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New Day

President Biden to Deliver First Primetime Address Tonight; Struggle to Contain Coronavirus One Year into Pandemic; Prince Williams Insists Royal Family is Not Racist, Has Not Talked to Harry Yet. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired March 11, 2021 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN NEW DAY: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is New Day.

And President Biden is preparing to make his first primetime address to the nation tonight, the start of his effort to promote the bill to the American public. The landmark 1.9$1.9 trillion plan will give $1,400 direct payments to millions of struggling Americans. It will also expand the child tax credit and extend unemployment benefits into September. It passed with zero support from Republicans in the House and the Senate. President Biden plans to sign it into law tomorrow.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY: All right. Joining us now, CNN Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash, the co-Anchor of State of the Union. And, Dana, this will be an east room address, we understand. And we are told new details this morning the president will honor the 500,000 lost to COVID, the millions of people being affected. He'll discuss what's being done to accelerate vaccination efforts and lay out the next steps in getting the pandemic under control.

That's the what. What about the why? Why are we seeing this tonight?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Why is because the people in the Biden White House, starting with the president himself, remember 2009, remember what happened the last time a Democratic president started his administration with a giant piece of legislation that was passed by Democrats. And it was completely attacked in such a big way that it helped to create the tea party and helped to create the 2010 Republican takeover of the House of Representatives.

And the feeling among a lot of Democrats is that the reason that that happened is because President Obama and other Democrats weren't -- they didn't think that they needed to sell it the way Joe Biden clearly thinks that he needs to sell it. His aides think that he needs to sell this. And they also have to combat the messaging that we've seen in a very, very unified and strategic way and unified on the Republican side, that, by all the Republicans that voted, no, that this is a liberal takeover, that this is socialism, so they want to try to nip that in the bud from the very beginning.

And, you know -- by the way, I'm saying that about the Republican messaging, despite the fact that CNN's poll and others show how popular this is. They want to make sure that it stays that way. And more importantly, I don't want to make it that it's all about politics, they want to make sure that people understand how this is going to help them, because this is very, very real, very personal for people across the country.

CAMEROTA: Dana, have you also seen, at least to my ear, but you're much more trained in this, a bit of a casting about by Republicans to settle on some complaint about this? So, first, with Liz Cheney, it was -- it's not targeted enough, it's a tragedy. Then you heard Senator Lindsey Graham say, it's too targeted to focus on black farmers. That's not right. And then Senator Mitch McConnell had an entirely different complaint about it. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): We're doing damage to the future of this country by spending dramatically more money than we obviously need.

We're about to have a boom. And if we do have a boom, it will have absolutely nothing to do with this $1.9 trillion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: That's interesting, robbing it of the credit for helping the economy before it can get any traction. So do you think that any of these messages are resonating?

BASH: I think it's an all of the above strategy, Alisyn. The Republicans are trying to take all of those things combined to try to rob, as you said, a Joe Biden credit and the Democrats' credit for doing this, once people start to feel relief economically, once people start to get the vaccines in their arms, because there's money for that, once kids start to go back to school. I mean, there are other factors in that. You know, the list goes on and on and on about the relief that people should be getting.

Look, this is a very big bill. This is almost $2 trillion. I mean, when you say that out loud, it is really hard to wrap your mind around what that really means. Having said that, I don't remember Mitch McConnell talking about runaway spending when Donald Trump was in the White House, who was the king of debt, he just didn't care.

[07:05:00]

And I don't remember a lot of Republicans saying that they were against targeted payments when Donald Trump was pushing for even bigger payments than what is in this bill. He wanted $2,000 payments. This is $1,400 payments.

So, look, I mean, of course, there's politics in this, no surprise, but that is why you are going to see President Biden not only speak tonight, but he and his aides are going to fan out across the country to try to sell this and explain this and combat all of those messages that we've heard from Republicans. BERMAN: So, Republican Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi, he's got a different angle on this. He says it's awesome, at least parts of it. The guy who voted against it is saying, parts of it are awesome. He talks about the restaurants. Independent restaurant operators have won $26 billion of targeted relief to ensure small businesses can survive.

I mean, that's pretty -- I don't know, craven might be a word that I would use, it comes to mind there. I mean --

BASH: Brazen, craven, yes, pick your end word.

BERMAN: All of those things. I mean, a guy who voted against to brag about parts of it, which shows you, Republicans know that there will be people who feel real benefit from this and quickly in ways that a lot of legislation, they just don't.

BASH: That's exactly right. It is a shot in the arm, because we're talking about shots in the arm, in every way. And it is a shot in the arm economically. But what you just said about Roger Wicker, you guys remember, in 2009, it's another lesson. Republicans slammed the stimulus bill and then they went out and they did photo ops with whatever opening or whatever groundbreaking that's happening in their district to take credit for it, even though it was, in many cases, largely paid for by the stimulus bill that they voted against.

This is exactly what is already happening and is going to happen. And that, again, is why we are going to see and hear Democrats try to be more aggressive in the pushback on the messaging on this.

CAMEROTA: Dana, thank you very much.

BASH: Good to see you guys.

CAMEROTA: You too.

Now we want to get to the growing surge of migrants on the southern border, 3,400 unaccompanied minors now in the custody of border agents. The Biden administration scrambling to find housing for them, even considering a vacant NASA facility as a temporary shelter.

Joining us now is Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley. Senator, thank you so much for being here. I know that this has been an issue for you, what's happening at the border, for years now. And so, is it fair to call what we're seeing today at the border a crisis?

SEN. JEFF MERKLEY (D-OR): Well, it's approaching a crisis. What we have is a surge of children. More than half of them were the children that were stranded for months, some for years by the Trump administration in Mexico under completely intolerable circumstances. And now that the border is not closed, they're knocking on our door.

And you had a set of policies that were determined to treat children very poorly, so you didn't have essentially the systems in place under the Trump administration and the Biden administration is creating those systems, and they're doing it with a completely different vision and a completely different vision from the Trump administration. The trump administration said -- go ahead.

CAMEROTA: Well, yes, I hear you. I understand. We remember well that the Trump administration had this zero tolerance policy. They separated nursing infants and toddlers who couldn't speak English from their parents as a deterrent. We remember that. But is it possible that the more humane policy that the Biden administration says that it is now behind, the more compassionate policy that they are using is having the unintended consequence of being seen as an opportunity for some of these unaccompanied minors, and it's actually spiking the numbers?

MERKLEY: Well, I think it is absolutely fair to say it's seen as an opportunity by those children who are stranded across the border for months and years and have been waiting for the ability to knock on our door. The question is, is it also going to be seen that way by children throughout Central America and parents throughout Central America who are in very difficult circumstances in very corrupt, oppressive regimes. And are they going to start coming north? And then we'll see a real crisis.

CAMEROTA: How could it not be? I mean, how could it not be? Given that there's been this change towards something, and I'm just using Biden's language, more humane, how could it not be seen as, for lack of a better word, an invitation or an opportunity?

MERKLEY: I wouldn't call it an invitation, because the Biden administration has been sending the message, do not come north. And they've been talking to governments throughout the region on their strategies. But the process that they're really working on, remember that we had at one point 15,000 children in detention under the Trump administration.

[07:10:01]

They're trying to instead quickly move these children into sponsored families. And they're doing that by putting case managers on overtime, when sponsors can't afford the plane tickets, they're paying for the plane tickets, they're trying to make sure that the children spend the minimum amount of time in these border patrol stations, where the circumstances are totally inappropriate for children.

So they're operating with the right heart. As you note, is that going to cause more to come north? Well, the administration is certainly recognizing that that's a challenge. But who are we as a nation? Are we going to return to the Trump strategy of deliberately mistreating children? Absolutely not. So we do have to have the process to be able to adjudicate these cases, go through and say, do you really qualify for asylum? Do so in a timely manner, because doing so in that fashion will also send a message and affect the flow of any individuals.

CAMEROTA: Here's how Senator Lindsey Graham categorized all of this yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): It's going to be an economic crisis for our cities along the border. And, eventually, it's going to be a national security crisis, because they're children today but they could easily be terrorists tomorrow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Children today, terrorists tomorrow. What's your response to him?

MERKLEY: Well, it's the fear-mongering that we saw so often about immigrants or rapists and murderers and terrorists. And it's simply not true. And we need to recognize that immigrants commit crimes at a far lower rate than do native-born Americans. So let's not indulge in that type of rhetoric.

CAMEROTA: Senator Merkley, thank you very much. We always appreciate talking to you about this issue that we know you have been focused on and we will be, obviously, monitoring the situation at the border for the next days and weeks. We'll talk to you again.

MERKLEY: Thank you, take care.

CAMEROTA: John?

BERMAN: All right. Masks, now the focus of a legal battle in Texas, the new response from one city mayor who's refusing to follow the governor's order, coming up.

CAMEROTA: Also, moments ago, Prince William making his first public comments about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. What he says about claims of racism within the royal family.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:15:00]

CAMEROTA: Exactly one year ago, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. Since that time, more than 2.6 million people around the world have died. One-fifth of those deaths have been here in the U.S. And the U.S. is still struggling to contain the spread of the virus and the new variants. But there is hope. More than 10 percent of Americans are now fully vaccinated.

Joining us now is CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Good morning, Sanjay. Your thoughts?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: What a year it has been. I mean, it's amazing when you sort of look at these retrospectives and sort of see it all put together. Lots of questions still remain. World Health Organization, as you mentioned, what was their role? What will their role be going forward for now in future pandemics? But also something you point out that, as a general, wealthier countries fared worse than poorer countries. Why is that? These are some of the questions we asked.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The World Health Organization is finally calling the coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic.

GUPTA (voice over): That was March 11th, 2020, and this word, pandemic, came to define our very lives. But it was months earlier that the World Health Organization was first trying to get our attention.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm declaring a public health emergency of international concern over the global outbreak of novel coronavirus.

MARIA VAN KERKHOVE, CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE TECHNICAL LEAD, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: The importance of that is that you raise the alarm before you're in a situation where the world is in a pandemic.

GUPTA: Maria Van Kerkhove is the WHO's technical lead for the coronavirus response.

KERKHOVE: The worrying trend now are increases in Europe.

GUPTA: Whether on our town halls or daily WHO news conferences, for the last year, she's been trying to change the trajectory of the pandemic.

Did countries respond differently? Did they have more resources? What happens when the World Health Organization raises these alarms?

KERKHOVE: Every country is unique. It wasn't about rich or poor countries, it was about experience. It was about those countries that knew the threat that this was. They heeded our warnings.

GUPTA: Van Kerkhove points to places like South Korea, Japan, Nigeria. They heeded those warnings and have managed to keep transmissions relatively under control. But prepared or not, this novel coronavirus has been a tricky opponent.

KERKHOVE: One of the important factors about learning about this virus was that people were most infectious at or around the time they developed symptoms. So the fact that people could spread this virus without feeling unwell was a game changer in that sense.

GUPTA: But while infectious disease outbreaks typically crush poorer countries, this novel coronavirus has disproportionately affected many of the world's wealthiest nations.

Close to 9,000 cases per 100,000 people in the United States, 156 deaths per 100,000 people. Compare that to India, where it's about a tenth of that, even though they have some of the most population-dense areas in the world. What accounts for this huge disparity between wealthy and poor countries?

KERKHOVE: You can have really, really good medical systems in countries, hospitals, you know, the best treatments in the world, but that doesn't make up for the fundamentals of public health. In public health, it's more about prevention. You know, what do you do to prevent a situation from really taking hold, as opposed to caring for those who are sick?

GUPTA: Now, in the second year of the pandemic, the cavalry has arrived but so has a more advanced enemy.

[07:20:05]

So, Van Kerkhove says we not only need to be nimble when it comes to these new variants, but stresses we also need to get vaccines to all countries. According to the People's Vaccine Alliance, rich nations are now vaccinating one person every second, while the majority of the poorest nations have yet to administer a single dose.

KERKHOVE: Every life on this planet matters. Look at those images of planes arriving in countries around the world. If you are not touched by that, if you are not moved by that, we need to see why that is. But everyone on this planet deserves to be protected.

GUPTA: Shot by shot, the world has started to see some hope. And for those countries who did need WHO's warnings, they are giving us a glimpse into a post-pandemic life.

KERKHOVE: I see societies that are opened up. I see sporting events that are happening. I see a resilient community that is living their life, that has driven transmission down in some situations to zero. But I see communities and governments that are at the ready.

GUPTA: At the ready is exactly where the world will need to be, not only for this pandemic, but for future ones as well.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: You know, it's almost overwhelming to look back, Sanjay, even as we need to look forward and as we look forward, the questions are all surrounding the various variants, the ones seen in the U.K., South Africa. There is some reason to hope, Sanjay, particularly as you look at South Africa that these matters are containable. What do you find?

GUPTA: Yes. No, I think that that was the large point here. So take a look at this graphic. I think it tells a story. We talk about B1351. That's the South African variant. It started to emerge in October of 2020 in South Africa. It caused a significant spike in cases, as you see there. But, look, they've come way down. Why is that? Not because of the vaccines, Less than 1 percent of the country has been vaccinated. It's because of these same public health measures that we've been talking about for a year, as Maria Van Kerkhove was just talking about.

I mean, variant, no variant, whatever it maybe, the public health measures have always worked. They still work. And we've pointed out South Africa is an example, that it's scary, these variants, but look how well they got it under control.

CAMEROTA: Sanjay, I really need your help understanding this new guidance from the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid, okay? Here is what they say about nursing home. Facilities should allow responsible indoor visitations at all times for all residents, regardless of the status of the vaccination of the resident, or visitor, unless certain scenarios arise.

How does that work, Sanjay? Nursing homes were the super-spreader events. Why is this guidance of no vaccines going to be okay?

GUPTA: I'm not sure it's necessarily okay. It's -- especially given the fact that just a few days ago, they're still not making it clear that vaccinated people can even travel. So on one hand, you can get together in nursing homes, which, as you mentioned, are some of the most vulnerable locations, but you can't travel. That's going to be a dissonance that the CDC is going to need to clear up.

But when you look at what was driving this new nursing home guidance, they basically say, look, if you taking nursing homes, long-term care facilities as a unit, more than 70 percent of the people there have been vaccinated. So it's this idea of herd immunity maybe being applied to the bubble of long-term care facilities.

And, you know, there was this idea that this is part of these compassionate care visits. I mean, people have gone for a year in some of these locations without a visit, so they certainly want to sort of expedite that. And also, if the positivity rate is too high or, you know, there's not enough people vaccinated in a particular nursing home, they may not allow visits.

But you're absolutely right. I mean, I think they're getting the sequencing wrong in terms of how they're talking about this. Can't fly but visit nursing homes, they're going to have to clarify this.

BERMAN: Sanjay, we're going to see you again in just a little bit, so don't go far.

GUPTA: Okay.

BERMAN: We want to remember some of the more than 529,000 Americans lost to coronavirus. Jesus and Maria Pina were married 51 years and died in Tucson just eight days apart. Maria was an early childhood educator and Jesus a part-time pastor. Family members say, because of their quick decline, Maria never knew Jesus had died and Jesus never knew Maria was hospitalized.

Virginia Capitol Police Master Officer Woodrow Dowdy served 33 years on the force. State officials say he had a relaxed but professional personality that mixed well with everyone from powerful politicians to lost tourists. He was 60 and leaves behind a wife and son.

Richard Zuckernick had been teaching math and Prince William County, Virginia for schools for ten years. The principal at Gar-Field High says he formed strong bonds with students despite teaching virtually all year. His death comes less than a week before Virginia schools are required to have in-person learning plans in place.

[07:25:00]

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Moments ago, Prince William was asked about the claims made by his brother, Prince Harry, and Meghan Markle.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Sir, have you spoken to your brother since the interview?

PRINCE WILLIAM, DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE: I haven't spoken to him yet, but I will do.

REPORTER: And can you just let me know, is the royal family a racist family, Sir?

PRINCE WILLIAM: We're very much not a racist family.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Joining us now is Dean Stott, a former British Special Forces soldier. He's a longtime friend of Prince Harry's after they met in the army. Dean, great to see you.

DEAN STOTT, LONGTIME FRIEND OF PRINCE HARRY: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: So have you spoken to your friend -- not spoken, communicated with, I know you guys mostly email and text each other, since he spoke out on Oprah?

STOTT: Yes, we have, yes. We speak and have communications quite regularly. So I've kept in touch to let him know there's support there. It's obviously been quite a difficult week for the couple, but for all in the family.

CAMEROTA: Has he shared with you or do you understand why he chose to speak out in such a public way about this private family drama that they've been going through?

[07:30:08]