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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Third Allegation Against New York Governor Cuomo; CDC Director Warns States Not to Ease COVID Restrictions; Biden Meeting with Senate Dems to Finalize COVID Relief Bill. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired March 02, 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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CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: A new claim of an unwanted advance against New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. What the new accuser says happened.

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DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: Please hear me clearly. Now is not the time to relax.

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LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: A critical turning point in the pandemic. Health officials begging Americans not to let their guard down as a game-changing vaccine rolls out.

ROMANS: And CNN has learned Democrats may change one key element of the coronavirus relief bill before the Senate votes. Why weekly unemployment checks could actually be less.

Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is EARLY START. Good morning. I'm Christine Romans.

JARRETT: Good morning, Christine.

I'm Laura Jarrett. It's Tuesday, March 2nd. It's 5:00 a.m. here in New York.

And we begin this morning with a third woman coming forward with an allegation of sexual harassment against New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Anna Ruch tells "The New York Times" she met the governor at a New York City wedding reception in 2019. She says she thanked him for his kind toast honoring her friends. That's when the governor put his hand on her bare lower back.

When she removed his hand and she says the governor told her she seemed, quote, aggressive, and placed his hand on her cheeks, a moment that she says was captured in this photo obtained by "The Times". Ruch says Cuomo asked her if he could kiss her. She pulled away as the governor drew closer. ROMANS: Ruch tells "The Times", quote, it's the act of impunity. I

didn't have a choice in the matter. I didn't have a choice in his physical dominance over mere at that moment and that's what infuriates me. Even what I could do, removing his hand from my lower back, even doing that was not clear enough.

CNN has reached out to her but has not corroborated her allegations.

Here's Jesse McKinley who's been reporting on the allegations against Cuomo for "The New York Times" on CNN last night.

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JESSE MCKINLEY, ALBANY BUREAU CHIEF, NEW YORK TIMES: Certainly the two allegations that have come out already have created the impression that there might be more people out there. You know, I think generally with sexual harassment oftentimes it's not a single case, it's multiple cases. I think those are going to be lines of inquiry going forward for days and weeks to come, to be sure.

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JARRETT: Reached by "The Times", the spokesman for Governor Cuomo did not directly address Ruch's account, instead referring to a general apology that the governor released on Sunday. He said some of his interactions may have been insensitive and misinterpreted as unwanted flirtation and made others feel in ways he never intended.

That's not enough to one of his accusers. Charlotte Bennett says, quote, it took the governor 24 hours and significant backlash to allow for a truly independent investigation. These are not the actions of someone who simply feels misunderstood. They're the actions of an individual who wields his power to avoid justice.

ROMANS: Now, what makes this latest accuser different is she is not a former employee of Cuomo, like the first women. The state attorney general is now officially overseeing this investigation and will appoint a private lawyer to see it. That lawyer will have subpoena power.

Now, more Democrats, including the first member of Congress, are now pulling their support as he fights behind the scenes to salvage his political career.

JARRETT: To COVID now, and Johnson & Johnson's coronavirus vaccine rolling out across the country with first shots in arms expected today.

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DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: It's much more efficient vaccine to use since it's one and done. You just need one shot. We're going to have enough vaccine to really get the job done. Now we have to focus on the last mile, on getting the shots into arms.

(END VIDEO CLIP) JARRETT: Three vaccines in under a year is a stunning scientific feat, no doubt, but health officials are worried about all of these new variants we keep hearing about. They're warning not to ease up on restrictions just yet.

Here's our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.

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ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Laura, Christine, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, warning Americans not to get too lax about COVID-19. Yes, over the past few months the number of cases and deaths has gone down. She points out that the variants pose a real risk. These variants, there's one that started in the U.K., another one that started in South Africa and others have posed challenges. They do seem to be spreading faster. There is some evidence that they can cause more severe disease.

So Dr. Walensky had this to say.

WALENSKY: Please hear me clearly.

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At this level of cases with variants spreading, we stand to completely lose the hard-earned ground we have gained. Now is not the time to relax the critical safeguards that we know can stop the spread of COVID-19 in our communities, not when we are so close.

COHEN: Well, after more than a year, there is COVID-19 fatigue. Americans do need to remember that in this country, we have more than 2,000 deaths a day from COVID-19 and Dr. Walensky pointed out that very recently, the number of new cases and the number of deaths have gone up very slightly -- Laura, Christine.

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ROMANS: Thank you, Elizabeth.

Part of Dr. Walensky's concern about dropping our guard against COVID is that America is reopening -- schools, restaurants, theaters and more. But mitigation and prevention are slowing.

COVID testing in the U.S. is down by more than 25 percent from its peak in mid-January. Now among the possible reasons fewer people with symptoms, more vaccinations or just simple pandemic fatigue.

JARRETT: For the second time in as many days, President Biden will sit down with Senate Democrats as they hammer out the details of his COVID relief bill. CNN has learned the talks on Monday focused on lowering the federal unemployment benefit from $400 to $300 a week. The idea here is to extend the benefit beyond September. But the overall $1.9 trillion price tag, well, that's not up for debate.

Let's go live to the White House and bring in Jasmine Wright. Jasmine, good morning to you.

It appears the president is showing some flexibility here in negotiating with his own party.

JASMINE WRIGHT, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: That's right.

And, Laura, we are seeing President Biden in real time, although these meetings are closed to the press, adopt the role of negotiator in chief, as you said. He is meeting with Democrats for the second day in a row. Yesterday was the first one where he met with 9 Democrats, including Senator Jon Tester of Montana.

Montana told reporters afterwards that they talked about targeting. That President Biden was listening when they voiced their concerns. Of course, we know some Senate Democrats, some centrist Democrats are concerned about that big price tag, that $1.9 trillion looking to come down from that.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has repeatedly said President Biden is open to suggestions on targeting.

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JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We've reserved time in his schedule to ensure he can be engaged, roll up his sleeves and be personally involved in making phone calls, having more Zoom meetings, potentially having people here to the Oval Office to get this across the finish line and I expect him to be very involved personally.

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WRIGHT: Now Senator Tester predicted to reporters that we could see some modest changes in the bill. One source told CNN that President Biden was uniquely interested in this idea of putting more money into broadband in the bill. There's already some for it. But there's an idea to put more -- to allow more Americans to access Internet.

But, of course, any changes that are made to this bill are going to need to find Democratic consensus. We know that since there is no public -- Republican support for the bill, there likely will not be, Democrats have to go it alone, meaning that they're going to have to stay united to get the 50 votes with Vice President Harris as the tie breaking vote -- Laura.

JARRETT: All right. Jasmine Wright, thank you so much.

ROMANS: All right. To coronavirus relief now. State and local funding a core issue in the president's plan. States warn of public sector layoffs without emergency aid to plug big holes in their budgets. Now, we know congressional aid has been critical to cushion the blow to states. States were rescued last year, thanks to extra jobless benefits in earlier relief plans.

Tax Policy Center data shows state revenue fell overall by only 1.8 percent from April to December last year. Now, the $600 a week extra benefits allowed people to keep spending.

That money, then boosted state-income tax revenues. But states that depend on tourism, fossil-fuel production, or states that do not have an income tax. They saw revenue fall. So, it was really uneven across the country.

But even though the extra unemployment assistance helped keep states' revenues up, jobless Americans will have to pay some of that money back. Jobless benefits are treated as taxable income by the IRS and most states. There are exemptions, including California, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

Stimulus checks, by the way, are tax-free. You don't have to pay income tax on the stimulus checks. You do on jobless benefits so you could be in for a surprise when you file for your taxes.

JARRETT: Yeah. Some good information there, just in time for tax season.

All right. Some movement on two major cabinet nominations. The Senate voting last night to confirm President Biden's pick for education secretary, Miguel Cardona. He will be sworn in today. Cardona faces the gigantic task of helping school districts across the country reopen safely.

Meanwhile, Judge Merrick Garland's nomination as attorney general now heads to the Senate floor.

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Four Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee joined all 11 Democrats to advance Garland's nomination.

ROMANS: All right. Just how long will it take to know if current vaccines work against these concerning, new variants? CNN asked the expert. A live report next, from Berlin.

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ROMANS: All right. Clinical trials are one thing. Real-world data is another. With three vaccines now available in the U.S., and others worldwide, top-pharma executives are starting to weigh what we know, what we don't, and how to combat emerging variants that could be more contagious.

CNN's Frederik Pleitgen is with us this morning, live, in Berlin.

And, Fred, nice to see you.

You spoke with the CEO of BioNTech. That's the company that partnered with Pfizer on their vaccine. What'd he tell you?

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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERRNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was really interesting because one of the main things we spoke about, Christine, was, indeed, these variants.

He says basically two things that are really scary about these variants. On the one hand, some of them spread quicker than the original strain of coronavirus. And he says it's absolutely important for countries, for instance, like the U.S., but of course, European countries as well to vaccinate as fast as possible. He says, his recommendation is, don't hold doses back. Vaccinate as fast as possible. They are also scaling up their production to be able to deliver doses a lot faster.

And then, of course, the other big fear is that some of these variants might be able to evade the efficacy of some of these vaccines. He says, so far, tests are showing at BioNTech that their vaccine is, indeed, effective against almost-all of these variants. The South African one, though, they are taking a look at more closely.

Let's listen to what he had to say.

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UGUR SAHIN, CEO, BIONTECH: We believe particularly that mRNA vaccines (INAUDIBLE) is designed in a way which is very robust against variants. Of course, we need to collect the data and see the protection rate but, for example, the data that have been collected in this way shows that we have a full control of the U.K. variant with almost the same efficacy we had observed for the BioNTech (INAUDIBLE) in our phase-three clinical trial.

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PLEITGEN: And, of course, those variants -- controlling those variants so important to some of the openings, some of the loosening of the lockdowns countries want to do. I'm here at central Berlin at the chancellery where Angela Merkel sits. There's a big debate here in Germany as well. Schools have been closed for a very long time, shops still remain closed as well.

Another thing that BioNTech says that's absolutely important, of course, we've been talking about this a lot, Christine, is transporting these vaccines and also being able to store them. He said one of the things they're working on is a possible new formula of the vaccine to be able to store it, maybe in the second half of 2021, at refrigerator temperatures. And, of course, that would make it so much easier to really get it into all regions. For instance, even likely the rural United States, rural Canada, other countries as well -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Fred, nice to see you. Thank you so much.

Laura?

JARRETT: The Biden administration is preparing to impose sanctions against Russia for the poisoning and jailing of opposition leader Alexey Navalny. The announcement is expected to come this week, in coordination with the European Union. The move marks a clear departure from the Trump administration which shied away from ever directly confronting Russia over its actions.

Well, still ahead for you, despite all of the warnings, one of the biggest football schools in the country planning for a packed house later this year.

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JARRETT: Three-time NFL defensive player of the year J.J. Watt putting an end to all of the speculation of where he's going next season.

Carolyn Manno has this morning's "Bleacher Report".

Hey, Carolyn.

CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning.

His ten-year run in Texas is over, Laura. It was good while it lasted but on to new things. And as you know, he's one of the best defensive ends in the game. So he was quite the hot topic on the free-agent market since his release was granted by Houston back in early February.

And he decided to put an end to the speculation, himself. The five- time pro-bowler tweeting this on Monday, a picture of him in an Arizona Cardinals T-shirt with the caption, source: me.

The terms of the deal haven't been officially announced yet, but it's reportedly, a two-year deal for $31 million, with $23 million guaranteed. So, a big deal. Watt turns 32 in three weeks.

He later tweeted a picture of he and his wife on the Cardinals' jet with team owner Michael Bidwill, saying pretty convenient when the owner is also a pilot.

Meantime, as the COVID-19 curve flattens cross the country, Alabama is hoping things will be normalized by next football season, the reigning national champions planning to pack the stadium to full capacity for home games.

Now, Bryant-Denny Stadium seats about 100,000. It was limited to 20 percent last season. This news coming shortly after the school announced that it will return to traditional, in-person classes next fall, as well.

Meantime, the SEC says it's preparing to play the full, 2021 football season, as planned. The schools played an all-conference schedule last year. Only four teams played nine of ten scheduled games. Commissioner Greg Sankey says that things are starting to look up a little bit but there is still plenty of challenges ahead.

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GREG SANKEY, SEC COMMISSIONER: There is a light at the end of this tunnel but we're not done. We're not at the finish line. And -- and I want to be at the finish line, more so, than anyone, I think. So, I think, the first step is to recognize we don't know when it will, fully, end.

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MANNO: The Red Sox really taking advantage of spring training's new mercy rule. If a pitcher throws more than 20 pitches in an inning, the managers can elect to stop the inning and move onto the next one. So, Sox manager Alex Cora used it three times against the Braves, yesterday. Did not help, though. Boston, still, losing 5-3.

And one other programming note for you, Christine. We're going to have Olympic gold medalist, Aly Raisman, joining us in the 8:00 a.m. hour on "NEW DAY." She's been very critical of USA Gymnastics and the way they have handled their sexual abuse scandal. So she is going to join us to discuss.

ROMANS: Oh, that will be a fascinating and timely interview.

All right. Carolyn Manno, thank you so much.

All right. Millions of doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine going into the arms of Americans, starting today. But health experts warn, the COVID fight is not over.

And what former President Trump and Melania didn't do, that might have helped their own supporters in the country.

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JARRETT: Good morning, everyone. This is EARLY START. I'm Laura Jarrett.

ROMANS: Hey, Laura. I'm Christine Romans. It's 29 minutes past the hour, this Tuesday morning.

And first, to this. Now is not the time to relax. Health officials sounding a loud alarm, despite good news about vaccines. Shots of Johnson & Johnson vaccine, expected to start today. The single-dose vaccine, it's easier to transport, meaning J&J could really change the COVID fight once manufacturing picks up.

JARRETT: That's certainly the hope. Three vaccines in less than a year. A true accomplishment. But health officials are warning states, right now, that all of this progress can be wiped away, if we let our guard down early.

And already, you see the declines in cases and hospitalizations have started to slow or level off. And there's renewed concern, from the health officials, about what you call long-haul COVID patients.