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First Case of U.K. Coronavirus Variant Discovered in Colorado; Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) Moves to Combine Trump Asks in Potential Poison Pill Bill; Big Development in Police Killings of Breonna Taylor and Tamir Rice. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired December 30, 2020 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN NEW DAY: The U.S. is now reporting the first case of that coronavirus variant originally seen in the U.K. It's a man in Colorado in his 20s with no known travel history, he has tested positive for this.

CNN has learned that a second suspected case in that state is currently being investigated. Both of these cases involve men that work at an assisted living facility. This news comes as the U.S. again shatters records for deaths and hospitalizations. More than 3,700 American deaths were reported just yesterday. That is the highest total in a single day. And a record number of people, nearly 125,000 now, are hospitalized with coronavirus.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN NEW DAY: Listen, more proof no one is immune from this. One of the victims, a young lawmaker who lost his battle with coronavirus overnight, Republican Congressman-elect, Luke Letlow, was set to be sworn in this weekend. The 41-year-old, just 41 years old, died less than two weeks after publicly revealing his coronavirus diagnosis.

Also breaking overnight, another coronavirus vaccine just got approval in the U.K. The British health secretary says the first doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine will be given on Monday. This vaccine crucially much cheaper and easier to store than the two approved so far here in the U.S. Officials say it could be a game changer for getting people vaccinated not just in the U.K. but in countries around the world. And, by the way, the U.K. has enough doses for its entire population already.

Let's begin with CNN's Athena Jones on the U.K. variant discovered here no in the U.S. It is more transmissible, the doctors tell us, Athena, and that's a problem as we're already in the middle of a surge within a surge in the outbreak.

ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You're right. You're absolutely right, Jim, of the idea of a more transmissible virus. This is the last thing we need in a country that has done a terrible job of getting the spread of this virus under control.

Colorado health officials announcing they found the country's first known case of this COVID-19 variant, first discovered in the United Kingdom, one that U.K. scientists have been warning is more transmissible, more contagious, significantly more than the earlier original strain.

This was found in a man in his 20s in Elbert County, Colorado, and there is now a second suspected case in a man in the same county, Elbert County. Both men were working at a small assisted living facility, a small assisted living facility in Simla, serving in non- clinical roles.

And we're just getting this information in. Neither of these men were residents of the county and they were only working at that facility because there had been a previous outbreak of COVID-19 about two-and- a-half weeks ago that killed at least two people. So they were not regular staff.

Now, the state health department has dispatched a rapid response team to the facility to test residents and staff and we know that the state health department is also in touch with the CDC about these cases.

But the frightening prospect of a more contagious version of this virus comes really at the worst possible time. As you said, we're within a surge and doctors have been warning about a surge upon a surge upon a surge and we're posting staggering, record-breaking numbers.

We saw yesterday more than 3,700 people die of COVID-related complications and nearly 125,000 people hospitalized. Both of those are records. And we're now looking at almost a month where hospitalizations have been over 100,000.

And the other scary thought is that we are now just a few days away of a grim milestone of 350,000 people dying from COVID in America, which is just an unimaginable figure. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: Athena, thank you very much for all of that new reporting.

Joining us now is Rick Bright, he is the former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. He is now a member of President-elect Joe Biden's coronavirus advisory board.

Rick, all the breaking news this morning is really unsettling. Hearing that that U.K. variant is now here in the U.S., how could it not be? But hearing that it's affecting this young man in his 20s in Colorado with no known travel history suggests it's already here, there's already community spread. How concerned should people be this morning?

DR. RICK BRIGHT, MEMBER, PRESIDENT-ELECT BIDEN'S CORONAVIRUS ADVISORY BOARD: Good morning. Thanks for having me on this morning. You know, this is really concerning news. It is not a surprise at this point that the virus isn't already in the United States. It's been spreading in the U.K. and other areas since at least last September, we've learned.

What's really concerning is that it's taken so long to detect it in the United States. It tells us once again if you're not testing for something, you're not going to find it. And now that we tried to intensify our testing, of course, it's here. We need to really bolster our genomic surveillance systems in the United States to watch for these types of variants.

It's also really concerning that this virus, we're learning from our scientists in the U.K., is more transmissible.

[07:05:03]

That means it's easier to spread. It's easier for people to get infected by this virus.

So what we need to do more than anything while we try to get the outstanding answers about the other properties of the virus, is each of us, we know now what to do to prevent infection. If each of us were to wear our masks more and social distancing and washing our hands and keeping those crowds small and don't travel right now, I can tell you, everyone in America listened to me, you do not want to get infected by this virus. And you can prevent yourself from getting infected by wearing your mask. Please help us control the spread.

SCIUTTO: We spoke with Dr. Richard Haseltine in the last hour, who spoke of the experience of France recently with this variant, France imposing a nationwide travel lockdown. And he said, reducing the spread of this by a factor of 20. I wonder, do you agree with him that this country has to enact some sort of lockdown travel restriction to get a handle on this early?

BRIGHT: You know, we should look at every possible option to control the spread of the virus. First and foremost, each of us take personal responsibility in reducing the spread by wearing our mask and social distancing. I know the federal level and I know the state level and the local levels have a number of additional options to further reduce the spread and they should be considering all of those options at this point, as we try to better understand how to control this virus.

CAMEROTA: Rick, Professor Haseltine told us something else that really got our attention. He said -- and he's steeped in this. I mean, he has worked on these kind of immunological or virus things for decades. And he said that he thinks that the Trump administration invested too heavily in the new technology, the messenger RNA, the new vaccine, and that the old-school vaccines that other countries are still using are possibly just as effective and that it's time to buy some of those from other countries. Do you think that and do you think President-elect Biden shares that view?

BRIGHT: You know, there's over 250 different approaches to try to make a vaccine for this coronavirus. And the United States government invested in those candidates that were moving most rapidly to respond most quickly.

They also have invested in additional studies and a number of other investors have across the United States and across the world in a number of different vaccine platforms. We understand, it's going to take more than one vaccine, more than one type of vaccine to get this virus under control. And I'm encouraged to see that those efforts are still ongoing, still being supported.

And I don't think anything is off the table about the different types of vaccines to invest in. Right now, we need to focus on the vaccines that we have authorized in the United States and scaling up production of those and getting those vaccines distributed and providing the support downstream for the health care systems to bring on the staff and training to get people to administer the vaccines and building and earning trust across America so people will want to take the vaccine.

That is where we need to focus our efforts right now to get the virus under control.

SCIUTTO: Vice president -- President-elect, rather, Biden, has criticized the rollout so far. And this is not just politics. It's in the numbers. Let's look at the administration's promises and what's actually happened.

In September, the promise was 100 million doses by the end of 2020. Then in November, it was 40 million doses. Then it was 20 million by December. Today, 2.1 million, a fraction. And I wonder what this is exposing, in your view. Real issues in this country's ability to get it out to the people who need this most and quickly and what needs to be done about that?

BRIGHT: You know, as someone who's worked in vaccine distribution and administration for many years, this is not a surprise. We know how hard it is to get this job done. We've tried to do in 2009 and '10, responding to an influenza pandemic.

What this reveals a failure of the plan, a failure to have a national strategy to vaccinate individuals across the country, a failure to communicate, a failure to coordinate, a failure to be honest and transparent with Americans about the complexities and the timelines for this vaccine. All of that erodes trust and erodes the confidence people have in the entire system, let alone in the vaccine.

We have a lot of work to do and President-elect Biden said that he will move heaven and earth to make sure that we do everything possible to get the vaccine into the arms of Americans in every pocket of our country. And that's what we're going to focus on after January 20th, to make sure we're rolling out a strategy, end-to-end, DPA, to get supplies and vaccines produced, communication, coordination, to get the vaccine distributed, education, resources to support the administration and the health care workers, education and resources, to support the administration and the health workers and communication, education to build confidence in people to get the vaccine.

[07:10:15]

We have a lot of work to do. And President-elect Biden and his team have a plan and a blueprint to roll out on day one. And they want to administer 100 million doses of the vaccine in those first 100 days and I believe we're going to get the job done.

CAMEROTA: Rick, until that happens, is there any way to beef up and get better access to the therapeutics that we currently have? And the reason that I ask is because Congressman-elect Luke Letlow died. He was 41 years old. He had no underlying health conditions, according to his doctor. He was sick for two weeks or less. And he was trying to fight it out at home, as all of us are told to do, until our oxygen gets so low that we go to the hospital, unless -- I mean, and tell me if I'm missing something here, Rick, but if you're President Trump or you're President Trump's friends, you get to go to the hospital right away, like Rudy Giuliani did. And then you get the Regeneron antibody cocktail and then you get the I.V. Remdesivir right away. And guess what, you walk out of the hospital after just a few days.

I mean, Rudy Giuliani is not an essential worker, but he got those therapeutics. And if other people could get the therapeutics earlier, wouldn't that save lives?

BRIGHT: It would absolutely save lives. Again, this has highlighted a number of critical issues that we need to fix quickly. We have vaccines sitting in the freezer not being administered. We have therapeutics sitting in the freezer and refrigerators and warehouses not being administered. We have such disparities in access to those vaccines and therapeutics. You're absolutely right.

My heart goes out to the congressman-elect and his family, but my heart also goes out to the 3,700 other people who died in our country yesterday and are dying every single day and don't have access to these life-saving medicines, don't have information on how to get them and their hospital staffs don't have access to these medicines or the staff to administer these medicines.

We have to fix the racial disparities and the access -- the problems with access to these therapeutics and vaccines and the testing and every other problem that we have to address this pandemic. We need to do that urgently.

CAMEROTA: Rick, you have your work cut out for you, as does President-elect Biden in 21 days. Thank you very much for all of the information.

So, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell may sink efforts to give Americans those $2,000 stimulus checks. We'll tell you what he's up to, next.

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[07:15:00]

CAMEROTA: Developing this morning, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has introduced legislation that combines increased stimulus checks with two of President Trump's pet peeves that have nothing to do with helping Americans in need. Democrats call this a poison pill.

Joining us now, CNN Political Director David Chalian and CNN Senior Political Reporter Nia-Malika Henderson. This awesome duo post the CNN podcast, Politically Sound, which is fantastic.

NIA MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Thanks, Alisyn. CAMEROTA: Okay. You guys, what is Mitch McConnell doing, David? We had Toluse Olorunnipa on last hour, one of our analysts, who floated a really interesting, I thought, take on it, which is that McConnell is playing the president. McConnell is actually depriving Trump from being able to put his signature on those $2,000 checks to Americans. Why is he doing that?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes. I don't know if I would describe it exactly the same way as playing the president. I think it's pretty clear, Mitch McConnell's singular goal here was to get the president's signature on the bill that was sent to his desk with overwhelming bipartisan majorities in the House and the Senate, and that's what he got Sunday night when the president agreed to sign it.

Now, when the president did that, he said, I have all of these other issues that I've looked into it, and Mitch he's like, yes, yes, Mr. President, we'll be sure we'll look into that, just get your signature on that bill. And so I think that sort of, yes, yes, Mr. President will be sure to take up your agenda items is sort of the approach that Mitch McConnell is taking this week.

He clearly doesn't want to split his own party. And we started to see some splits emerge among Republicans, right? Some of them would be in favor of that $2,000 stimulus check, the increase up to 2,000, some would not be. And that would divide his own party. And so he was not looking to do that at all, especially right before the Georgia Senate runoff, when he wants a totally unified effort.

You see there were a few of the senators on your screen that indicated that they were in support of that. And so, instead, he combined it all, knowing one way to keep Republicans unified, put these other things in there. They can support those things, knowing that the Democrats will not at all, and it won't pass.

SCIUTTO: Nia-Malika, I'm sure folks watching at home right now are entertained to hear about machinations, keeping the Republican caucus together. I mean, the country is on fire right now in this outbreak. 3,700 people died in a day. It's going up. There's a new variant here, which is more transmissible. We're talking about a surge within a surge, and meanwhile, of a failing rollout of the vaccine. It's failing. It's not meeting even a fraction of these administration's goals by the end of this month.

Has that pierced -- is that piercing the bubble on Capitol Hill? What are they doing about it?

HENDERSON: You know, no, in many ways. And then you have this news of this congressman-elect, 41 years old, who we were talking about last segment, who died from the coronavirus. And so even with all of that, even with the horrible news about coronavirus, the uptick in cases, the uptick in deaths, the capacity in some of these hospitals at a limit in the ICU wards, for instance.

[07:20:06]

None of this really seems to be piercing Congress in terms of what they want to do. If you're Mitch McConnell, you feel like you have done what you needed to do, by passing the relief bill, the $600 that will go out to folks who are really scraping to get by, some of them facing eviction, some of them having to go to food lines because they don't have enough to buy food for their families.

And that is the reality that Americans are facing right now and it's only going to get worse. The death toll will continue to go up. This vaccine rollout hasn't been what this administration promised. It was supposed to be 20 million by the end of the year. I think it's about 2 million at this point. So you saw Biden come out yesterday and really try to light a fire under this current administration. That, of course, not working either, because this administration is essentially saying, well, listen, it's all up to the states, which is where they've been all along on this, which is why it's gone in such a disastrous way.

CAMEROTA: Yes. I mean, just to build on that, David, we're used to the president being checked out at this point on coronavirus. He shut down travel from China in February and has tried to hang his hat on that ever since, saying, after he did that, that he said, well, it's going to magically go away, okay? So nothing has happened on a national basis that would change the course, the horrible, tragic course of this, basically, since then. But he has been on the golf course this week for 15 hours, that we know of.

And the idea that there can be no national plan, there can be no national strategy, it's all up to the states from here, and we're seeing how that is failing, obviously, President-elect Joe Biden has a very different take and a very different approach to all of this. But, I mean, what he's being handed 21 days from now, I just don't know how he's going to be able to turn all of that around.

CHALIAN: Yes, Well, every week since the election in November, Alisyn, what you've seen is Joe Biden come out and talk about the COVID crisis front and center with the American people. He is actually trying to fill the leadership vacuum left by the Donald Trump that you're describing, that he's checked out.

And so each day, one day every week, at least, he's come out, whether it's sort of announcing his team or what he calls sort of talking straight from the shoulder to the American people on this notion that we are in for darker days ahead before we are in for brighter days ahead. He's trying to level set expectations, talk about his first hundred-day plan, constantly urge people to wear masks. He is trying to fill that vacuum that Donald Trump has left here.

And I think you are right to note that three weeks from now, when Joe Biden is inaugurated, it's not a light switch, that all of a sudden the COVID crisis is just going to be a totally different problem and it's going to be on its way out. No. And that's what Joe Biden is trying to prepare the American people for, is that this is still a long road ahead, not made easier by the president, who is currently in the Oval Office.

SCIUTTO: So you have these sins of omission here, right? But you have active blocking of the Biden transmission. We had new reporting last night with myself and my colleagues, M.J lee and Kevin Liptak, that the Department of Defense is withholding key information, Nia-Malika, from the Biden transition on listen to the list of things. Deployments in war zones, the military budget, that's important, but also details about the ongoing Russia hack.

This is dereliction of duty, with real consequences for national security. How is this happening?

HENDERSON: And real consequences for every American. I think if you look at the way that Donald Trump has behaved over these last many weeks, where it's clear that he won't be the next president, he wants Joe Biden to fail. He wants to hobble his administration, whether it comes to national security, whether it comes to his understanding of COVID and the vaccine rollout, that is what that i what he wants , And it's terrible for every American, because Joe Biden's success means American success. It means American's health and wellbeing is being looked after, if Joe Biden successful in tackling these huge, huge issues.

As you said, America's safety, it means American's health and well- being is being looked of Joe Biden is successful in tackling these huge, huge issues. As you said, America is on fire. We're in a desperate place as citizens and as a country. And so it would be much more helpful if this outgoing president was being helpful instead of trying to hobble this incoming president, because he can't accept that he lost. And so it's a real tragic situation.

CAMEROTA: Yes. Nia-Malika, David, thank you both very much. Great to talk to you.

So there are some major developments in two high-profile racial justice cases. We bring you the latest on the deadly shooting investigations of Breonna Taylor and Tamir Rice. That's next.

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[07:25:00]

CAMEROTA: We have two major developments on high-profile cases of deadly police shootings involving black Americans. The Louisville police officer who shot and killed Breonna Taylor, whose death set off a wave of protests across America, was notified he will be fired by the police chief, as will a second officer.

At the same time, two Cleveland police officers will avoid federal criminal charges for their role in the killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Ohio back in 2014.

CNN's Jason Carroll has the latest on both of these cases. Jason?

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A lot of developments overnight, Alisyn. I want to start with the significant development involving the Breonna Taylor case. You touched on it late last night. Attorneys for two Louisville Metro police officers confirmed the department does intend to try to fire them. That's according to their attorneys. Detective Joshua James, who obtained that no-knock warrant, and Detective Miles Cosgrove, who fired the fatal shot that night, received pre-termination letters yesterday. The letter from the interim police chief sent to Officer James says, in part, your actions have brought discredit upon yourself and the department. I cannot tolerate this type of conduct or untruthfulness by any member of the Louisville Metro Police Department.

[07:30:04]

James' attorney telling CNN his client is being made a scapegoat and called the investigation.