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Big 10 And PAC-12 Conferences Postpone Fall Sports; A Passenger Train Derails from its Tracks on the East Coast of Scotland; New Restrictions Against COVID in Kansas to Take Effect This Weekend. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired August 12, 2020 - 07:30   ET

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


[07:30:00]

CHRISTINE BRENNAN, SPORTS COLUMNIST, USA TODAY: And for other conferences, the other big three as you mentioned that are still out there, the big 12, ACC and SEC. The big question for me today is who are their doctors?

Who are they listening to and what are those doctors saying to them because obviously, the last thing the Big 10 and PAC-12 wanted to do is what they ended up doing. The most of the catastrophe, financial, catastrophe for these schools as well as of course, just the hard way for these student athletes who happen to have a -- to be in college at this particular time during a pandemic.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, we happen to have a good doctor with us here. So, Dr. Kraft, how could -- explain to us, how could a college football team play safely in a city or a state or around a school where there are high incidences of coronavirus?

COLLEEN KRAFT, ASSOCIATE CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, EMORY UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: I think you just said -- you know, you sort of said the answer to the question. If there is a high incidence, it's very difficult or impossible. I think, you know, this is a small aspect of a greater public health problem that we still don't have under control. And so it's concerning that we're going to move forward when we know there are cases that occur on sports teams that can't completely quarantine. They're in a high incidence area.

BERMAN: What can you tell us about one of the specific concerns that's been reported, and I'm not even going to try to say the medical terms on this, pronounce -- but it's basically inflammation of the heart. That, there have been some cases, particularly among football players who can be large men, of an enflamed heart condition that could last for a while?

KRAFT: Yes, so one of the things about myocarditis, which is what you're referring to, is that we are learning that this virus is attacking specific cells in the body that are not typical for other coronaviruses or either other respiratory viruses. So, one of the things that we're seeing is direct attack by the virus to heart cells that can lead to damage. And then obviously, in elite athletes, this can be very difficult and

very -- you know, potentially career-ending or at least season ending. And so we want to keep our athletes safe, that's one of the reasons why we've put out some parameters to keep them safe.

BERMAN: So Christine Brennan, there's been a lot of things said by a lot of people the last 24 hours. People who want to see college sports -- look, I want to see college sports. But I want to see it safely. Lou Holtz; hall of fame coach, used to coach at Notre Dame, this is what he said about this. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LOU HOLTZ, HALL OF FAME FOOTBALL COACH: If you want to play, let's go play. I think that we shut everything down for six months. I'm going crazy about being quarantined. I think other people are tired of -- let's move on with our life. When they stormed Normandy, they knew that there were going to be casualties, there were going to be risks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Holy cow! Storming Normandy is his means of comparison here? There are a lot of people who died there. We're talking about a college football game.

BRENNAN: Exactly, John. I wonder if Lou Holtz told all of his friends and all of his relatives and went to the governors of certain states and said, would you tell people to wear masks back in April or May or June? I'm going to guess Lou Holtz, who I like very much, I'm going to guess that Lou Holtz did not do that. And what we're hearing from all these politicians, the temper tantrums basically that were thrown by various people from Jim Jordan to Ben Sasse to Marco Rubio to Ron DeSantis, we want our football.

Where were you in April, guys? Where were you in May? Where were you in June? This is all interconnected and one wonders if they're more worried about their political careers than having college football. I don't know the answer to that, but what I do know is we're seeing people arrive to this too late when we could see the warning signs in the Ivy League five weeks ago today, John, Ivy League canceled Fall sports. Five weeks ago, they knew exactly what they were doing.

BERMAN: Difference with Ivy League sports, to be fair, there's not any money in it. First, no scholarships to begin with and they don't have television rights and all the marketing possibilities. So it's a different decision financially, I'm not sure, it should be a financial decision, but it is a different decision. Dr. Kraft, is there any way that they could play? I mean, seriously, basketball is playing, albeit in a bubble. Hockey is playing, professional, albeit in a bubble.

Pro football is going to play with severe restrictions. So, could there be a way to make this work in college?

KRAFT: So, I think Christine nailed it on the head, which is, we should have been preparing for this time all along. Back in April, we should have been focusing on public health and mask wearing in order to get ourselves back to some sort of normalcy. We are now going to be living with COVID for a long time because of the sluggish response in the United States.

And so, I would say that this is a natural consequence of us not wanting to protect themselves and protect others from this virus.

BERMAN: Who's going to play and how are they going to play, Christine, when these conferences, if they do go, I mean, are there going to be sanctioned games or are there going to be scrimmages? What's going to happen here?

BRENNAN: My guess, John, is when all is said and done, as the doctor has said as well, this is such a difficult time that these conferences will not be able to play, unless they completely ignore the advice of doctors.

[07:35:00]

And then you are throwing at risk all of your student athletes. And that's really the issue here. How many deaths, illnesses, hospitalization are we willing to accept? Is Alabama willing to accept? Is Duke willing to accept?

All of these schools to have their beloved football. And with myocarditis, we see there's been reporting that up to ten cases in the Big 10, myocarditis, that's the heart inflammation issue. How many more can we allow these sports, these universities allow their young men or young women to die on the field?

That sounds very dramatic. But these are the questions that these administrators need to ask and these other three schools, and my sense -- or the other three conferences. My sense, John, is that they will come to the same decision of the Ivy League, the Big 10, the PAC-12, et cetera.

BERMAN: We'll see. Christine Brennan, Dr. Colleen Kraft, appreciate you both being with us this morning, thank you.

BRENNAN: Thank you.

KRAFT: Thanks.

BERMAN: All right, we do have breaking news -- look at these pictures. A passenger train just derailed in Scotland. This is the first we are seeing from the scene, and we are hearing so far there are injuries. We have breaking details and a live report, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:40:00]

BERMAN: All right, there is breaking news. We're just learning of a passenger train derailment on the east coast of Scotland with serious injuries. You can see these pictures of the smoke billowing from that small valley behind this hill. And we've seen these pictures of just so many ambulances. We've seen helicopters hovering overhead. Rescue crews there. You can see the size of the response and what appears to be a very remote area.

So far, all we have learned is serious injuries. Serious injuries on scene. But again, we're trying to get details about what might have caused the derailment and any update on the condition of passengers. Right now, we do have Max Foster who is live for us, I believe, from Glasgow in Scotland. Max, what have you learned?

MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I can hear you. Can you hear me?

BERMAN: Max, can you hear us? Can you give us the latest?

FOSTER: Yes, I'm a couple of hours away. We know that the British Transport secretary in London has had a briefing on this. We also know the first secretary here in Scotland has also been briefed on this -- I can hear you, you should be able to hear me, hopefully. We're hearing from the British government in London that the Transport Secretary is holding briefings.

Also in Edinburgh, the first secretary of Scotland is holding briefings and calling it a major incident. What's interesting here and what was quite alarming to begin with was that the incident happened just before 9 O'clock -- or just before 10 O'clock U.K. time. And we didn't start getting details for two hours when we heard that the emergency services were there. There was major flooding in that part of Scotland overnight, so we think that's linked to this incident.

But we're getting very little information. But we're hearing there are some injuries and we're just waiting to hear from the British Transport police, which are in charge of the operation there. And obviously, the local hospitals and ambulance services. But the moment we're not hearing very much, we do think is linked to the major flooding that was in the area last night.

BERMAN: Flooding sometimes can leave debris on tracks or sweep out tracks themselves. That is some new information there. All right, Max Foster for us in Glasgow, thank you very much. Please keep us posted as you get new information. Erica?

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Stricter coronavirus regulations could go into effect this weekend in Kansas City, Missouri. It's one of the nine cities recently identified as an area of concern by the White House coronavirus taskforce coordinator because of a sharp rise in cases. Joining me now, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas. Good to have you with us this morning, Mr. Mayor. Initially, part of that recommendation from Dr. Birx was that bar capacity should be reduced to 25 percent. You had initially resisted that. It's at 50 percent right now. As I understand though, that could change. Why?

MAYOR QUINTON LUCAS, KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI: You know, a part of why we have tried to roll it out a little more slowly is because we're surrounded by states and Missouri, where Kansas City is, Kansas across the border that don't have mask orders, and most restaurants and bars have no capacity limits. So we're realizing how kind of our multi- faceted approach, jurisdiction to jurisdiction is making it less efficient for us to fight the spread. Somebody can go just one mile over, two miles over, can still go to a

restaurant and still see the same level of spread, that was into concern. Another thing that we've identified in Kansas City is a concern that relates to informal spread. Those people that are having backyard parties with dozens of people. Graduation parties of up to 200 people here in the Kansas City area, where we're seeing real spread now.

So we're trying to make sure as we build our response more fully, we're actually looking at all the places where COVID-19 is being spread.

HILL: So you are working, as I understand it, you'll have a meeting later this morning with county and state officials to put together a regional plan to address that issue as you point out. When you talk about though, these informal gathering, I mean, first, when I was reading up on this, it was informal family gatherings. You talked about a backyard graduation party with more 200 people, in reality, how are you policing that?

Even if you put out new regulations, how do you stop whether it's 12 people or 200 people from getting together in ways that could lead to greater spread?

[07:45:00]

LUCAS: You know, particularly, given the current moment in America, we're not sending police to people's backyards and enforcing them in that sort of way. Really, we're looking in the same way that most mask rules have been enforced here and around the country, to get the public to buy in. To get the public to be a part of not engaging in this sort of behavior.

Three months ago, very few people in America were wearing masks. Today, I think that has changed pretty significantly. While there are some who will fight it to the last day, I think most people realize they don't want COVID, they don't want COVID spreading in their community. I think as we look at school reopenings, people are understanding that we need to find a way to co-exist with COVID-19 still in our communities.

By that I mean, it's following these rules even if someone is not knocking on your door and writing tickets. Now, I will however say, our city has some pretty robust informal complaint system through our 311 service like a lot of cities do, and so therefore, you can call in, the Health Department will send you a letter, someone will knock on your door to make sure that you know the rules that should be followed.

HILL: You mentioned school, which you should ask me because I know you're one of nearly 300 mayors across the -- across the country from cities large and small, red, blue, independent, you name it, who have penned this letter and you're asking for federal funding. And one of the reasons you say your city needs funding is you can't even start in-person learning until September. I just want to pull up part of that letter if we can, where you write, "$150 billion was set aside for state and local governments in the CARES Act", but pointing out here, that only 38 American cities actually qualified for any direct assistance because of that resident population threshold of a half a million people. These budget shortfalls -- the letter goes on to say, are not a blue state or a red state challenge. The virus knows no geographic boundaries or party affiliation.

And says that these budget gaps that you're facing now are direct result of the pandemic. They also mean that some difficult decisions may need to be made in your city. What are you looking at?

LUCAS: Well, we have a number of challenges right now. Some of it has included furloughs. There are other American cities that have looked at layoffs. This is a significant challenge in America, and we talk about unemployment numbers, laying off municipal employees, county employees, state employees will be a very real challenge. In Kansas City, we're looking at about a $300 million budget gap over the next five years that we need to fill through other revenues that are unlikely to come in.

We don't need all of that filled, but this is a sign that right now American cities are struggling to keep up, where sales tax revenues are down in my city at least 25 percent. Other tax revenues are down mightily. And we still have all the same service delivery concerns. We still have a challenge, we're making sure we have enough COVID-19 testing. So while we're actually in the middle of a storm, we're looking for some level of support, which has not come yet from Washington.

And my view is that, yes, while debates are good and all these other things they've discussed may be important. We have to make sure we're getting help to the people. Cities throughout America are the ones that typically do that. And that's why we'll continue to press for more direct stimulus dollars to America's cities.

HILL: We're tight on time, so two quick questions to follow up on there. Number one, you talked about testing. There have been some serious delays. Is it getting any better?

LUCAS: It's not, really. We continue to have fairly long delays.

HILL: And then also in terms of a response to this letter, has there been one?

LUCAS: You know, we have continued to organize meetings. I have two Republican senators who have talked to me and said they're trying -- I don't know how far that will go, looking at the lack of progress out of Washington, I have some concerns that we won't get there, but we'll keep fighting.

HILL: All right, we'll stay on top of it as well and your city council is meeting tomorrow to talk about those potential cuts. Mayor, I appreciate your time this morning, thank you.

LUCAS: Thank you.

HILL: Massive protests breaking out once again overnight in Beirut, one week after that deadly explosion. See how families are coping, not just with the physical, but the emotional scars of this disaster, that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:50:00]

HILL: Anti-government protesters met with tear gas as they clashed with security personnel on the streets of Beirut for a fourth consecutive night. The clashes come hours after a vigil held for victims of the blast. Survivors say making it through that explosion is still taking a toll. CNN's Arwa Damon has more from Beirut. And I do want to warn you, some of the pictures you're about to see are disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As she felt the air being sucked out of the house, Lana thought it's a bomb.

LANA CHAMMAS, INJURED MOTHER: It's not that, it's loud, it's like it's -- it was vicious, it was hurtful. It was like --

DAMON: Her daughters had just asked her if they could go over to a friend's place.

CHAMMAS: I looked up and Zoe and Mia were like standing here where we can see the clock holding each other, screaming.

DAMON: Time stood still. She imagined them being blown away, decapitated.

CHAMMAS: They're like it's -- so I got them here on the floor. I thought -- I thought -- I pulled this --

DAMON: Oh, there's still blood on the mattress.

CHAMMAS: Yes, this -- if you try to move it, try to -- don't ask me. Don't ask me how? This was like literally here. I made a turn.

ANDRE CHAMMAS, LANA CHAMMAS' HUSBAND: So I was driving just to each -- the children and Lana --

DAMON: Andre, her husband was not home.

A. CHAMMAS: And I wanted to see them and I see that everything, it was fallen, it was chaos. And I started shouting where are the kids? Where are the kids?

DAMON: Lana's back was shredded. There was a massive gash on her thigh.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE) L. CHAMMAS: Now she's in complete denial. She was like, oh, you have

nothing, it's like scratches. And the other one is like completely -- she's having PTSD as we say. Like asking -- she told me it's going to -- it's going to happen again. And I told her, no, I promise.

[07:55:00]

And she's like you can't make me this promise.

DAMON: Mia asked if she can crawl back into her belly.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

DAMON: She also told her mother that Thor would have stopped the explosion with his hammer.

L. CHAMMAS: Is mommy a hero? Do you think mommy is a hero?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

DAMON: No one knows how to explain this to themselves, never mind to their children. The sheer madness of it, the carnage, the chaos. Scenes they can't escape from ingrained in their psyche, threatening to push them over the abyss into hysteria.

L. CHAMMAS: I'm still too angry to understand what's happened. Why all these people, the kids, wounded, and like in my head like it equals the stapling at the hospital and blood. Now, it is blood. They're holding our kids physically and mentally hostage. It's this -- I can't go out anywhere.

DAMON: She doesn't like the sounds anymore of honking?

L. CHAMMAS: I'm 36, I'm terrified every time like -- she's seven. They didn't want to sleep here. They don't feel safe. In their parents room, they took this away from many kids, not just my kids. My kids went six months from drawing rainbows and mermaids. Three months later, I was being asked every day what's the corona? That tall -- today in Beirut, to what's nitrate?

In six months, my 7-year-old went from drawing rainbows to trying to understand the process of nitrate combustion.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DAMON: Erica, the trauma, the intensity of the emotions, it's unlike anything Lebanon has gone Through before. You can't compare it to the war, the civil war that took place decades ago or the explosions, the running street battles that happened more recently. And people are very used to sort of holding their chin up, soldiering on, being this image of Lebanon that they're quite proud of that no matter what happens to us, we are still beautiful people and we're not going to let anything affect us.

Because right now, they've reached such a stage that they're not willing to just brush this aside and try to get through it and allow the status quo to continue. And that's one of the main reasons why you're seeing such loud demands for change.

HILL: Yes, I know what -- you put it in perfect perspective there. And just what an important and heartbreaking piece too, Arwa, to see that family and the pain and the hurt for those little girls and for their parents too. Arwa, incredible reporting as always. Thank you. NEW DAY continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Democratic ticket is set for Joe Biden selecting California Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is Joe Biden's race to lose. He felt like she was the best person to lead, come January 2021 if he wins.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In Kamala Harris, he has someone who's tough, who's run for president and who's seen as being ready for the job.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: COVID cases among children jumped 90 percent over the last four weeks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When school starts, we think we're going to see an explosion of cases in September that will far surpass what we saw after Memorial Day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I would think objectively anyone looking at this would see it as a disaster.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world, this is NEW DAY, Erica Hill in for Alisyn today, nice to see you again.

HILL: Good to be with you.

BERMAN: So on a historic day after a historic choice. In just a few hours, we will see Joe Biden and Kamala Harris together for the first time as running mates. Senator Harris, the first black woman, the first Asian-American to appear on a major party ticket, and we're learning new details about what today's event will look like in the time of COVID. How do you stage an event like this? Who is going to be there? How close will the candidates actually get to each other?

We also have new insight on how Biden came to select Harris, what she brings to the ticket as the daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants, and what that says about the changing phase of America. Also the big name set to appear next week at the Democratic convention and who's missing?

HILL: We also have the latest for you this morning on the coronavirus pandemic. "ESPN" reporting the big 12 conference will move forward with the Fall football season. The Big 10 and PAC-12 conferences though will not play this Fall.

Another tragic milestone in the United States. New single day highs for coronavirus related deaths reported in both Florida and Georgia.