and the state just reported the most deaths in a single day.

JARRETT: But not everyone is on board. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is banning local governments from mandating masks despite a sharp spike of cases in his state. President Trump visited Georgia yesterday -- as you can see, without a mask -- despite growing concerns in the south.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ASHISH JHA, PHYSICIAN: And we're in the 60s now and if we don't do a substantial reset we're going to be in the 70s and 80s, and it's going to keep going because that's how the virus works. So we absolutely need mandates on mask-wearing.

I believe that in the southern states where the outbreaks are bad, you cannot have any indoor gatherings of any meaningful size -- no restaurants, no bars, no nightclubs -- none of that stuff.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Without national leadership here, some businesses are done waiting. Walmart is the largest retailer to mandate masks. Kohl's and Kroger also joining a list that includes Costco and Starbucks.

School districts also rejecting the White House push to reopen schools. Houston and San Francisco will hold all classes online this fall. That is 276,000 children. None of the nation's 20 largest school districts have committed to full in-person learning for the start of the school year.

CDC recommendations on school openings are expected as early as Friday. Of course, the White House has tried to bury past CDC recommendations while ignoring others.

JARRETT: Meanwhile, the first U.S. governor diagnosed with COVID is Oklahoma's Kevin Stitt. He led one of the most aggressive reopening plans of any state and rarely wears a mask in public, including at the president's Tulsa rally last month. Health officials say that the rally contributed to a surge in cases there. Oklahoma cracked 1,000 cases for the very first time yesterday.

ROMANS: All right.

Breaking overnight, the first big shakeup in the Trump campaign. The president demoting campaign manager Brad Parscale. It comes the same day two national polls show the president trailing Joe Biden by double-digits. Battleground state polls show the same trends.

The president was furious with Parscale after that much-hyped return to the campaign trail in Tulsa, Oklahoma that fell flat last month. A source tells CNN Parscale does not -- rather, does plan to stay with the campaign.

JARRETT: This can't be the campaign the Trump team had in mind. The relaunch was supposed to expand to include big, populated battleground states, but the president's actual travel this month does not include much of that at all.

The president can try to pin his sagging numbers on Parscale, but a senior White House official offers this reality check.

Quote, "Brad's not the one going off message. Brad's not the one refusing to wear a mask. He (meaning Trump's) not focused. Everyone has told him that. Nothing has changed."

ROMANS: Make no mistake, the president's handling of coronavirus could seriously hurt him come November. There's now a lot of disapproval from states where he needs support and damage from the virus is only worsening.

[05:35:02]

Taking over the campaign is Bill Stepien. He added more than a decade of campaign experience to Trump's campaign roster when it first looked for a course correction back in 2016 after a slew of gloomy poll results.

JARRETT: Twitter is blaming the takeover of multiple high-profile accounts Wednesday on a coordinated social engineering attack. Accounts belonging to former President Barack Obama, Kim and Kanye West, Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos, and Mike Bloomberg were all involved in the hack promoting a cryptocurrency scam.

About an hour after the attack began, Twitter locked out users with verified accounts. Non-verified accounts could still tweet.

After accounts were restored, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said "Tough day for us at Twitter. We all feel terrible this happened."

ROMANS: All right.

Time and money are running out for small business owners with coronavirus cases on the rise and states rolling back their reopening plans. Recovery looking bleak here.

There's been short-term aid from the loans from the Paycheck Protection Program but that money was only meant to cover 10 weeks of payroll and other expenses. The pandemic is lasting much longer.

A new survey shows 84 percent of small business owners say they'll use up their PPP loans by the first week of August. Only 16 percent said they're confident they can maintain payroll without more government aid. And just 37 percent say their business can survive another coronavirus-related shutdown.

It's even worse for black business owners. Just seven percent said they will able to meet payroll without government aid.

Ninety-one percent of all respondents said they would like the opportunity for a second PPP loan. That program set to end August eighth.

JARRETT: Yes, Christine, also expiring soon, those enhanced unemployment benefits for people laid off or furloughed during the pandemic. The extra $600 a month stops at the end of July.

So, what's next? CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich takes a closer look for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Delena Sanders took a leap of faith. She quit her job, picked up her life, and moved to Atlanta in January. She wanted to make a difference.

DELENA SANDERS, DOULA: The reason I became a doula is because I really wanted to make a difference in the black community as far as their birth disparities and I figured this would be a good area to do that. It's a celebration of pregnancy.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): Her hopes of getting her business off the ground gone. She's one of millions of Americans now without a job, on unemployment.

SANDERS: COVID seems to be getting worse and not better. So at least here in the city of Atlanta, we're in the process, it seems like, of going back to phase one. So I may not be able to go into the delivery rooms anytime soon.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): And it's about to get worse. In two weeks, the extra $600 a week in unemployment that's helped Americans like Sanders to pay bills, put food on the table, and stay in their homes will expire.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's going to be total economic devastation. The unemployment insurance program is the lifeline for workers in this public health crisis.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): This lifeline is disappearing just as some states roll back their reopenings, forcing many workers back on unemployment. Up to 23 million Americans could be evicted from their homes by the end of September.

SANDERS: When they take the $600 away, that would reduce me down to about $300 a week, which is, for me, not really feasible as far as covering my bills.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): Cara Steele (ph) has been waiting 17 weeks for unemployment. She's making some drastic decisions.

CARA STEELE, UNEMPLOYMENT RECIPIENT: What is most important that day? You know, am I going to go out and buy something to eat, or am I going to purchase medication, or am I going to save my funds to go to a doctor, or put gas in my car?

YURKEVICH (voice-over): She's a bartender in New Jersey where indoor bars and dining remain closed. The back pay she's owed from unemployment will go straight to her bills, piling up for months.

STEELE: When is everything going to reopen? Because if I'm getting the $120 a week, without this extra $600, what happens if I'm not going back until October, November, December or until there's a vaccine?

YURKEVICH (voice-over): The unknown is leaving many Americans paralyzed. And with Congress unlikely to pass an extension of the extra unemployment benefits by July 31st, Sanders faces a stark reality, giving up.

SANDERS: I would feel very set back. I mean, it took a lot of self- encouragement for me to even decide to leave my job and move to another city to kind of chase after a dream. So if it gets shut down, I kind of would feel like I did all of this for nothing.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): Vanessa Yurkevich, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: And we'll learn in a few hours just how many more people last week filed for jobless benefits. Likely, 50 million Americans over the past 17 weeks now.

Bankruptcies are rising, 3 1/2 million people sick, 137,000 Americans dead. And on a day when 941 people died of the coronavirus in this country, this is what is front of mind for the president -- beans.

[05:40:07]

The president giving an endorsement to Goya a day after his daughter, Ivanka Trump, did the same, weighing into this bizarre culture war after Goya's CEO was criticized on social media for effusively praising the president.

More leadership is desperately needed to test and trace to open schools safely to get people back to work, this is the message from the White House.

We'll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JARRETT: Countries are reinstating restrictions as the coronavirus surges. CNN reporters are covering the pandemic around the globe.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VEDIKA SUD, CNN PRODUCER: I'm Vedika Sud.

According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India's just over 30,000 cases showed reaching a million confirmed cases of COVID- 19. Over 400 million people across three states in India are reentering lockdown conditions after witnessing a spike in the COVID- 19 numbers.

[05:45:12]

On Wednesday, more than 32,000 new infections had been reported. This is the highest jump in daily numbers that India has seen.

BILL WEIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Bill Weir in Brazil where the most famous COVID-19 patient in all the land, President Jair Bolsonaro, confirmed that he tested positive for COVID-19 for the second time in as many weeks.

He remains in semi-isolation here at the presidential palace but says quarantine is horrible. He doesn't have any symptoms and is itching to get back to work.

There have been 51 separate requests to the lower house of Brazil's Congress for impeachment of this president -- more in the recent days since the mismanagements of this pandemic. But the politicians there say the last thing they need in this crisis is more politics.

ANGUS WATSON, CNN PRODUCER: I'm Angus Watson in Sydney, Australia.

Victoria has suffered its worst day of the coronavirus crisis as authorities try to stamp out a second wave in its largest city, Melbourne. The coronavirus curve is shooting upwards despite residents being on lockdown for over two weeks now. The state has been completely cut off from the rest of the country in an effort to try to stop the spread.

The Australian economy is also shrinking because of the pandemic. Over 900,000 people here without jobs now, the worst figures in over two decades.

CYRIL VANIER, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: I'm Cyril Vanier in Paris, where Disneyland has reopened after a four-month closure and the experience isn't totally the same now.

Disney is limiting the number of visitors, face masks are mandatory. Popular attractions like the daily Disney parade or the Lion King show remain suspended.

And close contact with any of the Disney characters is off the table. You can no longer hug Mickey Mouse.

But the good news for Disney -- the good news is that the pandemic here in France is still considered under control but there is now a cloud on that horizon. Coronavirus indicators have been trending slightly up in recent weeks.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right, thanks to our reporters for all of those.

Now, new overnight, "The New York Times" is reporting the U.S. is considering a sweeping travel ban on members of China's Communist Party. That's according to four people familiar with the talks. The plan is not a done deal but it would dramatically escalate the already-heightened tensions between the two countries.

CNN's Kristie Lu Stout is live in Hong Kong with more. What do we know, Kristie?

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Christine.

It is a remarkable report from "The New York Times" saying that the Trump administration is considering a travel ban on all members of the Chinese Communist Party and their family members. That would effectively impact an estimated 200 million people and prevent them from being able to travel to the United States.

I should also add that CNN did reach out to the Department of Homeland Security, to the White House, to the State Department for comment. We have not received comment stateside.

We've also reached out to China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and we did get a comment from a spokesperson, Hua Chunying, who said this. Quote, "If the reported plans are true, I think that is just pathetic" -- unquote.

Now, we know that tensions are certainly rising between the U.S. and China, especially after events earlier this week. We had U.S. President Donald Trump sign into law the Hong Kong Autonomy Act and also signing the executive order ending Hong Kong's special trade status.

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has summoned the U.S. ambassador to discuss the matter. We also know that the government here in Hong Kong issued a statement saying that they firmly oppose these measures.

On top of that, China's top office here in Hong Kong, the Liaison Office, accuses the United States of, quote, "gangster logic and bullying."

The United States and China, they're engaged in another flare-up in a war of words. They are tangled in a host of issues -- not just Hong Kong, but also human rights abuses in Xingjiang. Also, assertions of sovereignty in the South China Sea. Over the World Health Organization and its relationship with China and the investigation into the origins of the pandemic. On top of that, you have Taiwan. You have the trade -- the tech war,

which is also affecting the fate and future of TikTok and Huawei.

And there doesn't seem to be a diplomatic off-ramp here. In fact, when U.S. President Donald Trump was asked by reporters earlier this week whether he had spoken to the Chinese President Xi Jinping, he said no -- and he also added he had no plans to speak with him.

Back to you, Christine.

ROMANS: Yes, the temperature really rising there between the -- on that situation.

Kristie Lu Stout, thank you.

JARRETT: All right.

New York City police are still searching for a suspect in the grizzly killing of the 33-year-old CEO of a motorcycle ride-hailing startup.

Fahim Saleh was found in his apartment in Manhattan on Tuesday. A source says his sister found his torso next to the living room. Other body parts were stuffed into bags.

[05:50:07]

Officials say Saleh was last seen in surveillance video Monday night entering the building's elevator. His suspected killer is seen getting into the elevator with him.

ROMANS: Nick Cannon will remain host of Fox's "MASKED SINGER" after apologizing for making anti-Semitic comments.

But, ViacomCBS is ending a decades' long relationship with Cannon after he appeared on his "Cannon's Class" podcast and hailed black people as the true Hebrews while offering anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

Cannon has apologized to the Jewish community and says, "Anyone who knows me knows that I have no hate in my heart."

JARRETT: Well, peas and carrots, but no candy. For the first time, diet advice comes from babies. The key guideline for the first two years of a child's life, no added sugar. It can hurt a baby's development and is linked to an obesity outbreak later in life.

Experts say early nutritional exposures not only contribute to long- term health, they also help shape taste preferences.

So no cupcakes, apparently, Christine.

ROMANS: Peas and carrots. Carrots and peas make sense to me.

Let's get a check on CNN Business this morning. Taking a look at markets around the world this Thursday market -- morning, Asian shares closed lower -- a big drop in the Shanghai Composite there. And European shares have opened slightly lower here.

U.S. futures this morning -- taking a look at those on this jobless claims Thursday -- down a little bit here. Stocks closed higher Wednesday, boosted by excitement over a promising COVID-19 vaccine and better-than-expected Goldman Sachs earnings. The Dow closed up 227 points. The S&P and the Nasdaq also finished the day higher.

We're going to learn in a few hours just how many more people filed for jobless benefits last week. This has been a drumbeat of at least a million a week in the past few weeks. Likely, 50 million Americans over the past 17 weeks.

China's economy is growing again after its worst quarter in decades. Data shows the world's second-largest economy grew 3.2 percent in the second quarter, making it the first major economy to return to growth since the start of the pandemic. It also means China avoided a recession.

Early return to growth could foreshadow good news for the rest of the world. Analysts had expected a rebound.

China was the first to impose strict lockdowns to contain the virus. It was also the first major economy to reopen.

The airline industry is in crisis. Carriers are losing millions of dollars a day and hopes are fading for a resumption of air travel this summer.

American Airlines' top executives said it will issue notices to 25,000 employees that they face potential furloughs on October first. Airline executives have been blunt the jobs cuts are coming once federal funding ends. The American Airlines executives also said they support a union-led effort to extend the relief money through March 2021.

JARRETT: Well, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art is set to reopen its doors on August 29th. The country's largest museum will be open to visitors five days a week with comprehensive new health and safety procedures in place.

The Met has been shut down since March. It had not been closed for longer than three weeks since World War II.

ROMANS: All right.

A Michigan man is a millionaire this morning because of a clerk's error. The unidentified man recently stopped at a gas station near Detroit to put air in his tires and then decided to buy a $10.00 scratch-off lottery ticket. He was given a $20.00 ticket by mistake. The clerk offered to exchange it but the man says something told him to keep it -- good call.

The 57-year-old winner decided to take a one-time lump-sum payout worth $1.3 million.

JARRETT: That's pretty cool for him.

Well, an all-black high school football team in Georgia is finally getting the recognition it deserves over 50 years later.

The Houston High Indians football team won the state championship back in 1969. Because it happened in the era of segregation there was no celebration, no parade, or rings. Now, the city has finally taken action to give the athletes a special ceremony.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAWRENCE CLARINGTON, TEAM MEMBER, HOUSTON HIGH INDIANS: They took a bunch of no-name players from all walks of life and they assembled one of the best teams in Houston County.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JARRETT: The former players gathered where the football field used to be and received a 1969 championship ring. That's nice for them. I guess better late than never, right?

ROMANS: Fifty years later, wow -- all right.

Thanks for joining us, everybody, this Thursday morning. I'm Christine Romans.

JARRETT: I'm Laura Jarrett. "NEW DAY" is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:59:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: I believe we need to almost push the reset button. Let's stop this nonsense and figure out how can we get our control over this now.

NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: More theme parks opened up in Florida. ICUs are already full in 54 Florida hospitals.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But we are doing extremely poorly. It's a very dangerous situation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hundreds and thousands of people are dying in America today because we are distracted by issues that are not the central ones to controlling this virus.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's really up to everyone who is out there. We all want to get back to our lives but it requires that we all cooperate.

(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 State and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Thursday, July 16th, 6:00 here in New York.

And this morning, much of the United States is near a breaking point with the pandemic. At least 12 states and Puerto Rico reporting record hospitalizations.

Yesterday afternoon, Florida's Miami-Dade County ran out of ICU beds. Texas and two other states reporting their highest single-day death totals. Texas and Florida both reporting.

END