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Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) Discusses GOP Delay Tactics To Stall Coronavirus Relief Bill; Reports: Gov. Cuomo Aides Altered Data To Lower Nursing Home Deaths, And His Accuser Speaks Out About Sexual Harassment Claims; Arizona County Giving Vaccines To Everyone Over 18. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired March 05, 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]

REP. JOHN GARAMENDI (D-CA): Eight members of Congress -- four Democrats, four Republicans. It was a very, very important meeting.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So infrastructure has always been seen as this thing that might be able to actually get votes from both parties. But I do wonder based on the evidence we've seen since January 20th about what Republicans haven't been willing to vote for -- I mean, you can't get any Republican votes for some of the things you're putting through -- why will infrastructure be any different?

GARAMENDI: Well, this is -- this cuts across all political lines and cuts across every part of the American economy. If we actually do these things there will be millions of jobs created in every community around the nation and every community will benefit.

And if we carry out the president's desire that we use American taxpayer dollars to buy American-made goods and services, then that will generate more jobs throughout the economy.

And what happened at that meeting was really something very, very important. The Republican members of Congress actually said that we need to raise tax money in order to do this. One member suggested that there be a carbon tax and that money be used for infrastructure. And I'm going yeah, let's get this discussion going.

Of course, Peter DeFazio, the chairman of the committee, has for a long time advocated for ways of using the federal excise tax -- bringing it back up to what it has been. It's been more than two decades before that has been raised. And we need to also move to the reality that electric cars don't buy gasoline, so how do we deal with that?

That was just a preliminary discussion but it was discussed and that gives us a foundation upon which we can build.

But let's understand, we've got to get this rescue bill done because that will crush the virus and the package will then allow the American economy and people to be stable. And that is the foundation upon which we would then build -- BERMAN: Right.

GARAMENDI: -- the infrastructure.

BERMAN: It's in the Senate's hands -- the relief bill is right now.

Congressman Garamendi, thanks so much for being with us today.

GARAMENDI: It's good to be with you.

BERMAN: So, one of the women accusing New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment, Charlotte Bennett, is now speaking out on television. You'll hear her in her own words, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:36:34]

BERMAN: Breaking overnight, explosive reports by "The New York Times" and "Wall Street Journal" concerning coronavirus deaths in New York nursing homes. Top aides to Gov. Andrew Cuomo allegedly altered a report to hide the true number of nursing home deaths from coronavirus.

CNN's Athena Jones live in Albany with the latest on this reporting.

ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

"The New York Times" spoke to six people with direct knowledge.

This all started with a report last summer by the state's Department of Health focusing on COVID-19 deaths in long-term care facilities. Now, the original report, which was not public at the time, listed the number of nursing home deaths at nearly 10,000. But as it turned out, the state did not end up counting nursing home deaths if those people had been transferred to hospitals as their condition worsened and they died there.

The "Times" and "The Wall Street Journal" say senior aides rewrote the report, cutting the number of deaths nearly in half -- going along the lines of just where they -- where they died.

The tension over the death count dated to March of last year when the governor issued an order preventing long-term care facilities from turning away people who had been discharged from hospitals after being diagnosed with COVID-19 and treated there with COVID-19. Critics say that order fueled the spread of the virus in those facilities.

Cuomo has said he was following federal guidelines and if nursing homes were not equipped to safely handle patients they should not have been accepted back into those facilities.

Now, in response to the reports overnight, the special counsel to Gov. Cuomo said, "The out-of-facility data was omitted after DOH [the Department of Health] could not confirm it had been adequately verified. This did not change the conclusion of the report, which was and is that the March 25th order was 'not a driver of nursing home infections or fatalities.'"

The state's health department also said, "While early versions of the report included out-of-facility deaths, the COVID task force was not satisfied that the data had been verified against hospital data. And so the final report used only data for in-facility deaths, which was disclosed in the report. DOH was comfortable with the final report and believes fully in its conclusion that the primary driver that introduced COVID into nursing homes was spread brought in by staff."

Now, a state attorney general report back in January found the number of deaths was severely undercounted by almost 50 percent, prompting Gov. Cuomo to release the complete data in the past few weeks. At the time, he claimed that data had been withheld because of an investigation by the Trump administration. Cuomo has said he regrets the way this was handled and should have done a better job in handling the information.

The FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Brooklyn are also investigating the handling of that COVID-19 nursing home data -- Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Athena, thank you very much for bringing us all that breaking news. We know you'll continue to work your sources and bring us anything new.

But let's bring in right now CNN legal analyst Jennifer Rodgers and CNN political commentator Errol Louis.

Errol, let's just start there with the breaking news from Athena. So, this public report was altered and the number of the death count was lowered. You just heard Athena and the general counsel for the governor try to give the rationale. What does all this mean politically?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, POLITICAL ANCHOR, SPECTRUM NEWS (via Cisco Webex): What it -- what it means politically is that we've got a change in what we'd first been told by the administration.

[07:40:00]

The last version of the story was that the numbers were changed in August because there was a lot of pressure from the Trump administration and some of it was ill-intentioned -- or, so the Cuomo administration said -- and that they, therefore, wanted to sit on the data and work it a little bit more and not give the Trump administration an excuse to come after them, politically or legally.

This now changes that timeline and it makes clear that pretty early on there were qualified health officials who had one set of data and that it was non-medical, non-public health -- frankly, political staff close to the governor who specifically took out the information not because they were under any pressure from the Trump administration -- not really for any reason that we have been able to determine so far.

And it really sort of makes clear that this administration has been moving around its rationale for what has been a very troubling set of developments -- hiding public information from the public.

CAMEROTA: And legally speaking Jennifer, what did you think of the argument from the counsel there that the reason these numbers were changed was because the Department of Health could not verify the number of out-of-facility deaths?

JENNIFER RODGERS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR (via Cisco Webex): Well, we'll have to see what federal officials and others make of that excuse.

But Errol's right -- you know, it's so often the cover-up. Once you start having shifting explanations for why things are done, that doesn't look good to investigators. And it just brings to mind what happened last year Alisyn with the Trump administration and the CDC manipulating data -- scientific data for political purposes.

It's not good, especially coming on top of this double-whammy of the sexual harassment allegations. The Cuomo administration is in trouble here.

CAMEROTA: As you point out, this is happening at the very same time that these allegations of sexual harassment are happening. And one of the accusers, Charlotte Bennett, has now come forward in this sit-down interview -- television interview with CBS's Norah O'Donnell. We want to play a large chunk of it for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NORAH O'DONNELL, ANCHOR, CBS EVENING NEWS: You have been quoted as saying that he also asked you about if you'd ever been with an older man.

CHARLOTTE BENNETT, FORMER CUOMO AIDE: Yes. He asked me if age difference mattered. He also explained that he was fine with anyone over 22.

O'DONNELL: And how old are you?

BENNETT: I'm 25.

O'DONNELL: What were you thinking as he's asking you these questions?

BENNETT: I thought he's trying to sleep with me. The governor is trying to sleep with me.

O'DONNELL: Why did you feel shame?

BENNETT: I feel like people put the onus on the woman to shut that conversation down and by answering I was somehow engaging in that or enabling it when, in fact, I was just terrified.

O'DONNELL: People will watch this and say why didn't you get up and leave?

BENNETT: It didn't feel like I had a choice.

O'DONNELL: He's your boss.

BENNETT: He's my boss. He's everyone's boss.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Jennifer, we had read the reports of her accusations early this week, but now seeing her and hearing her in her own words does sometimes change the impressions that people get.

Legally, where do you think we are with this?

RODGERS: Well, we know that there is going to be an investigation and the investigators, of course, are going to speak to Ms. Bennett, they're going to speak to Gov. Cuomo, and they're going to speak to Lindsey Boylan, the other accuser -- the state employee who came forward first. And so they're going to have to sort out what happened here.

And what's interesting is Ms. Bennett is adding additional details. She seemed very credible to me. Now, she wasn't under oath or anything in her interview but she's a very good witness.

Gov. Cuomo has effectively admitted having inappropriate conversations with her, but he hasn't admitted to the unwanted touching and the unwanted kiss that Lindsey Boylan alleged. So the investigators are going to have to sort that discrepancy out.

And there's also the issue of the cover-up. We know that Ms. Bennett was moved. There's reporting that they didn't take the proper steps to notify the proper personnel about moving her, about her complaint, and doing an investigation. So that's going to be a big issue for investigators, too, as they figure out what happened and whether there was corruption and a cover-up in addition to possible harassment.

CAMEROTA: Errol, this has been a fast-moving story all week. Politically speaking, having her on camera and speak on the record, does this change things?

LOUIS: It does. It makes it clearer, I think, for a lot of people that they're going to have to wait and see because what you basically had was he said-she said. The governor one day, nearly in tears, acknowledging that a conversation took place but saying he meant no harm. And then the very next day, Charlotte Bennett coming forward and saying well no, there was harm and she gives her version of it.

In the meantime, I spoke with the Senate majority leader just yesterday, as a matter of fact, and she hasn't spoken to the government in a couple of weeks.

[07:45:00]

We're three weeks away from a really important budget, a pandemic- induced deficit that has to get solved -- a lot of real serious questions. We've got lots and lots of people who are on bread lines who are waiting for food assistance, who are waiting for businesses to reopen. A lot of important stuff is just not happening. And so, in effect, the

state government is slowly but surely coming to a halt as these overlapping questions continue to take up all of the time of the people at the top.

CAMEROTA: That's really important context.

Errol Louis, Jennifer Rodgers, thank you both very much.

So, age is no barrier to getting a coronavirus shot in at least one community in the United States. We'll take you there and how it's working out, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:50:00]

BERMAN: So imagine the day when virtually everyone around you is eligible for the coronavirus vaccine. In one Arizona county, that day is now.

CNN's Kyung Lah has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Gila County, Arizona, population 54,000, just 90 minutes east of Phoenix, is a glimpse into America's vaccine future.

Kevin Kane, age 24, a new father --

KEVIN KANE, VACCINE RECIPIENT: Easy-peasy.

LAH (voice-over): -- like everyone 18 and older in Gila County, can get the Moderna vaccine.

KANE: It feels great, you know. It feels like I can actually move on with my life when this thing's over.

LAH (voice-over): It's been tough worrying about COVID-19 while working as a pizza chef. His boss is John Wong.

JOHN WONG, OWNER, BRAVO AMERICANO MODERNO: Without the vaccine, you know, I noticed we were down 30-40 percent on business.

LAH (voice-over): Today, 37 percent of eligible residents here have been vaccinated with their first dose -- a number climbing by the day.

WONG: My second shot was last Friday.

LAH (on camera): Do you notice that people look different and feel different?

WONG: They're dining out more. Knowing that there's a vaccine out there, there is a lot of hope.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Gila County Health Department.

LAH (voice-over): How did they do it?

MICHAEL O'DRISCOLL, DIRECTOR, GILA COUNTY HEALTH AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: We set up the pandemic exactly like what we would do during our fire season.

LAH (voice-over): This is that incident command, run to handle a disaster.

TODD WHITNEY, INCIDENT COMMANDER, GILA COUNTY COVID RESPONSE: My background is not in health, it's in emergency management. Before that, it was in law enforcement.

LAH (on camera): So you're a former cop?

WHITNEY: I am.

LAH (voice-over): Rapidly communicating with the entire county just as they would during an emergency to relay news about mass vaccination sites.

O'DRISCOLL: Today we have only two positive cases where about a month ago we were up to 60 a day. It's a load off our shoulders. It's a tremendous amount of stress just going away all at once and it feels good.

PAULA HORN, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, GILA COUNTY HEALTH AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: This is our vaccine freezer and these are our two vaccine refrigerators.

LAH (on camera): You can take care of 10 people with this vial?

HORN: Yes. So right now, we have 20 doses in this box. So --

LAH (on camera): Twenty lives.

HORN: Twenty.

LAH (voice-over): The county says having enough vaccine supply and getting doses into arms is easier when your population is as small as Gila County. But progress isn't without problems.

RHONDA MASON, CHIEF NURSING OFFICER, COBRE REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER: We are seeing a hesitancy, especially with the younger population.

LAH (on camera): Is that one of the biggest challenges going forward, is hesitancy?

MASON: Yes, I really do believe it is.

LAH (voice-over): But, Gila County forges on --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is this your first one?

PAUL MILLER, SUBCONTRACTOR WHO LIVES IN TUSCON: It is, indeed. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Great.

LAH (voice-over): -- reaching so many that Paul Miller, who works in the county but lives in Tucson, can get the vaccine and picture hugging his parents again.

MILLER: We haven't seen them in a year. I've got a 2-year-old at home and they haven't seen their granddaughter in a year. And so, it's one step closer to going and seeing them.

LAH (on camera): As a reminder, vaccines go to the states, states distribute to the counties. If you live in a large, complex county it is going to take longer. Access and timing -- it will depend on very much where you live. That's why here at Cobre Valley Regional Center, they are able to schedule a full day of second doses of the vaccine.

Kyung Lah, CNN, Gila County, Arizona.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Our thanks to Kyung for that package.

Let's bring in Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health.

I wish I lived in that county. That is so lucky for everybody who lives there, Dr. Jha.

And, you know, every state, it seems, is trying a different approach to how they get the vaccines out. Some are using the comorbidities. Some, like New Jersey -- if you've ever been a smoker, you get the vaccine right now. I don't know anybody in New Jersey who hasn't been a smoker, number one.

Then there are some places like Connecticut where it's based on age. And if you're just above 55, regardless of your health situation or comorbidities, you can get it.

And so, do we know scientifically which approach works best?

DR. ASHISH JHA, DEAN, BROWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH (via Cisco Webex): Yes. So, first of all, good morning. Thanks for having me on.

You know, there are a couple of things that are I think really important. One is simplicity is really helpful for moving vaccines out faster and actually being more equitable because complex rules make it hard for people who are disadvantaged. But the second is we know who's at risk for the -- for having complications of the disease, right, and that's older people and people with comorbidities.

So think some of the standout states like Connecticut, New Mexico, and West Virginia really have prioritized age first and that strikes me as probably the most reasonable way to go. It's probably the best way to get the most number of people made safe as quickly as possible. BERMAN: Doctor Jha, I know you like seeing stories like Kyung's out of Gila County, Arizona because it's a success story for vaccines. It gives people a reason to go get the shots.

And along those lines, we're waiting on the CDC guidance for what people can do when they're fully vaccinated, and our sense is it's going to be fairly tepid or limited guidance about what they can do.

What would you like to see from the CDC? If it were up to you -- Dr. Jha's guidance for Americans on how to behave if everyone's vaccinated -- what would you say?

[07:55:00]

JHA: Yes. Well, I'll tell you what I believe the science is, and the science is when you have two vaccinated people spending time together it's pretty close to normal. Like you can do -- you don't have to be wearing masks. You can be getting together for meals and it's very, very safe.

There are some more subtleties around vaccinated people with unvaccinated people. I'd like to see some CDC guidance on that.

But mostly, I'd like the thrust of this to be enthusiasm. These are terrific vaccines and when you get vaccinated it allows you to do a lot more things safely, especially when you're in the company of other people who are vaccinated.

CAMEROTA: OK. Well then, help us understand what Detroit's mayor was doing where they were going to get an allotment of Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which he basically turned away.

Here's his reasoning. "So, Johnson & Johnson is a very good vaccine. Moderna and Pfizer are the best. Am I (sic) going to do everything I can to make sure the residents of the city of Detroit" -- oh, "and I'm going to do everything I can to make sure the residents of the city of Detroit get the best."

Is now any time to be turning your nose up at an offer of any vaccine?

JHA: Yes. Well, first of all, I disagree with the premise of that idea that somehow the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is inferior. I don't buy it. It's a far more nuanced specter (ph) than that.

And the bottom line that I'd say is would I be comfortable with my family, my loved ones getting the Johnson & Johnson vaccine? Absolutely. It's a terrific vaccine.

I think we get confused by these headline numbers of efficacy. It's apples to oranges. These are really good vaccines and I think people should just get them when it's their turn and not try to parse out which one might be better for you.

BERMAN: So, Dr. Jha, Dr. Fauci, yesterday, put a marker on the level that he thinks the country needs to get to in order to start feeling like you can lift some of these restrictions like the mask mandates. He said 10,000 cases a day. We're at what, 65,000 today, roughly?

CAMEROTA: Yes.

BERMAN: We're at 65,000 today. He said we need to be around 10,000 cases a day. How reasonable of a marker is that?

JHA: I think it's pretty reasonable. If you think about it, 10,000 cases a day, we're still going to have 100-200 people dying almost every day. That's still a good amount of suffering and illness.

And, you know -- and the reason why that's a pretty reasonable marker is I think we can get there when we have a broad proportion of the population vaccinated. It doesn't mean we have to wait that long to relax any restrictions.

But mask mandates are not that costly. They're not disruptive to business. We should absolutely keep them in until we get infection numbers much lower.

CAMEROTA: Gov. Jim Justice, Republican of West Virginia, agrees with you. Here is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JIM JUSTICE (R-WV): We're going to do the smart thing in West Virginia. We're not going to do the thing that's just politically correct. I don't know, really, what the big rush to get rid of the masks is because these masks have saved a lot, a lot of lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: How can we still be having mask debates? What's the big restriction on your personal freedom to wear a mask when you go outside to protect other people?

JHA: Yes. You know, as we know, this has gotten horribly politicized in ways that are totally unnecessary.

We have lots of things that we do for public health. We wear seat belts, we don't drink and drive. I guess those people could argue are infringements to freedom but we do them because it's good for us, it's good for other people.

Masks are very similar and we're so close to a point where we actually can safely get rid of the mask mandate. This is not the time to do it. Let's wait until a lot more people are vaccinated and especially, high-risk people are vaccinated.

BERMAN: Dr. Ashish Jha, thank you very much for being with us this morning.

JHA: Thank you.

BERMAN: And for the record, I'd be sad, I think, if you moved to Gila County, Arizona.

CAMEROTA: You would?

BERMAN: I think -- I think I would be.

CAMEROTA: Well, I'll try to figure that out.

BERMAN: Maybe a long -- maybe a long vacation. Maybe a long vacation.

CAMEROTA: That's what I'll do.

BERMAN: OK.

CAMEROTA: I wonder if I could get a vaccine if I just took a vacation there? I'm going to find out.

Thank you very much, and NEW DAY continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: The White House is making one final push to pass the COVID relief bill through the Senate over the objections of Republicans.

SEN. RON JOHNSON (R-WI): All I'm trying to do is make this a more deliberative process.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: More states rolling back COVID-19 safety measures.

GOV. KAY IVEY (R-AL): I will not keep the mask order in effect.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The evidence supports their use and they prevent disease and death.

NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: On average, more than two million doses now going into American arms every day.

JUSTICE: If we continue to vaccinate more and more and more, we'll get rid of the masks. But I don't know, really, what the big rush is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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

BERMAN: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY.

One point nine trillion dollars of relief, $1,400 checks to millions of Americans -- something that 62 percent of Americans say they want.

Today, the Senate begins debate on the relief bill and debate is good. If you have an argument against it, have at it. Is it targeted enough? Is it too much money going to the wrong places? Debate it.

Instead, overnight, that debate had to wait for story time. Republican Sen. Ron Johnson demanded that the 628.