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Rep. Marie Newman (D-IL) Discusses House Vote On Equality Act This Week; Researchers: New Coronavirus Variant Spreading In New York City; South Dakota A.G. Faces Calls To Resign Over New Evidence In Fatal Crash. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired February 25, 2021 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Survivor of a school shooting. And so, what did you think she would do?

REP. MARIE NEWMAN (D-IL) (via Cisco Webex): You know, I was not concerned with her reaction. What I wanted her to do was see the LGBTQ community and understand that equality is way overdue. So it is immaterial to me. She can keep going with this -- whatever she's doing -- and I have no interest in it.

What I'm interested in now is turning the corner and getting back to the work. That was 30 seconds of my time yesterday.

We have been working hard in committee. And by the way, we're getting some consensus on a bunch of different things with regard to Republicans.

I am worried about making sure the American people get direct payments. That cities, towns, and states get money so they can roll out this vaccine. And rolling out this vaccine is tantamount to success across our nation. And getting this economy back on track.

So if she's going to spend time running to FedEx and creating goofy signs, have at it.

CAMEROTA: So you're saying you're done with this tit for tat. But do you think that she'll up the ante?

NEWMAN: If she does then that's her right to do whatever she likes. Again, I am busy working on bills and legislation that, in fact, will move this country forward and get beyond this.

CAMEROTA: About the --

NEWMAN: And I need to say --

CAMEROTA: Yes, quickly.

NEWMAN: If I just may add one thing, Alisyn. Several Republican colleagues have reached out to me to express their concern over her hateful comments. And so, this was a bipartisan reaction to her nastiness, her disrespect, and her, quite frankly, loose touch with reality.

So here's what I would say is that I made my statement. I feel good that she is seeing the flag every day and is seeing LGBTQ folks. Whatever she chooses to do moving forward. It was never meant to be a tit for tat or a game or anything. I just needed to make that statement to her.

CAMEROTA: On that point of bipartisan support that you're getting, let me read Congressman Adam Kinzinger's tweet --

NEWMAN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: -- in support of you.

He says, "This is sad and I'm sorry this happened. Representative Newman's daughter is transgender and this video and tweet represents the hate and fame-driven politics of self-promotion at all evil costs. This garbage must end in order to #RestoreOurGOP."

What did you think when you read that?

NEWMAN: Well, let me start by saying the macro issue is it's very important to have a strong GOP. We need two parties in this country. So I was so pleased that my colleague in Illinois stood up and made a comment on this because I know he is working hard to restore faith in his party, and that's really important.

By the way, moderate Republicans have reached out to me on bills and on ideas and we are working together. So, her divisiveness is in her corner of the party and I don't think it's going to be successful.

I might be eternally the optimist, but we are working together. We are getting bills out the door and we are finding consensus on restaurants, on economic issues for the American people.

But here's what I can guarantee you is that Democrats are going to deliver and we're going to deliver strongly and we're going to keep going. So if she wants to spend time on signs and running around being nasty, rock on.

CAMEROTA: About the Equality Act, can you tell our viewers exactly what it is. And, Congresswoman Greene and her allies and supporters seem very concerned about the idea of transgender women competing in women's sports. So can you address that concern of hers?

NEWMAN: Certainly. That's called a gigantic red herring. That is introducing something that has nothing to do with anything.

The Equality Act is meant to prevent discrimination in housing, employment, in public spaces, private spaces, and across the map, right? So this is just meant to prevent discrimination. This is not meant to do anything else.

So these red herrings about religious liberties -- by the way, we all know that that's already written into our Constitution and that's why we revere our Constitution. And red herrings about -- I mean, she said vile about bathrooms to my daughter and misnamed her. So she can keep being vile and she can keep coming up with red herrings.

The Equality Act is just simply about creating an equal world for everybody.

CAMEROTA: Congresswoman Marie Newman, we really appreciate you coming on NEW DAY first to talk about all of this. Thank you. Great to talk to you.

NEWMAN: Thank you and have a great day.

CAMEROTA: John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Developing this morning, lawyers making progress to reunite families separated at the border by the Trump administration. A court filing reveals in the past month they found the parents of about 100 children and are still looking, though, for the parents of 500 more.

Meantime, Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez criticizing the Biden administration after a report that it is reopening a facility to detain migrant children. Ocasio-Cortez tweeted "This is not OK, never has been OK, never will be OK -- no matter the administration or party."

[07:35:06]

This morning, we are learning about a new coronavirus strain in the United States spreading in the northeast. How concerned should we be?

CAMEROTA: Plus, a disturbing piece of evidence revealed in that deadly crash involving South Dakota's attorney general. He is now facing calls to resign. We'll tell you what was found in his car.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: New this morning, researchers have found a new coronavirus variant in New York City and the northeast. It carries mutations that might help it evade the body's natural immune response as well as the effects of some treatments.

[07:40:00]

Joining us now, Michael Osterholm. He's the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. Professor Osterholm, always a pleasure to have you on --

MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASE RESEARCH AND POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: Good morning, John.

BERMAN: -- with us.

So this concern about the variant they've seen in New York -- there are also concerns about variants they've seen in California -- where does this fit into your overall concern? And you've been raising alarm bells now for weeks, if not months, about the growth of other variants that might be immune or resistant to vaccines here in the U.S., like the variant that they found in South Africa. How does it all fit together?

OSTERHOLM: Well, when you think about it, it's been a year now that we've really been dealing with this virus in terms of attention. It seems like a lifetime. It's only been three months since we actually first raised the alarm that variants or these mutational changes in these viruses may actually impact how they are transmitted or what kind of disease they cause, or how well our vaccines or natural immunity from having been infected actually work.

Today, what we're seeing is a barrage of these new variants coming forward. And I have to say that while we need to be concerned about what we're seeing in New York and California or in other places around the world, we can't take our eye off, to me, what I think is the single-most-important variant right now in our headlights.

And that is this B117 or the U.K. variant, which is rapidly spreading now throughout the United States and I think in the next three to five weeks is clearly going to emerge as a major challenge in terms of the number of infections in this country.

CAMEROTA: So, ever since you raised that possibility my antenna has been up, as you know, Professor, because I'm waiting to see if the numbers keep going down in terms of cases and hospitalizations or if they start ticking up because that's what you told us to be prepared for.

So just today if we look at the new cases, this is the first time that we have seen the seven-day average tick up a little bit. It's now at 72,000 cases. That's the seven-day rolling average and that is, I think, about 2,000 cases higher than where we were last week.

So I don't know if this is a momentary blip or if we're starting to see what you predicted. What do you think?

OSTERHOLM: You know, Alisyn, I would actually say that I don't think we're going to really see the increase in cases occur for at least another few weeks. We're still in a downward trend, which is very, very important -- meaning that the transmission that was occurring in January surely is subsiding. And if anybody tells you they know the reason for that, I wouldn't listen to too much more they have to say because we don't know why that happened.

What we do know right now is that we're seeing the B117 or the U.K. variant double about every 10 days in this country. And when you double two to four to eight to 16, you know, you get an increase. When you start doubling 2,000 to 4,000 to 8,000 to 16,000, you're talking about some real numbers.

And I think just as we saw in England, we're now seeing it in the other countries of Europe the same thing. It often takes four, six, even eight weeks of this virus circulating before it really takes off, going from kind of the small little brush pile fire to a large forest fire.

So, you know, I -- for me -- and the CDC modeling actually supports this -- I think and I've been saying all along where I really get concerned I think is in the second or third week of March. Watch what's happening then and that will tell you if it's surgeally (sic) occurring or not. And everything we see right now says it's still on track.

BERMAN: You are calling for two very specific things to fight this. One, in terms of who gets the vaccine and in what order; and two, having to do with the doses of the vaccine. Explain what and why.

OSTERHOLM: Well actually, John, what we're talking about is trying to save lives. It's just that simple. We've already lost 500,000 of our family members, our loved ones, our colleagues.

And what we're worried about is with this new surge that, in fact, the group most vulnerable to that are those 65 years of age and older. And right now in this country, if we continue on the scheme that we're using and the number of doses of vaccine that we have for vaccination, we will get to the end of March and we will still have 30 million Americans 65 years of age and older who have not had access to a single drop of the vaccine.

So what we're saying is we now have new data. And for people who say we have to stick with the science -- you know, that's just a buzzword. What we do now have is data from the last three weeks. You've heard me say on this show there are more data to be had. I said that a month ago.

Look at the publications just in the last week that have come forward saying you know what, these single doses give us really good protection. So if we could basically -- and I'm the first to say that we need the authorities of the FDA and the CDC to evaluate this but to say to people you know, you do get really good protection with one dose.

If, in fact, we target vaccine to 65 years of age and older, which I understand is controversial but if you want to save lives that's where it's going to be -- as well as right now, we don't need to be giving second doses to people who have already had infection. We have the compelling data that they have remarkable responses after a single dose.

[07:45:04]

And finally, we have known all along since the summer that the Moderna vaccine is overdosed in the sense that the 100-microgram dose is more than twice what we need to get the same results.

If we looked at those four things and made changes in the next two weeks, we could have many of these people 65 years of age and older vaccinated. We could protect them. And in a paper that we just put out this week we could show that would save thousands and thousands of lives.

So, to me, it's a no-brainer but we've got to act on it soon because this variant isn't waiting for us to get our act together.

CAMEROTA: Hearing about the data that you're seeing and you sharing it with us is so helpful and interesting. Thank you very much, Michael Osterholm.

OSTERHOLM: Thank you, guys. Thank you very much.

CAMEROTA: So there are two crises now gripping Texas -- the coronavirus pandemic, of course, and the devastating winter weather. A deep freeze left millions of people with no heat, as you know, without power, without clean water. So, what now? All of this is threatening to overwhelm hospitals.

And CNN's Miguel Marquez has more from Houston.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tania Delacruz's oxygen levels dropped and her temperature shot up on the coldest night in South Texas.

MARQUEZ (on camera): How much more complicated or difficult was it to deal with that, given that you had no electricity, no water -- all that stuff?

TANIA DELACRUZ, DEVELOPED COVID-19 SYMPTOMS DURING WINTER STORM: It was pretty bad because even though you would try to cover up with all the blankets that I could find I was still feeling cold. And --

MARQUEZ (on camera): So you had chills?

DELACRUZ: Yes, and then the cough. I mean, the colder it is the more prone the attacks come.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Graciano Lopez was on oxygen, recuperating from COVID-19 at home. Then his electricity went out. Then the batteries on his oxygen machine died.

GRACIANO LOPEZ, SUFFERED A COVID-19 RELAPSE: No, no.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): "When I don't get oxygen," he says, "to the floor I go."

Sandra Aguirre is on the mend. Now she's worried about three other family members who have COVID-19.

SANDRA AGUIRRE, SUFFERED SERIOUS CASE OF COVID-19 DURING WINTER STORM: (INAUDIBLE).

MARQUEZ (voice-over): "For two days my family had to rent a hotel just to stay warm," she says. "And I was here and all I could do was worry about my kids."

Houston's United Memorial Medical Center, a hospital CNN has twice visited as the pandemic raged, is seeing fewer patients today. One concern, the storm may produce another spike in cases.

DR. JOSEPH VARON, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, UNITED MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER: They didn't care about (ph) COVID. We have a bunch of shelters that were open to keep people warm and you know that a shelter is a giant petri dish. So a lot of -- I do expect that in the next few days we're going to have a small spike in the number of cases.

MARQUEZ: Like many hospitals, UMMC lost power and water. Pipes burst, but staff worked right through the worst of it.

Anita Pandey's home is still unlivable. Her family now with relatives.

ANITA PANDEY, CHIEF NURSING OFFICER, UNITED MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER: Looking at those patients who are actually looking towards us to make sure we take good care of them even though they knew we had an emergency, make sure we support 100 percent and provide both medical and emotional care was above my own personal concern.

ALETHEA JUAREZ, HOME SUFFERED WATER DAMAGE FROM BURST PIPES: This is all from our spare bedroom.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Alethea Juarez's husband just got over COVID- 19.

JUAREZ: This was our master bedroom, our master bathroom, and our two walk-in closets.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): And like so many Texans, now this.

JUAREZ: When we came home we discovered a waterfall right here and it also had collapsed in my closet. The light ballast was hanging down, sheetrock was down. Everything in my closet was destroyed.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Home after home across nearly the entire state damaged by frozen and burst pipes.

We met Mike Phillips four years ago on a boat in flooded Houston neighborhoods after Hurricane Harvey. He says this is worse.

MIKE PHILLIPS, KHI RESTORATION: It's widespread across Texas and no one was spared because of these busted pipes. Whether you live in Lubbock, Texas or you live here in Houston, Texas, we all experienced the same problems.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUEZ: So the Lone Star State is only starting to grapple with just how enormous this disaster within a crisis is. There's going to be health effects, but it's also going to cost. The biggest disaster, the most costly disaster in history for Texas was Hurricane Harvey four years ago -- $20 billion in today's dollars. This, which affected all 254 counties here, is expected to be bigger -- John.

BERMAN: Miguel Marquez in Houston. Terrific reporting.

We should tell you, you are now so well-known for your reporting around the country, we hear from doctors days in advance that you are about to arrive and do an update on what's going on there. So your work is widely respected around the country. Thanks so much for doing it. MARQUEZ: I feel like the grim reaper. Thank you very much.

BERMAN: We want to remember some of the nearly 506,000 Americans lost to coronavirus.

Mercia Bowser was one of the -- was the only sister of Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser. The mayor described her as a loving daughter, sister, aunt, and friend who worked tirelessly for children, the elderly, and those with behavioral disorders. She was 64 years old.

[07:50:06]

Chrissy Leahy was just 40 years old. The Lake Elsinore, California sales manager loved her life with her husband and three children. The entire family caught coronavirus. Chrissy was the only one who did not recover. Her mother calls her fun-loving, generous to the core, with the absolutely biggest heart.

Ninety-one-year-old Joe Bautista was a proud Korean War veteran who lived in Arizona. His family describes him as a man of few words who expressed his love through cooking. He leaves behind a wife, Stella, three daughters, eight grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg facing pressure to resign as new evidence is revealed in a deadly crash. Now, Ravnsborg initially told he hit a deer but investigators have now revealed they found a victim's broken glasses inside his car.

[07:55:05]

CNN's Lucy Kafanov live with the very latest on this -- Lucy.

LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, good morning.

Investigators were skeptical that the South Dakota attorney general didn't know he fatally struck a person on the night of September 12th. And as they point out in this disturbing new interrogation footage, the only way the victim's glasses could have gotten into Ravnsborg's car is because his head went through the windshield.

The A.G. now facing mounting calls to step down.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON RAVNSBORG (R), SOUTH DAKOTA ATTORNEY GENERAL: And then, quite frankly, wham.

INVESTIGATOR: OK.

RAVNSBORG: I hit, you know -- the incident happened. I never saw anything. KAFANOV (voice-over): South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg is facing misdemeanor charges after he struck and killed a man on September 12th. He initially told police he hit a deer.

911 OPERATOR: 911, this is Ally. How can I help you?

RAVNSBORG: Ally, this -- well, Ally, I'm the attorney general and I am -- I don't know -- I hit something.

KAFANOV (voice-over): Ravnsborg told investigators he returned to the scene of the collision the following morning and discovered the body of 55-year-old Joseph Boever.

RAVNSBORG: But then I come up and it was the man. And he is not good. I mean, he's dead. But I believe I did not do anything wrong and I obviously replayed it in my mind about 1,000 times.

KAFANOV (voice-over): But now the Republican official is facing mounting calls for his resignation in light of disturbing new details released Tuesday night in which investigators say they found Boever's broken glasses in Ravnsborg's car.

INVESTIGATOR: Here are Joe's glasses.

RAVNSBORG: I wondered -- I wondered about that.

INVESTIGATOR: So that means his face came through your windshield.

RAVNSBORG: Oh.

INVESTIGATOR: It's a tough thing.

RAVNSBORG: Oh. I was thinking that his face did not come through because there would have been blood -- I thought there'd been blood everywhere. And then now -- you know, since I've thought about it.

INVESTIGATOR: And you've had time. His glasses are right there, Jason.

RAVNSBORG: Oh.

INVESTIGATOR: Those are Joe's.

KAFANOV (voice-over): The attorney general faces three misdemeanor charges for careless driving, operating a vehicle while using a mobile electronic device, and illegal lane change while carelessly driving, crossing lanes of traffic unsafely. But no felonies in the death of Boever.

MICHAEL MOORE, BEADLE COUNTY STATE'S ATTORNEY: At best, his conduct was negligent, which is insufficient to bring criminal charges in South Dakota.

KAFANOV (voice-over): The attorney general's spokesperson, Mike Deaver, tells CNN that Ravnsborg has not yet responded to the misdemeanor charges filed against him by the state attorney's office and a court date has yet to be set.

On Tuesday, a bipartisan group of South Dakota lawmakers began impeachment proceedings against Ravnsborg.

STATE REP. TIM GOODWIN (R-SD): But it's a sad day but we need to move forward as a state. We need to do what's best for the citizens of South Dakota. So that's why I'm asking or recommending to our attorney general to resign his post immediately so the state can move on, the governor can appoint a new attorney general, and we can get this behind us.

KAFANOV (voice-over): Lawmakers introduced two articles of impeachment -- one for the fatal crash, the other for Ravnsborg's statements and actions in reporting the crash and during the investigation in which they said Ravnsborg undertook actions unbecoming the attorney general.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is also calling for the attorney general to go, saying in a statement released Tuesday, "Now that the investigation has closed and charges have been filed, I believe the attorney general should resign."

But Ravnsborg is rebuffing calls to step down. In a statement to CNN, spokesman Mike Deaver said "The attorney general does not intend to resign. At no time has this issue impeded his ability to do the work of the office."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAFANOV: Now, the prosecutors in this case said there simply wasn't enough evidence to support charges of vehicular homicide or manslaughter. South Dakota doesn't have laws on the books to be able to indict someone, basically, on something called negligent homicide.

But we spoke to the victim's cousin yesterday evening. He said the family is extremely disappointed with the misdemeanor charges. He said of the attorney general, I'm convinced, despite his claims otherwise, he saw Joe in that moment before the crash -- John.

BERMAN: Look, really interesting, Lucy.

And obviously, charges are one thing. There's one standard for legal charges. There's another standard in terms of the political standard about how straight he was from the beginning about what he knew and what he believed, and that seemed to be where the questions are this morning.

Lucy Kafanov, thanks so much for the reporting.

NEW DAY continues right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. And we begin with brand-new CNN reporting on former President Donald Trump's future. Multiple sources tell CNN's Kate Bennett that, quote, "Trump's stated goal, barring impact from ongoing criminal investigation, is to run for president again in 2024."

Trump is also reportedly plotting.