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Gulf Coast Braces for Hit from Two Major Storms; Soon, Republican National Convention Begins with Roll Call Vote; FDA Give Emergency Authorization for Use of Convalescent Plasma. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired August 24, 2020 - 07:00   ET

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY: That the FDA has given an emergency authorization for the use of convalescent plasma to treat coronavirus.

[07:00:05]

But some experts, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, say, it is not been adequately tested.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN NEW DAY: And one of the president's top advisers, Kellyanne Conway, is leaving the White House. Her husband, George Conway, a fierce Trump critic, is also stepping back from his political efforts to unseat Trump. We have new details about their decisions, just ahead.

And we have breaking news this morning. Two storms taking aim at the Gulf Coast. Meteorologists say that back-to-back storms have not hit this area in decades. The combination of torrential rain and storm surge means the Louisiana Coast, as you see there, could see major flooding.

So let's begin our coverage with CNN's Martin Savidge. He is live in New Orleans with our top story. Martin?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Alisyn. Yes, this is really a concern for the people here of Louisiana at this point. You know, they've seen a lot of storms over the years. 15 years ago, it was Hurricane Katrina. This week, but they've never seen the kind of scenario that is beginning to build up and start today.

Round one is going to be the storm named Marco. That is expected to impact the area starting this afternoon. And then, a couple of days later, in some cases, maybe only hours later, depending on where you live and the subsiding of the first storm, you get round two, which is expected to be Hurricane Laura.

What is being done? Well, they've done mandatory evacuations in the areas outside of the flood protection system, that's coastal low-lying areas, Jefferson Parish, Grand Aisle, you're talking about those kind of areas. Inside the city of New Orleans, no evacuation orders underway, but businesses are closed, schools are closed, government offices have shut down. And last night, there were long lines of people beginning to buy their emergency supplies. The governor has made it clear, you are preparing not for one storm, you are preparing for two storms. So instead of being ready, self-sufficient for 36 hours, you better be ready to be on your own for 72 hours.

The concern in the city is going to be not the storm surge, it's the street flooding. How much rain will fall? And then the next concern, how much time is there between the next rain event, which is going to be the next storm coming in.

The city needs to drain. The pumps are ready to go. They've cleared out all the drain basins, but the water has to get out. If it doesn't get fast enough and the next storm rolls in, that's when all bets are off and no one is really sure what the impact will be. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: Okay. Martin, that's a good warning to everyone who lives in that area. Thank you very much.

So, Tropical Storm Laura is next. It is forecast to strengthen into a hurricane before reaching the U.S. Gulf Coast on Wednesday. Laura is now battering the island of Cuba after leaving flooding and destruction in the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

So, CNN's Patrick Oppmann is live in Havana, Cuba, with more. What's the situation, Patrick?

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning. And, so far, just a light drizzle, but otherwise, it's a beautiful morning in Havana, the calm we always see before the storm. These weather conditions will not last throughout the day into this evening. We know there will be high winds, lots and lots of rain, and the Cuban government is calling on people to get ready, already into the eastern end of the island and in Central Cuba. The reports of trees down, heavy coastal flooding, electricity lost.

And elsewhere in the Caribbean, there has been a death toll already reported, at least nine dead in the Dominican Republic and in Haiti. So while this is just a tropical storm, we won't see the catastrophic damage we hope from previous hurricanes, but still a tropical storm can cause a lot of misery if you are in its path, and we are expecting more damage to be seen throughout the day, as this storm gets into the major population centers like here in Havana. People are getting ready to make those final preparations.

And something really incredible over the weekend, there was flooding reported from Tropical Storm Marco in Western Cuba, and now we have damage reported from Tropical Storm Laura on the other end of the island. So, damage from two tropical storms in just as many days, really not a very good omen for this hurricane season. Back to you, John.

BERMAN: Now, and, obviously, that is what's so unusual about this. And that is why I think the concern has been raised to this high level. Patrick Oppmann in Havana, please keep us posted there.

Let's go right to CNN Meteorologist Chad Myers. We're going to look at where both these storms are right now and where they're going. Chad?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: One in the gulf, one to the south of Cuba right now. Good morning, John.

The rain from Marco is now approaching and getting to the Florida Gulf Coast, a very bumpy night in St. George Island and Apalachicola, lots of lightning. But this isn't really where the center of the low is. It is well south of there, because southwest winds have sheared the storm apart overnight, and that's the great news. That's why the hurricane warnings and watches have been dropped.

But we still have tropical storm warnings going on for much of the area here. Most of the rain is north of the eye or the center, so most of the rain will be on land. And that's the problem. That's the first storm. This is the real problem, Laura.

[07:05:00]

Now, most of the convection overnight has been away from the center, which is right there. And our Patrick Oppmann is right there, and that's why he didn't see a lot of wind in his live shot, but he'll get it later on today as it gets closer. It's going to the Gulf of Mexico, very warm water. It is going to get stronger.

There are models that have it as a major hurricane, making landfall in the northern Gulf of Mexico. What I want you to know is that this number, 105, could be plus or minus 10 percent. What I also want you to know is that the models have been doing a horrible job, so you can't look at the middle. You must know that all the way to Lafayette, almost to Baton Rouge, all the way back out here towards Galveston and Houston, you are in the cone. And these models have been going back and forth, left and right, all night long, and all day yesterday. They are not convinced of where this is going.

Hurricane Center doing the best they can, but they have one arm tied behind their back. The models are not liking that it's so close to Cuba, so close to the mountains of Eastern Cuba, and we'll see where it goes from here, but there will be awful lot of rainfall, some spots, even Shreveport. You could see winds of 60, and rains somewhere around six, seven inches. So that's not along the coast, that's well inland and that could still have flooding there. John?

BERMAN: Chad, bottom line here is people need to stay close to the forecast. They need to listen to you. You will keep them posted as to all of the developments and where specifically Laura might be headed over the next day or two. So, thanks so much for being with us. We'll get back to you.

MYERS: There's a potential, John, that this could get to Cat 4, a potential, maybe 10 percent, right? So you must really pay attention. This is not a T.S. This is the real deal.

BERMAN: I appreciate it, Chad, again, please keep us posted as this storm keeps on moving.

The Republican National Convention begins in just hour. What does the president need to accomplish there?

Joining us now, CNN Political Commentators, Michael Smerconish and Mary Katharine Ham. Friends, it's great to see both of you. We haven't seen you here in a long time, great to have you here on New Day.

So a convention, Michael, is about shoring up the base and then addition, trying to add people to your governing body here. In terms of shoring up the base, the president doesn't really have a problem. He's got this base locked solid. But it's the addition thing. How on earth does he add people to his coalition?

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: The addition thing is over. In fact, I think the addition thing is over for both parties, because I looked at all four nights of the Democratic National Convention, I saw a total pursuit of those votes that they think they have, and they just want to make sure that they turn out, minorities, young, college-educated.

And I think this will be a complete reversal. It's a turnout election. I've kind of given up, John, thinking that this is an election that hinges on swing voters, as much as I've spent a great deal of time talking about what those swing voters might do.

So, I think it will be a quadrupling down of trying to reach the people who voted for him in 2016, some who would have voted for him in 2016, but didn't come out to vote. It's been all about the base for four years. Why should the next four nights be any different?

CAMEROTA: But, Michael, just to challenge you on that, wasn't the addition of some high-profile Republicans, the John Kasichs, Susan Molinari, people like that into the DNC, wasn't that an attempt to get the swing voters?

SMERCONISH: It certainly may have been an effort to say to Republicans, hey, you don't like this guy, don't hold your nose and vote for him. You're welcome over here. But I don't think that was the main thrust of the message of the four nights that I watched, and nor do I think that the Trump campaign will be looking for any new voters in the next four nights.

BERMAN: It is a little bit of a kick in to, you know what, Mary Katharine Ham, to see this list of Republicans, Jeff Flake, Charlie Dent, who's on our show, Jim Leetch (ph), this list of Republicans coming out this morning and saying they're voting for Joe Biden. I know no one on this list is a member of the freedom caucus exactly, but it is something on the morning of the Republican Convention to see a group of Republicans endorsing your opponent.

MARY KATHARINE HAM, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Right, it's not a great story line for him, but I think, as Michael points out, if you're going for the base, his appeal was, I am not one of these folks. I am not the beltway. And the beltway comes out and is like, hey, we don't like him. And he's like, sure, I can run with that. And never doubt Trump's ability to trumpet whatever story comes his way.

Also, I just want to say about these conventions, if you are trying to reach new people, it's a really tough year, because this is the convention where the substitute teacher brings in the A.V. cart and you all watch a video, except no one is actually watching the video. So I think reaching new people is tough in and of itself because of the staging of this and neither party is trying super hard.

CAMEROTA: That's so interesting, Mary Katharine, but President Trump has decided that he is the selling point. I mean, so he's breaking with tradition, as he so often does, and he is going to be the main headliner every night. It's also peppered with lots of his family members. You know, it's a totally different tact than the DNC that had these sort of all-stars of the Democratic Party, past Presidents Obama and Clinton, the former nominee, Hillary Clinton.

[07:10:03]

And this time it's going to be very Trump-centric, Trump family- centric.

And then, Mary Katharine, while you have you, just one more thing, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is reportedly going to speak, and that's unconventional, bordering on, I don't know, I mean, doesn't it violate the Hatch Act?

BERMAN: It's norm-busting, more than anything.

CAMEROTA: It's norm-busting, but, I don't know, it goes right up to the edge of the Hatch Act, in terms of using somebody in their national security role, for a political purpose.

HAM: Yes, I'll get to that in a second, but as to the Trump family, Biden did Zoom interviews on the first night of the convention, so I don't think it's totally going to ruin his big night on the last night. As I said, I don't think the big nights are what they were four years ago or what they've been in any other convention year. So I'm not sure that losing your hype means as much this year. There's certainly potential for it. I could do with more, I think, regular folks and governors and elected officials than Trump family.

And as far as Pompeo goes, I think there's a question of how that's going to go, but I'm willing to watch to see how it goes. And I guess they would reimburse if there's a Hatch Act concern here.

BERMAN: Michael, do you think -- yes. Michael, do the Democrats leave or what space did the Democrats leave for the president this week?

SMERCONISH: The same space that he's always had. I mean, I think that the president's focus is one on a demographic that is shrinking as we watch, a demographic that even in the last four years has shrunk. And I'm talking about high school-educated white voters, many of whom traditionally were Democratic voters, but he was able to win them over in 2016. And he's kind of pushing all of his chips in on that same constituency.

I would argue that there wasn't great outreach during the Democratic National Convention to try and bring those voters back into the fold. Instead, it was all about the constituency that they think that they've now attracted.

So, I hate to be repetitive, but I think it's a very base-driven pursuit on both sides of the aisle.

CAMEROTA: Mary Katharine, quickly -- go ahead.

HAM: I was just going to say, those Midwestern blue collar high school-educated voters are key to those very states that Democrats lost last time. And I think -- I fear the Democratic Party, too often, the contention is that these people aren't who we're talking to because there's no possibly reason any sane person would vote for Donald Trump, but that exact mindset is what brought them a Hillary loss because they did not see that coming.

So, the less you attempt to understand that voter, I think your chances go down, because you have to turn out your case so, so big.

BERMAN: Is this the case though -- Mary Katharine, just on that point, where Joe Biden is not Hillary Clinton though. Joe Biden does have some connection with that voting group.

HAM: Yes, I think you're correct. I think the issues of the time and the way that he speaks about them will be very important in his first interview with David Murrah (ph) after getting the nomination. He notes, no, I'm not in favor of defund the police.

Now, technically, what you're doing there is that you're saying, okay, I'm appealing to folks who don't think that's what we should do, policy-wise, but also my base might get pretty mad that I'm saying this thing in public and trumpeting this particular point of view. And then maybe they get less enthusiastic, and you need them as enthusiastic as possible. So it's a tricky line to walk.

CAMEROTA: Michael, we've been talking about the possible reveals that President Trump may have up his sleeve, and it looks as though his niece, Mary Trump, who has one of the best-selling books in the country right now, also had a reveal up her sleeve and these audio tapes have come out. She, it sounds like, surreptitiously taped her aunt, who is Donald Trump's sister, and caught the sister saying over the course of several conversations, you know, unflattering things about President Trump's propensity for lying and for other things. So here is a portion of that audiotape.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARYANNE TRUMP-BARRY, DONALD TRUMP'S SISTER: This goddam tweet and the lying, oh, my God, I'm talking too freely, but, you know. The change of stories, the lack of preparation, the lying, the -- holy shit --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: She really puts a fine point on it there at the end, Michael. But this is the president's sister, okay? And I know -- I agree what I think you're going to say is that it's unseemly for the niece to have surreptitiously taped her. That's sort of family dirty laundry that raises other questions.

However, it is important to hear from the president's own sister what she thinks of him?

SMERCONISH: It is a Rorschach test. Either people are watching and listening and they're saying, oh, my God, the sister thinks he's a liar too, or they are thinking, how could the niece record the voice of an elderly aunt without her knowledge.

[07:15:03]

I'll tell you what I find interesting. Theoretically, the basis for the recording here is that the niece is upset with her inheritance, but the conversation that I'm hearing goes well beyond any of those issues, to wit, the SAT conversation.

So I really think it was vindictive and not driven toward trying to establish her right to inheritance. By the way, if I really want to be persnickety, the SAT story doesn't seem to add up based on what I heard in that tape, because nobody is spending two years at Fordham and then paying somebody to go back and take an SAT exam. I don't even know if you can do that once you're enrolled as an undergraduate. So I think that story needs to be parsed a little bit too.

CAMEROTA: We do have a statement from Mary Trump, the niece's spokesperson. Here is what he says was her rationale in doing it.

Mary realized members of her family had lied in prior depositions. Anticipating litigation, she felt it prudent to tape conversations in order to protect herself. She never expected to learn much of what she heard, including the president's sister, Federal Judge Maryanne Trump Barry, state that Donald Trump had paid someone to take the SAT exam for him.

BERMAN: Mary Katharine, just one last point on this though, and I'm not disagreeing that it won't make a huge impact. You know I'm saying. Ignore the double negative there. But it is a contrast to the Democratic Convention, where everyone that Joe Biden has ever met, from security guards to kids to Republican members of Congress that he fought with to the Democrats he ran against are all saying what a great guy he is. I mean, here you have the president's own sister calling him a liar.

HAM: Well, yes. Okay, I hate to be in vehement agreement with Mr. Smerconish, but I don't think it will change one vote. So that's an important part of this. And I do think is the counterprogramming that the entire Trump family is speaking. So he's like, sure, we have this one member over here but here is my entire family on the stage.

In the end, do I think it makes a difference because everybody's ideas about the president are locked in? That's one political fact that we have many things being unorthodox, that one remains true.

BERMAN: But let's just skip to November at that point, I mean, if everyone is locked in.

HAM: It's 2020. Don't count your chickens, John.

BERMAN: Appreciated.

CAMEROTA: Great point.

BERMAN: Mary Katharine Ham, Michael Smerconish, thank you both very much. Great to see both of you.

So, this morning, the FDA has authorized the emergency use of convalescent plasma to treat coronavirus, but some experts say there's not enough data to know if it works. So what are the facts here, next.

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[07:20:00]

CAMEROTA: President Trump pressuring the FDA to authorize emergency use for convalescent plasma to treat coronavirus. Is that a safe and effective treatment?

Joining us now is CNN Medical Analyst, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, she is the Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dr. Walensky, great to see you.

Before we get to the politics of how President Trump treasured them, and Jonathan Swan from Axios gave us some good, new reporting on that, let me just tell people what convalescent plasma is. It's created from the blood of recovered patients that have antibodies, it's transfused into seriously ill patients, hopefully, at the beginning of their illness. Antibody-rich plasma may help fight off infection. It has been used to treat MERS, SARS, the flu and Ebola.

So, before the politics, does it work? Is this good that the FDA is fast-tracking it?

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY: Good morning, Alisyn? It's a really important question and I would say that we don't really know yet. I think this action is a result of an August 12th posting of a pre-print or before a peer review publication of the first 35,000 patients that received this drug -- or this treatment under expanded access. I want to highlight that these are terrific scientists. This was a really large cohort.

The data that we saw from that cohort were that if you got convalescent plasma earlier compared to later, you tended to do better. If you got higher doses of it compared to lesser doses, you tended to do better. So, there are a lot of data there by a stellar group of scientists and I certainly want to highlight that it looks promising.

That said, the pre-print did not speak to a lot of data on safety, on adverse events. We know from other reports that the first 20,000 people who received convalescent plasma, about 13 died due to adverse events, possibly from transfusion reactions. And so this is exactly why we need the gold standard randomized clinical trial.

What I can tell you is, as of this morning, the two places that I look for guidance on when I'm caring for a patient with COVID-19 are the NIH treatment guidelines and the infectious Disease Society of America Treatment guidelines, the IDSA treatment guidelines. Neither of them have changed their guidelines based on this EUA, based on this pre- print, and both of them still say, we do not have enough data for or against the use of convalescent plasma to treat COVID-19.

BERMAN: Let me read a statement from the Infectious Disease Society of America. This says, we lack the randomized controlled trial data we need to better understand its utility in COVID-19 treatment. For this reason, ISDA -- IDSA supports the continued collection of data and randomized clinical trials to better understand the benefits of convalescent plasma treatment before authorizing its wider use in patients with COVID-19.

They just want to see a big, randomized study where people get placebos. So you see it with treatment versus people with no treatment so they know. And some of the numbers that the president was throwing around yesterday are just very misleading, if not, outright false, saying you're 35 percent less likely to die. That's not what it found. It found in this one study that wasn't randomized that the mortality rate was 35 percent less than if you received a lower dose later, which is a very specific, nuanced thing, which I guarantee the president doesn't understand.

[07:25:01]

Dr. Walensky, the issue is then, why did the FDA do this? And was there political pressure and how concerned should we be about the use of political pressure?

WALENSKY: Right. Well, I think we need to be concerned if the FDA is under political pressure to authorize things under emergency use. I want to remind people that this is -- I actually think convalescent plasma is more promising than hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of this disease.

But this is our revisit of the hydroxychloroquine story in some ways, where prior to having randomized controlled trial data, we saw the emergency use authorization of hydroxychloroquine just based on cohort data, much smaller cohorts, I will tell you, than the one that was just posted.

But, again, when the randomized clinical trial data came out, that is when the emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine was rescinded.

So I certainly hope we're not there. But it does speak to the fact that we need some independence in the approval process, I believe. And certainly, when you look to the guidelines, the IDSA guidelines and the NIH guidelines, which are not under the president's thumb, neither are moving forward.

CAMEROTA: Dr. Rochelle Walensky, thank you. We always appreciate talking to you.

WALENSKY: Thank you so much.

CAMEROTA: John, I have a surprise for you.

BERMAN: What?

CAMEROTA: You know what this is?

BERMAN: Convalescent plasma?

CAMEROTA: No.

BERMAN: You got tested?

CAMEROTA: No.

BERMAN: What?

CAMEROTA: It's my flu shot that you harangued me to get and I wanted to beat you to the punch and show it off and rub my arm in your face.

BERMAN: I think it's great. I thought it was a new tat. I mean, I thought it's --

CAMEROTA: Anything is possible.

BERMAN: Take the band-aid off and it says, Berman, then I'll give it a care. A flu shot, already?

CAMEROTA: Oh, come on, if you'd gotten yours first. You know it would have been a competition.

BERMAN: I usually wait a little bit. But, no, I think it's great. I think we should all be getting flu shots.

CAMEROTA: This is just my actual inoculation against your haranguing me into everyone out there. So, you're welcome.

BERMAN: The tattoo is going to go on the other arm where I can see it.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

Okay, breaking overnight, a group of dozens of former Republican members of Congress coming out in support of Joe Biden. One of them is going to join us, next.

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[07:30:00]

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