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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Over 100 Million Americans in Path of Blizzard-Like Conditions; Biden to Meet 10 GOP Senators Pushing Smaller Relief Plan; Myanmar Military Seizes Power in Apparent Coup. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired February 01, 2021 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:00]
LAURA JARRETT, CO-ANCHOR, EARLY START: Good morning and welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is EARLY START, we have reports from six continents today as only CNN can. We're in Brazil, Paris, Melbourne, Moscow, Johannesburg and of course at the White House and more. I'm Laura Jarrett.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CO-ANCHOR, EARLY START: And I'm Boris Sanchez in for Christine Romans. It is Monday, February 1st, it is 5:00 a.m. in New York where you are, Laura, snow already coming down fast there. Here in D.C., it's been coming down for a little under 24 hours and it's beautiful, but certain to cause a lot of headaches.
JARRETT: Well, that's the case for sure. If you're waking up in the northeast today, plan on staying close to home. A nor'easter is moving up the East Coast through early tomorrow with more than 110 million Americans in its path. With 20 to 30 mile per hour wind-gusts, near blizzard conditions are possible with downed power lines and limited visibility on roads also a concern. Some areas in and around New York City, possible 2 feet of snow.
SANCHEZ: They've been canceled in and out of the northeast especially in that New York area. The port authority which runs the region's airports, tunnels and bus terminals gearing up with more than 500 pieces of snow equipment of a storm system already leaving its mark. Look at this, in the suburbs of Richmond, Virginia, this fire truck spinning out and overturning on icy roads. Of course, before it crossed the country, the same system washed out this enormous piece of California's highway one near Big Sur, leaving a huge gap in the scene, it erode away.
JARRETT: Which is amazing. Look at that. Well, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio urging New Yorkers to stay home today to keep the roads clear for plows and emergency vehicles. CNN's Polo Sandoval is live this morning near Central Park. Polo, of course, this is just the beginning. How is it looking there at this hour?
POLO SANDOVAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And Laura, I think Boris said it best. Yes, it is beautiful, but it is also certainly causing some headaches. From my vantage point here in midtown, Manhattan, you kind of see both of them because when you look over, New York City's iconic Central Park, you can see that fresh blanket of the white stuff here and an empty Central Park of course at 5 O'clock in the morning. And then the headache element of this of course is going to be the streets throughout New York City. We have seen plows working basically through the night just to make sure those roads are clear, but at the same time, you mentioned a little while ago, authorities here are hoping that folks are going to heed those warnings and stay home today.
In fact, Mayor Bill de Blasio actually issuing that advisory and calling for any non-essential travel to basically put on hold especially after 6:00 a.m. because the mayor, the governor, and really a lot of the authorities here in the northeast are recognizing that today is obviously off to a terrible start weather-wise, and it's possibly or it's likely only going to get worse with those winds kicking up. Now when it comes to, for example, those COVID vaccinations that we have seen continuing here in New York City, really throughout the entire country, here, those will be postponed at least for today here in New York City.
Connecticut nearby also facing that possibility. But for now, guys, I can tell you again, the roads are clear. It is 5:00 in the morning right now here in New York City. So, authorities here in New York and really from around the region are hoping that close to the 10 million people affected by this are going to do the same the rest of the day today.
JARRETT: All right, Polo, stay warm out there, we'll see you again in a little bit.
SANCHEZ: So who can expect to get hit the hardest and how long is this monster storm going to last? CNN's Chad Myers is tracking the storm. Good morning, Chad. What are you seeing in the forecast?
CHAD MYERS, METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Boris. Your second question is the most important. How long will it last? Likely 24 hours for areas around New York City. So, 24 hours of snowfall. That's how we get to these big numbers. Even an inch now over 20 hours, it's not hard to add that up. It stopped snowing in D.C. already, change over to mix in Philadelphia, snowing hard in New York, and not yet snowing in Boston. This is what it's going to look like. More than 50 million people right now, Winter storm warnings. No blizzard warnings yet, but with the wind blowing at 20 to 30, there certainly could be blizzard- like conditions out there. So the numbers, Boston 6 to 12. I have a lower number on Boston because I think you switch over to sleet and freezing rain for a while and your snow doesn't pile up.
New York City, no such luck. It's just going to pile up, not really any mix until you get to Long Island. Queens and eastward, there will be some sleet and that doesn't pile up as fast. Or to Philadelphia, it will mix over a little bit, less snow there in for D.C., you're just about done for what you see now.
[05:05:00]
Some lingering flurries, maybe an inch or two from here. Here's where we go. This is hour by hour, 8:00 in the morning, we aren't snowing yet in Boston, but by 2 or 3 certainly, we are. Here's 3 O'clock, heavy snow in New York, heavy snow, Connecticut, very heavy snow in New York City and also into northern New Jersey. The Poconos, you had Adirondacks and the Catskill picking up very heavy snow. By 11 O'clock, there you go, Boston and the Cape, you have mixed over washing away some of those snow totals for Boston. And then by 8:00 tomorrow morning, things begin to taper off. But that's 24 hours from now. We get a lot of snow between now and then. Some spots, I'm assuming, some spots in northern New Jersey, whether it's Morristown, up towards new city, whatever the numbers may be, will pick up somewhere between 24 and 30 inches of snow. Let's hope that bull's eye is not right over New York City because it's just so many streets, so many people and so much of a bigger headache compared to even 15, compared to 30.
SANCHEZ: They're a recipe for a tremendous problem. Chad Myers, we'll check in with you again later this hour, thanks so much.
JARRETT: All right, President --
MYERS: You're welcome --
JARRETT: Biden will meet today with ten Republican senators who have drafted their own alternative to the White House COVID relief plan. In total, the Republicans plan is only a third of the cost and provides only a third of the help when compared to the president's$1.9 trillion plan. A senior administration official says Mr. Biden is open to some negotiation here, but the White House doesn't want to agree to the GOP proposal and then come back and negotiate again in two months.
SANCHEZ: Yes, meantime, Democrats in the Senate and house appear headed towards reconciliation, a budget maneuver that would allow the rescue plan to pass with a simple majority. The president was determined when he spoke on Friday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you support passing COVID relief through budget reconciliation?
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I support passing COVID relief with support from Republicans if we can get it, but the COVID relief has to pass, there's no "ifs" "ands" or "buts".
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: And now the clock is ticking. CNN's Arlette Saenz is at the White House.
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Laura and Boris, the White House has indicated they are open to negotiating with Senate Republicans after they introduced a counter proposal to President Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID relief package. Now, this proposal from a group of 10 Republican senators would be around $600 billion in funding. A significant decrease than what the president has been promoting up on Capitol Hill. Now, one senior administration official said that, that $600 billion price tag will not scratch the itch of what they are hoping to accomplish. It's essentially suggesting it would be a non-starter for the White House. But they have not indicated, the White House hasn't, exactly how much lower than the $1.9 trillion they would be willing to go.
Now, the White House has said that they are willing to negotiate on those stimulus checks as Republican senators want to see a more targeted approach to ensure that the American families that need it the most are receiving those checks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. ROB PORTMAN (R-OH): And all the economic analysis has come in saying that those who make over let's say 75,000 bucks a year are tending not to spend the money, they rather save it. In other words, it's not being used for the intended purpose. So, let's target it. We really want to help those who need it the most.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAENZ: Now, one big question going forward is how long President Biden will want to give these Republican senators a chance to negotiate. But the president has been clear that his preference is to pass a measure in a bipartisan manner. But he has also suggested that he is willing to move forward with or without Republican support. The president has been adamant that he wants to see action fast on this COVID relief measure. Laura and Boris?
JARRETT: Arlette Saenz, thank you for that. Breaking overnight, an apparent coup in Myanmar. The military declaring a state of emergency and arresting senior government leaders including Aung San Suu Kyi. CNN's Will Ripley is live with all the breaking details. Will, for all of the bogus claims of election fraud here in the U.S., this is what happens, a real coup when those same claims are acted on in a country where democracy hasn't exactly had a chance to take room fully.
WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is only a government that has been in power, led by civilians for five years. And they have been gaining seats, this last election in Myanmar, November, gained 396 seats for the National League for Democracy which is led by Aung San Suu Kyi, people voted these people in, the military, which had a dictatorship over Myanmar for decades, up until recently, and still retains large control over the government under a constitution that they helped right, they only got 33 seats. And the people in charge of the military, the generals were disputing those election results.
They said there were 10.5 million votes that were potentially fraudulent. They went from court to court, demanding that the election fraud be investigated.
[05:10:00]
And when that didn't happen, when Myanmar's citizen elected governments said we're going to move forward, we're going to start the operation of this new government, the military stepped in, they shut off the television channels except for the state media, which is now showing military propaganda for the first time in years, they shut down the internet, they shut down the phone lines, banks are closed, soldiers are in the streets, and now this country, a very fragile democracy just in its early years is at risk.
Some analysts say of now being under a military dictatorship for many more years to come, even though the military is saying that they have a constitutional right to do this, because they helped write the constitution, they're going to investigate these claims of election fraud as they declare a state of emergency for a year. And maybe after that, there are some reports that they will consider holding a fresh election. So, in other words, the will of the people when the military didn't like the outcome, they came in and took control, and now the citizen-elected leaders are being detained.
JARRETT: Just remarkable. All right, Will, thanks so much for staying on top of this for us.
SANCHEZ: Global partnerships to fight the pandemic deteriorating over a battle for vaccines. Vaccine nationalism. We'll explain in a live report from Paris next.
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[05:15:00]
SANCHEZ: It is the most public and consequential battle between the EU and the U.K. since Brexit. The fight between the two revealing an ugly truth about vaccine nationalism and an all out battle over who is more entitled to tens of millions of doses of the vaccine. CNN's Melissa Bell is live in Paris with more. Melissa, this all stems from AstraZeneca telling the EU they will not be receiving the number of vaccines that were originally promised, but the United Kingdom would be, but now it's looking like there's been some progress on obtaining more vaccines for the EU.
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Boris. There's been some progress under serious pressure from the European Union. There was this call on Sunday night between the European Commission president and the big pharma representatives in the wake of that, AstraZeneca announcing that it would up its delivery of vaccines to the EU for the first quarter, and also BioNTech announcing that it would substantially up its normally delivery of doses to the European Union. The second quarter, a bit of its overall production from 1.3 billion doses it had planned to produce in 2021 to 2 billion by the end of this year. And of course, this health to rallies you say, Boris, a furious rival over the course of last week between AstraZeneca and the European Union.
This -- because it was not going to deliver the amounts of vaccine supplied. And it is of course, as you say the first post-Brexit fight that the EU has had with the former EU member state, going so far on Friday night as to announce it is part of its export limitation mechanism, export restriction mechanism, it would be reintroducing the hard border between the Irish Republic and the United Kingdom. Now, very quickly climbed down after serious pressure from London, Belfast and Dublin. But still a route that remains very raw for the European Union. And I think you need to understand the backdrop or the vaccination campaign in the United Kingdom that's progressing. The government there thinks that it will meet its target of 15 million
vaccine first doses, given by the 15th of February. Here in Europe in some parts, vaccination campaigns that have essentially ground to a halt now. Later today, Angela Merkel will meet with big pharma representatives to try and figure out how to fix those serious shortages, not just in Germany, but in other countries as well. Boris?
SANCHEZ: Yes, very difficult situation. Melissa Bell reporting from Paris. Thanks so much.
JARRETT: Well, Maryland is now the second state reporting a case of the coronavirus variant first seen in South Africa and believed to be highly contagious. Johnson & Johnson announced Friday its single shot vaccine is 85 percent effective in preventing people from getting severe disease. However, when it came to preventing the virus in South African, the vaccine was found to only be 57 percent effective. CNN's David McKenzie is live for us in Johannesburg. David, most countries in Africa haven't administered a single vaccine yet. But explain how that could actually change soon.
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it could change but not necessarily on the scale that it needs to happen, Laura. You know, the Africa CDC, we spoke to the head of that group last week, he said it's a moral catastrophe if they don't get vaccines quickly into arms across the African continent and other areas. And it's also potentially a public health catastrophe. One million vaccine doses though are arriving in South Africa in just a short while, in a couple of hours from now. That's the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine. That will be rolled out to first, emergency health workers and frontline health workers in the coming weeks. But a massive shortfall across the continent despite continued negotiations to get vaccine doses into countries is just not happening yet.
Now, one of those issues is because rich countries have ordered more vaccines than they need. That nationalism as you've been reporting, really will impact how this pandemic ends. There is some good news here in South Africa. You look at the graph of current seven-day infections, it's rarely dropping dramatically. That second wave driven by this new variant has been deadlier than the first. And it does show, say, public health officials that social distancing, some kind of lockdown definitely helps. The trouble is without vaccines coming in, there will be more waves and more waves here in South Africa and the rest of the continent. Laura?
JARRETT: More waves and potentially more variants that we don't even know about yet. All right, David McKenzie live in Johannesburg. Thanks so much.
SANCHEZ: The CDC putting out a new warning, trying to fight off the next possible COVID super spreader, Super Bowl parties. Stay with us, we'll be right back.
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[05:20:00] SANCHEZ: Super Bowl week is here, but it's going to look much
different this year. Andy Scholes has this morning's "BLEACHER REPORT". Good morning, Andy. One of the staples of the Super Bowl, the parties, the wings and the dip --
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes --
SANCHEZ: Not a good idea this year.
SCHOLES: Yes, you know, CDC recommending against that unless you're just going to party with the people that you live with, Boris. Everything is going to look different this year for the Super Bowl. You know, today would have normally been Super Bowl opening night, all the players meet with the media, answering all kinds of fun questions. But this year, all being done virtually. Tom Brady and the Bucs are going to Zoom away with the media starting at noon. The Chiefs are going to do so at 4:00 Eastern. Just one of the many ways this year's game is going to be different. The Chiefs not even going to Tampa until Saturday.
[05:25:00]
And Super Bowl parties like we mentioned, a tradition for many. The CDC though recommending people only watch the big game with the people that you live with, if you're going to have a gathering, do them outdoors to help fight the spread of coronavirus. All right, in the NBA last night, Nets and Wizards, Brooklyn off 5, 10 seconds left, Bradley Beal hit the 3, then there's a miscommunication on the inbound, watch Russell Westbrook gets it and he hits a 3. The Wizards scored 6 points in 4 seconds. The Nets did get a good look near the end for a game-winning lay-up, but it rolls out. Washington stuns the Nets 149-146. All right, baseball Spring training set to begin in a few weeks. But according to reports, Major League Baseball wants to push that back to late March and then start a short 154 game season in late April.
The proposal who was poorly submitted to the union on Friday would also expand the post-season to 14 teams and add a designated hitter in the national league just like we saw last season. Players would have to agree to this delayed Spring training for it to happen. CNN sports has reached out to Major League Baseball. About reports, you know, Laura, the idea is, you know, delay it a little bit --
JARRETT: Yes --
SCHOLES: You know, more people are vaccinated, the numbers hopefully would go down and then maybe we could see all these ball parks across the country full of fans come this Summer.
JARRETT: Yes, everyone just trying to get back to normal. But it's going to take a bit, everyone's got to have some patience on this. All right, Andy, thanks so much, appreciate it.
SCHOLES: All right.
JARRETT: All right, huge snowstorm working its way along the northeast and it's not ending any time soon. What you need to know coming up next.
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