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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Boeing Recommends All Airlines Temporary Ground 777s That Use Same Engine As the Denver Flight That was Forced to land After a Mid- Air Explosion; FAA Orders Emergency Inspections of Pratt and Whitney 4000 Engines; Texas Officials Block Power Providers from Sending Bills. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired February 22, 2021 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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LAURA JARRETT, CO-ANCHOR, EARLY START: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world, this is EARLY START, I'm Laura Jarrett.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CO-ANCHOR, EARLY START: And I'm Christine Romans, it is Monday, February, 22nd, exactly 5:00 a.m. in the east. And breaking overnight, Boeing recommending all airlines temporarily ground 777s that use the same engine as that Denver flight forced to land after a mid-air explosion. United Airlines already grounded the planes after Saturday's near catastrophe. Pratt and Whitney is the company that builds the engine model, it's sending a team to work with investigators, looking into the engine failure of aboard United Airlines 328.
JARRETT: Debris rained from the sky and pilots were forced to turn around and make an emergency landing.
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NATE SWISHER, PASSENGER ABOARD UNITED 328: All of a sudden there was a loud sound and then it got really bad. I thought lightning struck the plane at first.
BOB BROWN, PASSENGER ABOARD UNITED 328: We looked at each other, my wife and I, and held hands and just wished our kids, we would see them again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JARRETT: Concerns only heightened by a second incident over the Netherlands, another Boeing jet with a similar engine catching fire, dropping debris that injured two people there. Overnight, Korean Air and all of Japan ordered domestic airlines to halt Boeing 777 operations.
ROMANS: You know, Boeing already facing the twin crisis of the pandemic and fallout from two fatal 737 Max crashes, and questions have already been raised about how jets worldwide will be safely returned to the skies, you know, after a year on the ground. That said flight data shows the plane in the Denver incident was being flown regularly. More than 300 flights for that jet in the last eight months. Aviation correspondent Pete Muntean has the latest on the investigation.
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PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Christine, Laura, we're getting the biggest window into what may have caused that dramatic in flight failure on United Airlines flight 328.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mayday, United Air 28. United Air 328 heavy Mayday, Aircraft --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three-twenty eight, say again please -- repeat all that again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Denver departure United 328, heavy Mayday, aircraft just experienced engine failure, need to return immediately.
MUNTEAN (voice-over): The National Transportation Safety Board has confirmed some of our early reporting that a fan blade inside the right hand engine broke off, took out another fan blade, and investigators were able to find parts of those blades inside the inner containment ring of the jet engine. Investigators now begin the process of piecing this all together, and a focal point of this will be the Pratt and Whitney PW 4,000 engine. The FAA administrator has ordered emergency inspections of the Pratt and Whitney PW 4,000 specific to the Boeing 777 200 in this flight. That is a big deal. Something that the FAA does not do often, and United Airlines says it is immediately and temporarily removing 24 of its Boeing 777s from service. Christine, Laura?
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JARRETT: Pete, thank you for that. One crisis after another in Texas. First the cold, then the darkness and now this.
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DEANDRE UPSHAW, RECEIVED $7,000 ENERGY BILL: Well, it's wild. We're in the middle of a pandemic. Texas having record-breaking weather. The last thing that I'm thinking about while I'm trying to get, you know, gas and groceries and make sure that my pipes don't explode, the last thing that I'm thinking about is a $7,000 bill from my utility.
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JARRETT: Seven thousand dollar bill. Overnight, some much needed relief from those insane electric bills. The Texas Public Utility Commission issuing a moratorium on customer disconnections for nonpayment while stopping power companies from sending out invoices. And a top Texas congressman says emergency aid will help Texans pay their high energy bills.
ROMANS: The cost of power on the Texas grid shot up last week. I mean, customers received bills in the thousands of dollars instead of hundreds. The state is investigating, but local officials insist residents should not have to shoulder this burden.
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MAYOR RON NIRENBERG, SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS: It would be unconscionable for bills to go up and for bills to be put on the backs of residents of the state that have been suffering and freezing in their homes for the last week. There will be hell to pay if there is any notion that the residents of this state should pay for this disaster.
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JARRETT: Water service remains disrupted for nearly 9 million people. That's more than a quarter of the state. But a boil water order in Houston has now been lifted.
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As Texas sorts out, the human toll deepens though, three children and their young -- and their grandmother were killed in a house fire in a Houston suburb. The mother of those youngsters survived though.
ROMANS: Well, the White House says President Biden will be laser- focused this week on coronavirus relief and vaccine distribution. It comes as the president urges Republicans to put partisanship aside and support his $1.9 trillion relief package in Congress this week. But are lawmakers listening? CNN's Jasmine Wright is live for us at the White House this morning. Jasmine, what can you tell us?
JASMINE WRIGHT, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, President Biden today will honor the tragic moment that the U.S. hits 500,000 coronavirus deaths today at the White House. He will give remarks and hold a candle lighting ceremony to mark the grim milestone. But listen, as you said, Laura, President Biden is focused on getting these COVID negotiations through the door as they look to quickly pass something before those unemployment benefits run out next month. Now, President Biden addressed that issue that he's having with no public support from Republicans have signed on to support this bill on Friday in Michigan at that Pfizer plant.
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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Critics say my plan is too big. That it costs $1.9 trillion. So, that's too much. Let me ask them, what would they have me cut? What would they have me leave out? Should we not invest $20 billion to vaccinate the nation? Should we not invest $290 million to extend unemployment insurance for the 11 million Americans who are unemployed so they can get by?
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WRIGHT: So, this is President Biden putting the issue directly into Republicans' lap, pressuring them to sign on. The president has two other things to worry about this week in Congress. One, it's that minimum wage increase that he included in the bill as house Democrats move to pass it, looking to pass it out of the House Budget Committee today, setting it up for a vote by the end of this week. That provision, that increase is still going to be in there. So, that will put it to the Senate and those Senate rules want to see if it's going to be included. And if it's going to be included, does it have 50 Democrats to support it as it still looks like this bill is not going to get Republican support.
Right now, that is an open question. But we think not because two moderate Democrats have said that they don't want to support this bill, but also he has to worry about the confirmation of Neera Tandem for his nominee for the Office of Management and Budget after West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin surprised folks and said that he would not be supporting it. It looks like at this moment, she does not have 50 Democratic votes with Vice President Harris to be that tie-breaker. So Majority leader, Senator Schumer said that he would be working with the White House to find her some more votes. Well --
JARRETT: Yes, we know, she's still going around making house calls, we'll see what the White House does, but right now, Biden says he is not pulling that nomination. All right, Jasmine, thank you so much.
ROMANS: All right, brand new small business relief efforts here. The Biden administration more directly targeting the Paycheck Protection Program to very small business. December's stimulus included $284 billion for businesses and government data shows about 150 billion of that is left. Starting Wednesday, there will be a 2-week window for businesses with fewer than 20 employees. They can apply for that money. Officials say the program has helped, but too many minority- owned mom and pop businesses have been shut out. The administration will also set aside a billion dollars for businesses without employees. Think independent contractors and the self-employed.
The administration is also expanding access for business owners who have prior non-fraud felony convictions or have been delinquent on their federal student loans.
JARRETT: Well, no shortage of major cases await Merrick Garland if he's confirmed as the next attorney general. We have the opening testimony for his long delayed hearing before the Senate.
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ROMANS: Thirteen minutes past the hour. New York City is expecting coronavirus vaccine deliveries to restart today following delays caused by last week's extreme weather. Now, the city had fewer than 1,000 first doses available as of Saturday morning. One thing that could help delivery and storage, Pfizer submitted new data showing its vaccine can be stored for two weeks at the temperature of more common refrigerators and freezers instead of those ultra-cold temperatures.
JARRETT: Health experts now also say the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines may also block COVID infections in addition to preventing symptoms. That's important because it means people who have been vaccinated are less likely to pass an infection on to someone else who hasn't been vaccinated yet. Meantime, Dr. Anthony Fauci says a significant degree of normality is possible by the end of the year, but it's possible Americans will still be wearing masks into 2022.
ROMANS: All right, a CNN exclusive now, a first look at recommendations from the World Health Organization's report on the origins of the coronavirus in China. Nick Paton Walsh tracking a story for us from London. And Nick, this report focuses on two critical points, contact-tracing and the supply chain to the seafood market in Wuhan where the virus is thought to have originated.
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: Yes, absolutely. Remember why this is so important though because unless you work out how the virus got into people, its origins, we probably can't stop something similar happening again. The W.H.O., a year's worth of expectation here, a month in country and the two key recommendations focus, the first on the December, the 8th first known patient that China has identified.
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An office worker in his 40s who lived with his wife and child, but who interestingly told interviewers from the W.H.O. team that he in fact had parents who went into a wet market somewhere in Wuhan it seems, not identified at this stage. The parents tested negative, but the W.H.O. thinks that's interesting because obviously the wet markets in China, where there were a lot of exotic wildlife often sold may well be a place where the jump from animals to humans happened or possibly where some kind of big super spreader event occurred. So, recommendation one, let's look more at his contact history and possibly his parents too.
Recommendation number two, as you said, the sea food market, Huanan, in Wuhan, so much of the focus here of what people have been talking about in terms of the origin, not clear whether it was the initial point, but it certainly played a key role, and the W.H.O. team wants to see the supply chain to that sea food market, that wet market in the south of China. In southern provinces where there's known to be a lot of species that could harbor the coronavirus, they want to see that supply chain thoroughly investigated. The big point here, really, Christine, is that these are things that are so rudimentary and basic in terms of tracing down the coronavirus.
And a year on, they still haven't been done, it seemed, according to the W.H.O. who didn't get that data. So many people are asking why that is, independent scientists telling me it's implausible, China simply didn't do this. Another one saying it's surprising, but if they're able to mobilize all of Beijing to find the source of their recent COVID-19 outbreak, they haven't done something as simple as this. China says look, we've been as transparent as we can with the W.H.O. panel, and we can't simply consider an independent report, one that harbors all sorts of western prejudices that China is to blame. But fundamentally, when this preliminary report comes out, its currently in draft form, its two main recommendations will be contact- tracing of patients cut at number one, and looking into that well- known seafood market supply chain, startling frankly, that a year on, these are still things the W.H.O. says needs to be done or hasn't got results from. ROMANS: Yes, startling. And that's why it's, you know, fodder for
rumors and misinformation too, when you just can't get to the bottom of it yet, at least, officially. All right, Nick Paton Walsh, thank you so much for that in London. Laura?
JARRETT: Five years after he didn't get his Supreme Court confirmation before the U.S. Senate, Judge Merrick Garland now faces a hearing today for one of the most critical nominations to President Biden's cabinet. We're getting a preview of his priorities if confirmed as Attorney General. CNN's Arlette Saenz is at the White House.
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Laura, President Biden's pick for Attorney General Merrick Garland will be in the hot seat for his confirmation hearing up on Capitol Hill. Garland is expected to talk about his commitment to the rule of law, and also will be talking about that insurrection up on Capitol Hill on January 6th. Garland will be speaking about the plans for prosecuting those rioters that were involved. He's expected to say, "if confirmed, I will supervise the prosecution of white supremacists and others who stormed the Capitol on January 6 -- a heinous attack that sought to disrupt a cornerstone of our democracy. The peaceful transfer of power to a newly elected government."
Now, Garland is also expected to face some questioning from Republican senators about those federal investigations into New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and also Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden. There's also the possibility that there could be questions into a possible investigations into former President Trump. Now, Biden has insisted that he wants his Justice Department to be independent, that he wouldn't be interfering in their decisions. So that is something that Garland will likely try to stress as he is pitching himself before this committee later today. Laura and Christine?
JARRETT: Arlette Saenz at the White House, thank you so much. Well, a big win and a big loss for Deion Sanders in his coaching debut.
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ROMANS: All right, Deion Sanders says he was robbed while getting his first win as a college coach. Andy Scholes has this morning's "BLEACHER REPORT", hey, Andy, what's up?
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, yes, good morning Christine. So Deion Sanders in his first season coaching in college at Jackson State, and they had their season pushed back to the Spring due to COVID. Deion's Tigers are having no problem getting their first win of the season yesterday easily, beating Edward Waters College 53-0 in the season opener. But Deion was not in the mood to celebrate afterwards.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DEION SANDERS, HEAD COACH, JACKSON STATE: I have mixed emotions, we
won. The kids played really well. And while the game was going on, somebody came in and stole every darn thing I had in my locker room and the coach's office. Yes, credit cards, wallet, watches, thank God I had on my necklaces. How?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: Yes, so the items were later recovered. The school saying they were misplaced and not stolen, but Deion lashing out at that on Twitter, saying "whomever putting out the lie that my belongings wasn't stolen is lying. My belongings were taken out of a zipped bag in my office and more items were taken as well from my office. We have retrieved them since being reported. My staff member witnessed the crime."
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All right, we had high drama at the PGA's Genesis Invitational near Los Angeles. Max Homa, southern California native needing this short putt to win with his idol tournament though, Tiger Woods looking on. He missed it though as you could see, forcing a sudden death playoff. But Homa would rally to beat Tony Finau on that second playoff hole. Homa then fighting back tears after picking up a second career victory.
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MAX HOMA, GENESIS INVITATIONAL WINNER: I've been watching this tournament my whole life while I fell in love with it all. Wow. I didn't think I'd be like this. Tiger, another reason I'm into golf, had good feelings this week, been playing great. City of champions, you know, Dodgers, Lakers, me now. So, it's a weird feeling.
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SCHOLES: Yes, happy for me. Now, here's something you don't usually see. An ice rink in the middle of a golf course. The Bruins and Flyers facing off on the 18th Fairway of the Edgewood Resort, Lake Tahoe. These beautiful images, but the game had to be moved from the afternoon to the evening because of the weather, and the weather being that it was too sunny which caused problems for the ice. Boston scored just 34 seconds into the game. It would go on to win 7-3, and the 7 goals tying an outdoor game record. All right, finally, Patrick Mahomes now officially a dad. The Chiefs star and his fiancee Brittany welcoming their first daughter over the weekend. Her name is Sterling. Brittany wearing a necklace with that name on it in a social media post. Mahomes and Mathews, they've been dating since high school. They got engaged back in September. So, Laura, congrats to the happy couple on welcoming their first child.
JARRETT: Very exciting and also very tiring, of course, having a new newborn. All right, Andy --
SCHOLES: Yes -- JARRETT: Thanks so much, appreciate it. All right, a quick
programming note here for you. Join Jake Tapper tonight for a special presentation. We remember 500,000, a national memorial service for COVID-19, that's tonight at 11:00 Eastern only on CNN.
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