Return to Transcripts main page

Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

New Rules Could Push Vaccine Until After Election; President Trump Set To Announce SCOTUS Nominee On Saturday; Louisville In State Of Emergency Ahead Of Breonna Taylor Decision. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired September 23, 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]

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: New rules from the FDA could delay a vaccine until after the election.

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

Good morning, this is EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

JARRETT: And I'm Laura Jarrett. It's about 30 minutes past the hour here in New York.

This morning, three of the biggest stories of the year are now converging -- the pandemic, the election, and the Supreme Court. On the same day the coronavirus death toll surpassed 200,000 Americans, President Trump said the surge of mail-in ballots and the legal battles sure to follow means a new Supreme Court justice must be confirmed before Election Day. More on that in a minute.

But we begin with coronavirus. Three sources telling CNN the FDA is now considering new rules that all but guarantee a vaccine would have to wait until after Election Day.

Now, the president has suggested repeatedly that a vaccine could be ready before, but the administration is facing a real erosion of trust after several virus-related decisions that appear to be driven more by politics. So the FDA wants extra time to monitor people taking part in the trials.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: 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 is going to make sure that the in-the-trenches scientists who look at these types of things all the time -- that's what they do for a living -- they're going to be the ones that are going to be making the recommendation.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: Expect more on this today. Top officials managing the government response will testify before the Senate Health Committee.

Twenty-two states now headed in the wrong direction with more cases last week -- this week, rather, than last. That's most of the western half of the country.

The positive test rate is rising in 27 states, including Pennsylvania. That's where the president held a rally last night with no masks or distancing, a dangerous exercise he has repeated several times in recent days. You have to search in this video to find anyone with a mask. I think I saw one person with a blue face mask.

Remember, a key model used by the White House says another 150,000 Americans could die by the end of the year.

Before he left for the rally, the president was asked about 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 you'd have 2 1/2 million deaths.

But it's a horrible thing. It should have never, ever happened. China let this happen, and just remember that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: The White House now claims the president will lay out his vision for health care in the next two weeks. Remember, he's blown through a number of self-imposed deadlines for a plan to replace Obamacare, which oh, by the way, he's trying to have the Supreme Court strike down right now.

Vice President Mike Pence says the coming plan will include executive action to guarantee coverage for people with preexisting conditions, which now includes coronavirus.

The president blamed lockdowns for hurting the country and pushed forcefully for states to reopen. But doctors and economists agree the lack of a public health strategy is what's driving the COVID recession.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AUSTAN GOOLSBEE, PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO: What killed the economy, what put us into as fast a drop as has ever happened in this country economically was not the imposition of policy lockdowns.

The main thing that drove the economic decline is the same thing that always drives decline in a crisis, and that is when people are afraid, they withdraw. And in this case, they were afraid of catching the disease so they stayed home. DR. ASHISH JAH, DIRECTOR, HARVARD GLOBAL HEALTH INSTITUTE: Are these economic losses the cost of controlling the virus? Actually, quite the opposite. When we look across the world we find that nations that did a better job controlling the virus have largely suffered far less in the way of economic losses.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: A group of pediatric infectious disease specialists is calling for vaccine developers to begin clinical trials on children. Vaccinating kids will 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 sometime next month.

JARRETT: Later this morning, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will lie in repose at the Supreme Court so the public can their final respects.

At the same time, President Trump is finalizing plans to nominate her replacement. A clear front-runner is emerging here. Judge Amy Coney Barrett has been at the White House twice in recent days and the president is moving quickly because he says he wants nine justices seated in November to weigh in on issues related to the election.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We need nine justices. You need that with the unsolicited millions of ballots that they're sending. It's a scam, it's a hoax. Everybody knows that. And the Democrats know it better than anybody else.

So you're going to need nine justices up there. I think it's going to be very important.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[05:35:02]

JARRETT: Now, whomever the president picks to fill the seat, it appears Republicans now have a clear path to an election year confirmation vote. GOP Sen. Mitt Romney said Tuesday he would support a vote if the nominee is qualified.

Senate Democrats, meanwhile, are seething over what they see as hypocrisy after Republicans refused to even hold hearings for Merrick Garland, President Obama's nominee, back in 2016. Democrats' options are limited but party leaders won't give up the fight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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

(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: The GOP's Supreme Court push has also escalated the debate among Democrats over expanding the court. But the party's presidential nominee, Joe Biden, has cautioned against it in the past and he's making no commitments now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's a legitimate question, and let me tell you why I'm not going to answer that question.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

BIDEN: Because it will shift all the focus. That's what the 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 is totally inconsistent with what the founders wanted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The Supreme Court faces some critical issues when the new term begins next month, including challenges to Obamacare and abortion rights.

JARRETT: Another issue the court could face is drama like this in Pennsylvania as thousands of mail-in ballots are already in doubt. The State Supreme Court ruling election officials can reject so-called naked ballots. 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 a risk.

ROMANS: Pennsylvania is critical to Joe Biden's path to victory. President Trump won the state by 44,000 votes in 2016.

Pennsylvania's Republican Party is also planning to go the Supreme Court to challenge a recent state court decision that says ballots with no postmark will be counted if they're received by November sixth.

There has been a big surge in absentee ballot requests in swing states compared to 2016 -- twice as many in Ohio, four times as many in Michigan, and, of course, we know why. There is a pandemic. People want to make sure they get their vote in without having to go and wait in long lines at polling places.

JARRETT: The FBI now 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 and having it spread.

This warning came just hours after "The Washington Post" reported the CIA's assessment that Russian President Vladimir 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 is his former national security adviser on this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

H.R. MCMASTER, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: It's making it easy for Vladimir Putin. And I think it's really important for leaders to be responsible about this because really, as you know, 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 to be our own worst enemies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: And the American people gobble it up and spread it around.

Continuing on that 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 SENIOR DIRECTOR, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: We are increasingly seen as an object of pity, including by our allies because they are so shocked by what's happening and how we're eating ourselves alive with our divisions.

You know, we're 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)

ROMANS: A Pew Research poll found last week that positive views at the U.S. are at record lows, driven by the nation's pandemic response.

JARRETT: Cindy McCain, wife of the late Republican senator John McCain, is endorsing Joe Biden for president. Back her late (ph) husband's Senate colleague she said, "We are Republicans, yes, but Americans foremost. There's only one candidate in this race who stands up for our values as a nation, and that is Joe Biden."

Biden said he is quote, "deeply honored to have Mrs. McCain's support." Biden and Sen. John McCain had decades -- a decades' long relationship.

At a virtual fundraiser Tuesday, Biden told attendees that Cindy McCain's decision to endorse him came after "The Atlantic" reported that the president called dead veterans losers and suckers.

ROMANS: Topics have been revealed for the first debate between President Trump and Joe Biden. Chris Wallace of Fox News will moderate Tuesday night at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

The debate will be broken into six 15-minute segments. The topics are the Trump and Biden records, the Supreme Court, COVID-19, the economy, the integrity of the election, and quote, "race and violence in our cities."

Laura, that's a noteworthy phrasing that immediately drew criticism on social media when it was announced.

[05:40:00]

JARRETT: Yes. I think part of the issue there -- the reason people found it so problematic is this idea that race and violence are somehow inextricably intertwined -- certainly something that the president -- a narrative that he has been pushing on the campaign trail.

And one way to avoid it is just to be more direct with what exactly you're going to talk about. Is it racism, is it police brutality, or is it something else?

ROMANS: Yes.

JARRETT: We'll have to see. It will be, of course, very interesting to see how both of the candidates respond to those issues.

Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg bankrolling a big effort to help Joe Biden in Florida now. Bloomberg has raised more than $16 million to pay court fees and fines for more than 30,000 black and Latino individuals with felony convictions who would otherwise be ineligible to vote.

In 2018, Florida voters approved restoring voting rights to more than a million of those formerly incarcerated. The Republicans later passed a law that required any outstanding debts to be paid first.

Trump won Florida by about 100,000 votes in 2016.

ROMANS: All right, there's a bright spot in the coronavirus recession -- the housing market. Existing home sales surged to a 14-year high in August driven by those ultralow mortgage rates and city dwellers looking for more space, buying in the suburbs. Prices also hit a new high with a median home price up 11.4 percent from last year -- amazing.

Economists at the National Association of Realtors said the housing market appears to be a V-shaped recovery. There's your super-V. It's in housing. But it's unclear how much longer the boon will last.

Meanwhile, commercial real estate, though, a completely different story -- struggling there. Offices, malls, restaurants, theaters, they have been hit hard by the pandemic.

Real estate firm Brookfield Properties' partner said it will lay off 20 percent of its employees in its retail arm. It owns malls and shopping centers, including the Grand Canal Shoppes in Las Vegas.

And Yelp recently reported as of August 31st, nearly 163,700 businesses on the site had closed since March first. Of those, about 60 percent say they have shut their doors for good.

That's 100,000 businesses have shut their doors for good, Laura. I read that report --

JARRETT: That's just staggering to hear.

ROMANS: -- I read it again. I just -- I couldn't believe that in my lifetime I would see numbers so catastrophic for small business owners. It's tragic.

JARRETT: It's just shocking. Yes, tragic.

All right. Still ahead, a Massachusetts family hosted a party that forced one school to delay their reopening. Now those parents and their child are facing criminal charges.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:46:38]

ROMANS: In Massachusetts, two parents and their child being charged over a party that forced one high school to delay in-person learning.

CNN has the pandemic covered from coast to coast.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERICA HILL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Erica Hill.

A Massachusetts couple and their teenager are facing charges after allegedly hosting a large party for minors with alcohol. A large group was found in the basement without masks and little social distancing, according to police. While no cases have been connected to the party, a lack of information about who was there led the high school to delay in-person learning over concerns about potential coronavirus risks to the community.

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Nick Watt in Los Angeles.

The headline from California, nail salons across the state are now allowed to open again. We were told that the state is making steady progress.

The health secretary said that that's proof, perhaps, that the general county-by-county approach California has taken is working. He did then check himself and said well, actually, let's wait and see what the impact really was from Labor Day mingling before we congratulate ourselves too much.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN SENIOR GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: I'm Bianna Golodryga in New York.

Saturday's highly-anticipated football game between Notre Dame and Wake Forest has been postponed after seven Notre Dame student-athletes tested positive for COVID-19. A total of 94 had been tested Monday.

Since last week, 13 Fighting Irish players are currently in isolation, 10 in quarantine. The Notre Dame football program has since decided to pause all football-related activities until further testing is complete.

Notre Dame was one of the first universities to temporarily suspend in-person classes in August after a spike in COVID cases. In-person instruction gradually resumed earlier this month.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JARRETT: All right. Thanks to all of our correspondents for those updates on the virus.

Authorities in Louisville, Kentucky restricting access downtown and setting up barricades ahead of a grand jury's decision in the fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor. The preparations not sitting well with everyone, though.

CNN's Jason Carroll has more from Louisville.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine, Laura, the city is not on lockdown but it certainly feels that way to many of the people who live and work in Louisville.

Right now, Louisville in on high alert. A state of emergency has been declared. The streets are closed and many of the businesses boarded up downtown as the city waits for that grand jury to decide whether or not officers will face criminal charges in connection with Breonna Taylor's death.

ROBERT SCHROEDER, ACTING POLICE CHIEF, LOUISVILLE METRO POLICE DEPARTMENT: We are merely taking steps we feel are necessary to protect the public, the businesses, and the property in the downtown area in advance of any decision.

TIMOTHY FINDLEY, PASTOR, LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY: I think the city is contributing to the tense sort of mood and feeling around.

CARROLL: How is the -- how is the city doing that?

FINDLEY: Well, you know, with all the preparations. When you talk about the cement barricades, when you talk about the gates, when you talk about the boards being put up, it's very antagonistic. It's very provocative.

CARROLL: Adding to the tension on the ground, Officer Jonathan Mattingly -- he was one of those officers that served that no-knock warrant at Taylor's apartment that night -- well, he sent an e-mail to police colleagues, which was first made public by "VICE NEWS," where he called protesters, quote, "thugs" and wrote that he and the other officers in the Taylor raid, quote, "did the legal, moral, and ethical thing that night."

[05:50:10]

Also, late Tuesday, the mayor released a video message where he said regardless of what happens with the grand jury, the city, he says, will get through it together -- Christine, Laura.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JARRETT: All right, Jason. Thank you for that.

Three men and a woman arrested in rural Iowa in connection with the death of a black man whose body was found burning in a ditch. Police say 44-year-old Michael Williams of Grinnell, Iowa was killed about 10 days ago and his body was wrapped in plastic and taken to Kellogg, Iowa where it was set on fire.

Despite appearances, right now, state authorities say this is not being treated as a hate crime.

ROMANS: The University of California improperly admitted dozens of students based on personal or family connections to staff and donors. According to a state audit, UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC San Diego, and UC Santa Barbara unfairly admitted 64 applicants between 2013 and 2019.

Twenty-two of those students were accepted through the student-athlete admissions processes even though they had no athletic qualifications. That was the pattern for many parents, of course, charged in the college admissions scandal last year.

JARRETT: Well, it's alive. The National Weather Service says Paulette has come back to life as a zombie storm. Paulette made landfall in Bermuda last week as a hurricane before weakening when it moved over open waters. It has now reformed as a tropical storm off the coast of Azores.

Hurricane officials say zombie storms are rare but can occur during an extremely busy storm season like 2020.

ROMANS: All right, let's get a check on CNN Business this morning. Taking a look at markets around the world, a mixed performance there at the close in Asian trade. And you can see European shares have opened higher. London up a strong 2.3 percent.

On Wall Street, futures at this hour also leaning up here. Stocks recovered slightly Tuesday after several days of losses. The Dow closed up 140 points. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq also ended the day higher.

But some caution on the road ahead. One top economist says the V- shaped recovery in the economy died in early summer and the road ahead is uncertain. There is no clear path to stimulus, coronavirus cases are rising, and the battle over the Supreme Court still a major concern.

The upcoming holiday season is going to look a lot different. Retailers are gearing up for a flood of online orders.

Walmart will hire more than 20,000 seasonal workers at e-commerce fulfillment centers. UPS said it will hire 100,000 seasonal workers. FedEx plans to hire 70,000. 1-800-Flowers will bring on 10,000 new people to deliver bouquets. And, Michael's -- that's the arts and crafts stores -- they are going to add 16,000 jobs.

Deloitte estimates e-commerce sales will grow up -- will grow up to 35 percent from November to January.

Amazon is going to go head-to-head with Peloton with its own stationary bike. Amazon partnering with this company called Echelon to produce the Prime Bike, Amazon's first-ever connected fitness product.

At $499, it's roughly $15.00 less -- $1,500 less than the Peloton. It looks like a Peloton but it doesn't have a screen, though, to stream workouts.

Peloton, of course, has surged during the pandemic. It recently reported -- get this -- a 172 percent increase in sales and it cut the price of its most popular bike by 15 percent.

Elon Musk made some big promises during Tesla's battery event Tuesday, including -- get this -- a $25,000 Tesla that would be available in about three years. That would be much cheaper than any car Tesla has made so far. Musk touted Tesla's new batteries designs and manufacturing advances that he says could lower costs.

Musk has a history, of course, of under-delivering on some of these promises. Years ago, Tesla promised a $35,000 Model 3, but it was only available at that price for a very limited time.

JARRETT: Well, speaking of cars, the city of Tel Aviv working on a potential game changer for charging electric cars. The city is building a wireless electric road to charge and power public transportation. It's part of a pilot program funded by government and private sources. The road, itself, will be a little less than half a mile.

If the pilot is successful, Tel Aviv will look into expanding electric roads in the city.

ROMANS: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos set to open his first nonprofit preschool as part of his $2 billion Day One Fund. The school will be open for in-person classes in a Seattle suburb on October 19th.

Bezos announced the Day One Fund back in 2018 has two priorities. Building free preschools for low-income families and helping homeless families get back on their feet.

JARRETT: Notable that it will be in-person, too --

ROMANS: Yes.

JARRETT: -- starting in October.

ROMANS: Yes.

All right, thanks for joining us, everybody. I'm Christine Romans. JARRETT: Have a great day, everyone. I'm Laura Jarrett. "NEW DAY" is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:59:09]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is one of the greatest tragedies, these 200,000 deaths. Those deaths were preventable.

FAUCI: It's unacceptable to not realize that we are entering into a risk period and we've got to act accordingly.

HILL: The FDA is poised to set tough new standards for emergency use authorization of a coronavirus vaccine.

TRUMP: I'm getting very close to having a final decision made.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Officials tell CNN Trump seemed very enthusiastic about Amy Coney Barrett.

SCHUMER: Leader McConnell's actions may now very well destroy the institution of the Senate.

(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 States and all around the world.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Stuff is falling off the ceiling here. I don't know if people heard the bang there. We're OK.

CAMEROTA: We're off to a great start.

BERMAN: We're OK. Nothing has fallen on us. Near us, but not on us.

CAMEROTA: This is NEW DAY. It's Wednesday, September 23rd, 6:00 here in New York.