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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Source: New Rules Could Push Vaccine Until After Election; Trump: Need New Justice to Consider Mail-In Ballots; Russian Opposition Leader Released from Hospital in Berlin; Nuggets Hold Off Lakers in Western Conference Finals. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired September 23, 2020 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:18]

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Taking the politics out of science. New rules from the FDA could delay a vaccine until after the election.

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: And the president wants to fast track his nomination to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg, all while admitting he wants the upper hand if the election winds up at the Supreme Court.

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.

Welcome back, Laura.

JARRETT: Thanks.

ROMANS: It's Wednesday, September 23, it's 5:00 a.m. in New York. And 41 days until election.

And this morning, three of the biggest stories are converging, pandemic, election and Supreme Court.

On the same day the coronavirus death toll surpassed 200,000 Americans, President Trump said the pandemic driven surge of mail in ballots and the legal battles to follow mean a new Supreme Court justice must be confirmed before election day.

We begin with coronavirus. Three source tell CNN the FDA is considering new rules that all guarantees of a vaccine have to wait until after Election Day. The president has said repeatedly the vaccine could be ready by then.

But the administration is facing an erosion of trust after several virus related decisions appeared to be driven by politics. So, the FDA wants extra time to northern people taking part in the trials.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: The data will determine the announcement. I would trust the CDC. And I would trust the FDA. The FDA commissioner has made it very clear that he's going to make sure that the in trenches scientists who look at these type of things all the time, that's what they do for a living, they are going to be the ones making the recommendation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: Expect more on this today. Top officials managing the government response will testify before the Senate Health Committee. 22 states are now headed in the wrong direction, with more cases this week than last. That's most of the western half of the country. You can see there on that map the positive test rate is rising in 27 states, including Pennsylvania where the president held a rally last night with few masks and no social distancing. A dangerous exercise he seems set on repeating this election season.

Remember a key model used by this White House says another 150,000 Americans could die by the end of the year. And before he left for the rally in Pennsylvania, the president was asked about the 200,000 American deaths so far.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I think it's a shame. I think if we didn't do it properly and do it right, would you have 2.5 million deaths but it's a horrible thing. It should never ever have happened. China let this happen. And just remember that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The White House again claims the president will lay out his vision for health care in the next two weeks.

He has blown through a number of these self-imposed deadlines for a plan to replace Obamacare which he's trying to have courts invalidate. That would leave to protections for pre-existing conditions which now include coronavirus. Among the nearly 7 million cases, Heather Elizabeth Brown, she spent more than 100 days in the hospital, battling the virus, including a month in a coma.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HEATHER ELIZABETH BROWN, HOSPITALIZED 100+ DAYS WITH COVID-19: The after-effects when it comes to breathing and when it comes to energy are two of the biggest struggles that I have. I can't get through a whole day without having to stop and lie down and rest just because I'm absolutely exhausted from doing every day simple tasks. I absolutely want people to know that COVID is a real disease. It's not fake. It's not made up. It's not a conspiracy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: Meanwhile, a group of infectious disease specialists is calling for vaccine developers to begin clinical trials on children. Vaccinating kids would be critical to stopping asymptomatic spread from schools to homes and elsewhere. The Miami-Dade and Broward County school boards have now voted to restart in person learning some time next month.

ROMANS: Later this month, Ruth Bader Ginsburg will lie in repose at the Supreme Court so the public can pay final respects. At the same time, President Trump is finalizing plans to nominate her replacement. A clear front-runner is emerging and the president is moving quickly because he says he want nine judges seated in November to weigh in on issues related to the election.

CNN's Kaitlan Collins traveled with the president to Pennsylvania.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Christine, at this rally in Pennsylvania, the president wants again teasing the Supreme Court pick. He now says he's going to make 5:00 p.m. on Saturday at the White House. Of course, that's just a few days away.

But we already seem to know who is the clear favorite, and that's Amy Coney Barrett, a judge who met with the president at the White House earlier this week and returned to the White House yesterday for more meetings. Of course, this is a very lengthy, laborious process.

[05:05:02]

And Amy Coney Barrett has been making multiple appearances. We have not determined if any other candidates have been interviewed at the White House.

One other candidate we know they are considering interviewing is Barbara Lagoa. She, of course, is a Cuban-American judge. Her hometown is in Miami, which is where the president is going to be on Friday. So, we're still waiting to see if they do ultimately set up a meeting between two of them.

But basically, sources have conveyed to us that Amy Coney Barrett is seen as the safest choice. She's well-liked by Republicans. So, unless something dramatic happens, that is the general thinking. Of course, with President Trump and this White House, things could change and do often change at the last minute.

For right now, the president says he will make his pick on Saturday at 5:00.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JARRETT: Kaitlan, thank you for that.

Whoever President Trump picks to fill the Supreme Court seat, it appears Republicans now have a clear path to an election year confirmation vote. GOP Senator Mitt Romney said he would support a vote if the nominee is qualified. Senate Democrats, meanwhile, are seething over what they see the height of hypocrisy after Republicans refused to hold even a hearing for Merrick Garland, President Obama's nominee back in 2016.

Now, Democrats' options are limited on this, but party leaders aren't giving up the fight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), MINORITY LEADER: Let the next president decide and then the election can be a referendum on these issues rather than jam it through as Mitch McConnell is doing. He's defiled the Senate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: The GOP Supreme Court push has also escalated this debate among Democrats over expanding the court, so-called court packing, but the party's presidential nominee Joe Biden has cautioned against court packing in the past and he's making no commitments now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: It's a legitimate question, but let me tell you, I'm not going to answer that question because it will shift the whole focus. That's what he wants. He never wants to talk about the issue at hand. He always tries to change the subject. The discussion should be about why he is moving in a direction that's totally inconsistent with what the Founders wanted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: The Supreme Court faces a number of critical issues when the next term begins next month including challenges to Obamacare and abortion rights.

ROMANS: All right. There is election drama this morning in Pennsylvania. Thousands of mail in ballots already in doubt. Those are ballots that are received without the secrecy envelope that prevents poll workers from seeing how someone voted.

More than 100,000 mail-in ballots could be at risk.

JARRETT: Pennsylvania is, of course, critical to Joe Biden's path to victory. President Trump won the state by 44,000 votes in 2016. Pennsylvania's Republican Party is planning to go to the Supreme Court to challenge a recent state court decision that says ballots with no postmark will be carried if they are received by November 6th. There's been a surge in absentee ballot requests in critical swing states compared to 2016, of course, the pandemic twice as many in Ohio now and four times as many in Michigan.

ROMANS: At the same time, the FBI is warning about foreign disinformation aimed against the 2020 election results. The bureau encourages voters to be patient with slow results. It says Americans should verify information through multiple reliable sources and think twice before sharing unverified material on social media. The warning came just hours after "The Washington Post" reported the CIA's assessment that Russian President Putin is probably directing influence operations to undermine Joe Biden.

There's also U.S. intel to back that up. But President Trump and some top aides are promoting election conspiracies.

Here's his former national security adviser.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

H.R. MCMASTER, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: It's making it easier for Vladimir Putin and I think it's important for leaders to be responsible. Putin doesn't create these divisions in our society. He doesn't create these doubts, he magnifies them. And we just have to be really careful not be our own worst enemies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: Continuing that same theme at the Citizen by CNN Conference, Fiona Hill, a former top White House adviser on Russia says America's standing on the world stage has been badly eroded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FIONA HILL, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL SENIOR DIRECTOR: We are increasingly seen as an object of pity, including our allies because they are shocked by what's happening internally, how we're eating ourselves alive by our divisions. You know, we are the ones who are creating all this. It's not, you know, the Russians or the Chinese or anyone else. We are doing this to ourselves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: A Pew Research poll found positive views of the U.S. are at record lows driven by the nation's response to the pandemic.

ROMANS: All right. Breaking news from Germany.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny released from a hospital in Berlin. Doctors treating Alexei Navalny for poisoning said his condition improved enough to be discharged after 32 days in the hospital.

[05:10:02]

Navalny, the most vocal critic of Vladimir Putin, was poisoned with what experts say was a chemical nerve agent.

JARRETT: All right. Still ahead, the clock is ticking now. A hundred thousand airline jobs could vanish next week. How CEOs and unions teamed up looking for help.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: A hundred thousand --100,000 airline workers will lose their jobs next week without more help from Congress. As the Supreme Court battle sucks political oxygen away from more pandemic relief, airline CEOs and union leaders are urging Congress for another $28 billion in aid.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SITO PANTOJA, INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS AND AEROSPACE WORKERS: This is about throwing hundreds of thousands of more workers on the unemployment lines, and shutting off any hope of making any economic recovery.

[05:15:03]

ERIC FERGUSON, PRESIDENT, ALLIED PILOTS ASSOCIATION: We must act now to prevent catastrophic damage to our major economic engine of the U.S. airlines.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Airline travel is down about 70 percent since early March. Bookings are expected to drop even more through fall. Aviation industry leaders argue losing 100,000 jobs all at once is a blow the economy can't withstand right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT KIRBY, CEO, UNITED AIRLINES: Just do the right thing. Everyone agrees, as the others have said, that the right thing to do, both sides of the aisle is to extend the payroll support program through March.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Delta said 2,000 pilot furloughs will be delayed a month to allow more talks with each union over cuts. Last week, Delta CEO said flight attendants and ground based frontline employees in the U.S. would not be furloughed.

JARRETT: Just a staggering number of jobs on the line, Christine. And as you mentioned, all the oxygen being sucked out, obviously for a Supreme Court fight which they are happy to fast track but not aid to people who are going to lose their jobs.

All right. Also in Washington, the House is overwhelmingly approved a bipartisan funding deal that avert as government shutdown until early December.

Now, a sticking point in the negotiations has been a farm a bail out program that President Trump has used to reimburse farmers hurt by his trade policies. So, as a part of the deal, Republicans and farm state Democrats secured tens of billions in crucial aid to farmers but that aid will come with some restrictions to guard against Trump directing it for political purposes. Democrats also sealed an $8 billion in nutrition assistance that they wanted, including for school children affected by the pandemic. The Senate is expected to take up the measure in the coming days.

ROMANS: A brief scare in the air for the plane carrying Vice President Mike Pence. Air Force 2 landed safely at an airport in New Hampshire after a bird strike. Pence was flying back to Washington after a campaign rally in Gilford, New Hampshire. The vice president's spokesman said the pilot returned to the airport out of an abundance of caution. Pence and his staffers used a cargo plane to return to D.C.

JARRETT: The Trump administration once asking the Supreme Court to weigh in on a fight over the 2020 census and fast. This time, the president wants to exclude undocumented immigrants to be counted when seats are reallocated among the 50 states next year, which could be mean critical funding cuts for essential services in big cities nationwide.

Now, the administration is requesting and expedited review of this issue. A three-judge panel recently blocked the administration's directive.

ROMANS: All right. The NBA season is months behind schedule. Now, the commissioner has an idea when the next season could start. That, plus a big comeback in the bubble, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:22:03]

JARRETT: Welcome back.

LeBron James and the Lakers have a fight on their hands against the Nuggets in the NBA playoffs.

Carolyn Manno has more in this morning's "Bleacher Report".

Hey, Carolyn.

CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning.

If there's one thing we learned in these playoffs is that you never count out the Denver Nuggets, at least not this year's team anyway. They've proven that they know how to erase a 3-1 deficit, working their way out of more trouble last night, down two games to none in the Western Conference Finals.

Jamal Murray put the team back into the mix. Denver led by as many as 22 points in the fourth quarter, but LeBron James seeking his fourth NBA title led an impressive come back. He cut the deficit to three with the Lakers. Denver went on a run after that with Murray coming up big. He ended up finishing the game with 28 points, including a pair of clutched threes from a way downtown to seal it. Denver hanging on to win by eight. Game four is set for tomorrow night.

In the meantime, as the league gets closer to crowning a 2020 champion in the Orlando bubble, one of the biggest looming question marks is when the next season will start.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver gave CNN's Bob Costa a sense of that timeline.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADAM SILVER, NBA COMMISSIONER: My best guess is that even though, as you said, it will be the 2021 season that that season won't start until '21, I continue to believe we're better off getting into January. The goal for us next season is to play a standard season, to your other part of your question, 82-game season and playoffs, and further, the goal would be the play games in home arenas in front of fans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MANNO: Game one of the WNBA semifinals between Seattle Storm and Minnesota Lynx, tipping off last night, became originally scheduled for Sunday, that it was delayed due to inclusive COVID-19 test results from the storm. This one worth the wait though, tied with the clock winding down, and it was the Storm's Alysha Clark who pulls down the rebound and puts it back to beat the buzzer. Seattle wins the thriller by two.

Saturday's game between seventh-ranked Notre Dame and Wake Forest has been postponed after seven of the Fighting Irish's 94 COVID-19 test came back positive. Notre Dame posing all football related activities until further testing is completed, combined with testing results from last week, a total of 13 football players are in isolation with 10 in quarantine. No word yet on when the game may be rescheduled.

And the NFL has fined the Saints coach Sean Payton and Raiders coach Jon Gruden $100,000 for not wearing masks on the sideline in Monday night's game. The team docked 250 grand as well, per team. So, the league now handing out more than $1.75 million in fines for mask violations.

This weekend, you know, Christine, with the NBA playoff bubble, largely deemed a success in terms of health and safety. The focus has shifted squarely to the NFL. Their decisions resonate loudly nationally.

[05:25:02]

So, showing that it's important.

ROMANS: All right.

Carolyn Manno, nice to see you this morning. Thank you, Carolyn.

All right. The most anticipated moment of the election is here. Donald Trump and Joe Biden face off in the first presidential debate. Watch it play out live on CNN, special coverage starts Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JARRETT: Taking the politics out of science. New rules from the FDA could delay a vaccine until after the election.

ROMANS: And the president wants to fast track his nomination to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg.