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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

GOP Tries to Rewrite History at RNC; Protests Erupt After Wisconsin Police Shooting; Laura Forecast to Grow Into Major Hurricane As It Nears Texas, Louisiana. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired August 25, 2020 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:24]

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: The Republicans say vote for Trump or else. The convention begins a rewrite of history on diversity, empathy, and the pandemic.

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: And protests overnight in Wisconsin and across the country as yet another family demands to know why their loved one, a black man, was shot in the back seven times by police.

We have reports this morning from the White House, Wisconsin, New Orleans, Belarus and Moscow.

Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is EARLY START. I'm Laura Jarrett.

ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It is Tuesday, August 25th. It's 5:00 a.m. in New York. Exactly ten weeks now until the election. And Republicans open their national convention trying to close the empathy gap with Joe Biden.

But President Trump's allies offered a misleading portrayal of his record on coronavirus and on race, pitching Trump as a leader, protecting the country from Democrats who they falsely claim want to wipe out the suburbs as part of their radical socialist agenda.

As advertised, Trump made himself a star of the show, appearing remotely twice, including with Americans previously held hostage abroad.

The GOP put forward two most compelling speakers, former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley, and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott.

JARRETT: They argued Trump's policies have lifted up a diverse array of American families. They argue Democrats have gone too far with their claims of systemic racism in the U.S. Those claims made on the same day people were protesting across the country in response to the shooting of a black man by police in Wisconsin.

Trump also appeared with frontline workers as part of the party's attempt to rewrite story, portraying the president as a leader who quickly confronted coronavirus. CNN's Kaitlan Collins is at the White House for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: What really emerged from this first night of the Republican convention was, one, an attempt to rewrite how President Trump and his administration responded to the coronavirus pandemic, playing this video portraying it as an aggressive, vigorous response, when it reality we had reporting in real time that showed the president was slow to respond to the pandemic, often downplayed it and dismissed it and seemed to be in denial for what was going on for some time.

They also try to put an emphasis on the president's relationship with the black community. You saw several people of color speaking at the Republican convention.

HERSCHEL WALKER, FORMER NFL PLAYER: It hurt my soul to hear the terrible names that people called Donald. The worst one is racist. I think that as a personal insult that people would think I've had a 37 year friendship with a racist? People who think that don't know what they're talking about.

NIKKI HALEY, FORMER AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: In much of the Democratic Party, it's now fashionable to say America is racist. That is a lie. America is not a racist country.

This is personal for me. I am the proud daughter of Indian immigrants. They came to America and settled in a small Southern town. My father wore a turban. My mother wore a sari. I was a brown girl in a black and white world.

SEN. TIM SCOTT (R-SC): Joe Biden said if a black man didn't vote for him, he wasn't truly black. Joe Biden said black people are a monolithic community. It was Joe Biden who said poor kids can be just as smart as white kids.

And while his words are one thing, his actions take it to a whole new level. In 1994, Biden led the charge on a crime bill that put millions of black Americans behind bars.

COLLINS: Of course many polls have shown the president does not have anywhere near close to a wealth of support with those voters. It's not clear if the Trump campaign is really hoping to gain any significant kind of ground this late in the game, going up against Joe Biden. But they did say that they wanted to make an appeal, they wanted to have this concerted effort to show diversity in the first night of the president's convention.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Kaitlan, thank you so much for that.

History repeating itself painfully overnight in Wisconsin. Protestors are defying curfew late into the night in response to the police shooting of a black man. Officers responding to a separate disturbance call ended up shooting Jacob Blake in the back multiple times in front of his young children. At least three buildings were on fire in Kenosha overnight, including the Department of Corrections field office. Jacob Blake remains in intensive care.

JARRETT: Wisconsin's lieutenant governor says Blake was actually trying to de-escalate another situation when police arrived.

[05:05:03]

CNN spoke to his uncle.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUSTIN BLAKE, JACOB BLAKE UNCLE: This is like all the black parents talk about, that phone call you don't want to get, and we got it. So you have to sort of be strong for each other, let your faith lead the way. So, after talking to his mother, she and my brother are asking people in Kenosha, around this nation to protest but protest nonviolently.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: There were protests in several other cities yesterday as well, most of them peaceful, although an officer was attacked with a cane in San Diego. The National Guard was called in to keep the peace in Kenosha as Blake's family demands answers.

CNN's Omar Jimenez is on the ground for us in Kenosha.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Laura, what you're seeing is one of multiple locations that have been burning in Kenosha, Wisconsin, over the course of the night, a second night since Jacob Blake was seen shot in the back seven times by a police officer. And what you are seeing now, these images came in stark contrast to what we saw over the course of the daytime hours in Kenosha and into the early evening, which were largely peaceful demonstrations in the face of law enforcement.

It wasn't until night fall that things begun to get a little bit more contentious. Things were thrown back and forth. Police started using some of those crowd dispersal tactics like tear gas, even playing really loud sounds to push them.

And then what you're seeing, a common theme that ties all of this together is an expression of anger and frustration over what people feel really like has become an all too familiar story playing out in places from across the country not just here in Kenosha, Wisconsin -- Christine, Laura.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Thank you so much for that.

New overnight, a potential coronavirus vaccine could be put before regulators by the end of this year. The vaccine is being jointly developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca. Early trials show the vaccine appears safe and it does induce an immune response. Submitting the vaccine for approval could take longer depending on how much data scientists gather.

Just last night, Dr. Anthony Fauci warned against emergency authorization for vaccines in the U.S. He says any vaccine must be proven safe and effective in large trials first. Two sources tell CNN that White House officials actually raise the possibility of emergency authorization of a vaccine before late stage trials are finished. That, of course, will be head.

ROMANS: Four hundred and fifty deaths reported Monday. The rolling average ticking down very slightly. Only ten states are now showing an increase in cases.

States like Florida and California begin making progress, concerns remain in the Midwest. Remember what the CDC director said last week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT REDFIELD, CDC DIRECTOR: So, Middle America right now is getting stuck, the Nebraskas, the Oklahomas. We don't need to have a third wave in the heartland.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: Meanwhile, 20 states are reporting cases of colleges and universities. Now schools are cracking down on student parties. Ohio State University is temporarily suspending more than 200 students from breaking the school's coronavirus regulations. At UNC Chapel Hill the positivity rate has more than doubled in the last week to over 30 percent. And the mayor of Tuscaloosa is ordering all bars closed because of more than 500 cases at the University of Alabama.

ROMANS: Remember, it's not just the students who pay, it's the faculty, the cafeteria workers, the bus drivers, the janitors who don't get paid if school is closed. In Florida, a judge is temporarily blocking a state order to restart in-person teaching in schools. The Zoom video conference service was down in parts of the world Monday, affecting Atlanta public school students on their first day back.

JARRETT: An extraordinary admission from FDA Commissioner Steven Hahn. He admits he overstated the benefit of using convalescent plasma on coronavirus patients Sunday night. Scientists widely criticized him for saying the treatment saved 35 out of 100 people. Well, it turns out the commissioner confused absolute risk reduction with relative risk reduction.

Last night, Hahn tweeted, quote, the criticism is entirely justified. He went on to defend the emergency authorization of convalescent plasma, insisting the decision was the FDA's alone, with no influence from the White House.

ROMANS: All right. Nine minutes past the hour. A major shakeup for the Dow Jones Industrial Average meant to balance out disruption caused by Apple. The company Sales Force will join the Dow at the end of the month, replacing Exxon Mobile, Pfizer and the defense contractor Raytheon. Apple's upcoming stocks will produce the average weighting of the tech sector, adding Salesforce will help keep the appropriate balance.

The Dow is designed to be weighed measure the strength and weakness of the entire market. The changes hinted some broader shifts in the U.S. economy. Monday's changes marked the removal of two companies with some of the most storied histories in the index.

[05:10:05]

It booted the General Electric in 2018 after 110 consecutive years in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Being a part of the Dow doesn't help or hurt the stock, but the Dow 30 is, kind of, you know, the famous benchmark of blue chips.

JARRETT: Yeah. Well, still ahead, tropical storm Laura churning into a hurricane as it heads towards the United States.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JARRETT: Welcome back.

Tropical Storm Laura is now forecasted to become a major storm. The hurricane is on approach now to Texas and Louisiana. Hurricane watches have been issued for parts of the coasts, along with some mandatory evacuations. Storm surges will be a huge threat for the rest of the week.

Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri joins us live with the latest.

What do we know about Laura?

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You know, impressive storm system. A lot of people see Marco unfortunately and we dodged a bullet with Marco.

[05:15:03]

And, of course, that storm system fizzled rather quickly. The dynamics are a significantly different setup. We're going to show you exactly what we expect with Laura and the fact this satellite imagery shows the last batch of the storms away from western Cuba. The final land interaction with the storm before it makes landfall somewhere across the coast of Texas or Louisiana, the highest likelihood here.

And, of course, look at the parameters ahead of it here, water temperatures into the lower 80s, keep in mind, the lower 80s, typically, what it takes to sustain the hurricane and that's exactly where Marco was. Of course, a lot of wind sheer was in advance of Marco. But this particular storm not only does it have temperatures well above where it needs to across the Gulf of Mexico, but the wind sheer nearly nonexistent here until it approaches land.

So, we're going to watch this carefully, because, of course, we know the system, we mentioned this having the potential to rapidly intensify. The National Hurricane Center in the 5:00 a.m. advisory has now updated this strength to a category 3 major hurricane at landfall which would be sometime late Wednesday into early Thursday morning near the coast of, say, southwestern Louisiana or western Texas. Again, they're saying the bottom end of the ceiling of this particular storm and the rapid intensification is expected sometime Tuesday night into Wednesday afternoon, as it approaches landfall Wednesday evening into Thursday morning.

So, that's the concern, the strongest aspect of the storm would come as it approaches land. Really, it speaks to, not be complacent on a system like this as it approaches land.

ROMANS: Absolutely.

JAVAHERI: You mentioned storm surge, look at this, up to 11 feet high, which would be above the first story of buildings here on some of these coastal communities, when it makes landfall there sometime again late Wednesday and early Thursday.

ROMANS: All right. We know you'll be watching it for us, Pedram. Thank you so much.

Laura?

JARRETT: All right. Areas in and around New Orleans getting ready for a hard hit. Louisiana is also causing coronavirus testing and will not open state-run shelters because of the pandemic.

Let's go live to New Orleans and bring in CNN's Martin Savidge.

Martin, what are you seeing there this morning?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Laura.

Well, what remains of Marco, now tropical depression, is actually passing through the area of New Orleans, and let's bring you some light rain but nowhere the rain that they have feared. You know, Marco was not the storm that everyone was really overly concerned about. It was the combination of two storms.

Here was a tropical storm Marco, was going to dump a lot of rain, and then on top of that, 24, 48 hours later, you are going to have this hurricane that'd be come in and create a kind of an event that this area has never seen before. Well, that's all subsided somewhat, for now.

Today actually is sort of a return to normal for a little bit here in New Orleans, business reopen and government offices reopening, even some schools reopening. The question is for how long. The other good news about the way Marco turned out is that it got everyone prepared, got the city prepared, got the people prepared.

And now, all eyes are going to be focused on Laura. Even though that storm is forecast to go to the West, this felt, though, that there could be significant impacts here, storm surge on the coast, you can have significant rainfall here and on top of that winds. But the city feels it's in a good place, at least as far as it can be for preparation.

No one is going to relax their guard though. This is the end of August and this weekend marks the 15th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, 1,800 lives lost along the Gulf Coast and it forever changed this area and the attitudes towards storms. So, this week is not only going to bring up some new fears about a new hurricane but also bring back some very bad memories -- Laura.

JARRETT: Yeah, bad memories. Of course, everyone remembers Katrina and wants to avoid that with all the preparations as you mention.

Martin, thank you so much for being here for us.

ROMANS: OK. Eighteen minutes past the hour. Athletes from Milwaukee and beyond sounding off after police shoot a black man in the back in front of his kids.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:23:17]

ROMANS: The police shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin sparks outrage for many, including many superstars from the sports world.

Andy Scholes has more on the "Bleacher Report".

Good morning, Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, good morning, Christine. You know, a big part of the NBA restart has been the fight for social justice. That continued on Monday as players in the bubble reacted to the Jacob Blake video.

LeBron James after the Lakers game saying that this video of what happened is just another example of why he's scared to be a black man in our country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEBRON JAMES, LOS ANGELES LAKERS FORWARD: Quite frankly (EXPLETIVE DELETED) in our community and people get tired of hearing me say it, but we are scared as black people in America. Black men, black women, black kids. We are terrified. Sitting here telling me that there was no way to subdue that gentleman or detain him or to -- before the firing of guns, then you're sitting here, you're lying not only to me, you're lying to every African-American, every black person in the community because we see it over and over and over.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Yeah, yesterday was Kobe Bryant day, August 24th, 8/24, Kobe's two numbers. Players across the league, including LeBron wearing outfits to their game to honor Kobe. The Lakers wearing special black mamba jerseys in their win over the Blazers, and pretty chilling moment during the first quarter. The Lakers at one point took a 24 to 8 lead.

Milwaukee Bucks meanwhile beating the Magic yesterday to take a 3-1 lead at their series.

[05:25:02]

Bucks star George Hill didn't answer any basketball questions after the win. He openly questioned whether they should be playing right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE HILL, MILWAUKEE BUCKS GUARD: We can do anything. First of all, we shouldn't even have came to this damn place to be honest. I think coming here took the focal points off of what the issues are. I think definitely when this all settles, you know, some things need to be done.

I think this world has to change. I think our police department has to change. Us as a society has to change. Right now, we're not seeing any of that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Now, Jazz star Donovan Mitchell also reacting to the Jacob Blake video. He tweeted f the games and playoffs. This is sick and is a real problem. We demand justice. It's crazy. I don't have any words but WTF, man. This is why we don't feel safe.

Where the shooting took place, about 150 miles from Green Bay. Packers coach Matt LaFleur, he met with players on his team and talked about what they could do after seeing the video. Quarterback Aaron Rodgers telling reporters there's a deeper issue that needs to be addressed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AARON RODGERS, GREEN BAY PACKERS QUARTERBACK: There's a systemic problem and until the problem is fixed, this is going to be an all too common sighting in this country. There's antiquated laws that are prejudicial against people of color in this state. I think the governor and the focus at the capitol need to take a hard look some of those systems that are in place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: And the Packers, Bucks and Brewers all putting out statements, Laura, praying that Jacob Blake makes a full recovery.

JARRETT: All right. Thank you so much, Andy. Appreciate it.

SCHOLES: All right. Still ahead for you, for all the talk of optimism ahead of the RNC. Well, it quickly turned very dark. Republicans revised history to paint the president as the man to save the country from the radical left. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

END