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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

President & VP to Meet with Asian-American Leaders in Atlanta; Tough Rhetoric At Administration's First Talks with China; Russia Reacts Angrily After Biden Calls Putin a "Killer"; Vaccine Makers Preparing to Surge Doses to States. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired March 19, 2021 - 05:00   ET

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


LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: Today, President Biden and Vice President Harris head to Georgia to console a grieving community there and across the nation.

[05:00:04]

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: The Biden administration locks horns with China and Russia. Why the president suddenly facing off against two adversaries at once.

JARRETT: And health experts hope more vaccines will catch up to the virus soon as more of the country starts to reopen.

Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is EARLY START. I'm Laura Jarrett.

ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. It is Friday, March 19th. Happy Friday, everybody. It's exactly 5:00 a.m. in New York.

And this morning, President Biden and Vice President Harris head to Georgia to reassure the Asian-American community there and across the country, a community frightened after eight people were shot dead at three Atlanta massage parlors. Police aren't able to release the names of some victim, they are work to go verify their identities and notify their families.

JARRETT: Across the country, an outpouring of support for the victims and their families, like Delania Yaun, the mother of two children, including an eight-month-old daughter. Her husband made it out of the spa safely, but she was killed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONSTANCE SEATS, AUNT OF VCTIM DELAINA YAUN: This is so heart breaking. He took a mother, a wife, a daughter and a sister for no reason. This family is broken because of this man.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: On Capitol Hill, the first hearing in 30 years on anti-Asian discrimination became tense and emotional over this Republican lawmaker's comments. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. CHIP ROY (R-TX): There's an old saying in Texas about find all the rope in Texas and get a tall oak tree. I'm not going to be ashamed of saying I oppose the Chi coms, I oppose the Chinese Communist Party, and when we say things like that and we are talking about that, we shouldn't be worried about having a committee of members of Congress policing our rhetoric.

REP. GRACE MENG (D-NY): Your president and your party and your colleagues can talk about issues with any other country that you want, but you don't have to do it by putting a bull's-eye on the backs of Asian-Americans across this country, on our grandparents, on our kids. This hearing was to address the hurt and pain of our community and to find solutions and we will not let you take our voice away from us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Plenty of Republicans were also criticizing those comments completely off the mark comments in a hearing about violence against Asian-Americans.

Meantime, on the Atlanta shootings, police now say they have not ruled out any possible motive.

President Biden suddenly facing twin crises with bold adversaries, China and Russia. The Biden administration's first major talks with China, talks Biden called to lay down the law with Beijing, shockingly blunt rhetoric from both sides.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: We'll also discuss our deep concerns with actions by China, including in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Taiwan, cyber attacks on the United States, economic coercion among our allies. The alternative to a rules-based order is a world in which might makes right and winners take all, and that would be a far more violent and unstable world for all of us.

YANG JIECHI, CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY FOREIGN AFFAIR CHIEF (through translator): when I When I entered this room, I should have reminded the U.S. side of paying attention to its tone in our respective opening remarks.

(SPEAKING CHINESE)

(through translator): The Chinese side felt compelled to make this speech because of the tone of the U.S. side.

(SPEAKING CHINESE)

(through translator): Isn't this the intention of the United States, judging for the way that you have made your opening remarks, that it wants to speak to China in a condescending way from a position of strength.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: All right. CNN's David Culver, excuse me, live in Shanghai this morning.

You know, we've seen rhetoric like this at the ambassador level, but at the top level posing a real challenge to the Biden administration's China policy, ultimately a strategy like we saw from China comes from the top.

DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Christine, I was fascinated watching the video, particularly of Secretary Blinken and how he handled his remarks that were off script, because we're used to seeing prepared remarks on both side, they're usually reading from a script and generally the press is escorted out.

The fact that the press was kept in for that portion and actually asked to stay and then we saw this heated exchange between the two in a very public way suggests two things, one is on the Chinese side, you have to understand they're speaking to a domestic audience so they wanted to come in strong here. But in many ways, it also appears that they have a dated approach. By that I mean they're almost coming at it with this wolf warrior diplomacy we saw going against the Trump administration.

[05:05:04]

The other thing that stands out, though, is Secretary Blinken's response, because this was not a response you would have seen from, say, Pompeo or the Trump administration in that it would be strong heated rhetoric that would perhaps make headlines. I would assess it, Christine, as more of a mindful approach, even, if you will. I mean, it seemed as though he was able to remove ego from the situation, he was then able to address the self-awareness aspect of the United States, saying that is correct yeah, we have issues in the U.S., we're confronting those issues, we're open about t we're transparent and that's how we make a more perfect union going forward.

It really put the Chinese in an interesting situation because domestically here, sure, the headlines from state media are that the Chinese went in and were aggressive against a condescending U.S., that's certainly how one outlet is portraying it. But from the U.S. side, it's a very different approach than what we saw under President Trump. This is now going to, I think, force Chinese officials going forward to reassess how exactly they're handling the U.S. because from a global perspective, the perhaps bigger person, if you will, in the room in a situation like that is the one who is calm, who is self- aware and more than anything else what goes after ego, humility and that seemed to come across from the U.S. side, Christine.

ROMANS: Clearly, elections have consequences. This is a new administration that wants a new tone, wants to protect American technology, wants to find allies around the world to help bring, you know, China's belligerence in the global stage in line. That's what their strategy will be. This is just the opening of this new relationship.

David Culver, so nice to see you in Shanghai. Thank you.

Laura?

JARRETT: All right. No regrets for President Biden after his comments to ABC news agreeing that Vladimir Putin is, quote, a killer. Now that's prompted the Russian president to challenge Biden to continue their conversation publicly and do it live.

CNN's Matthew Chance is live in Moscow with more this morning.

Matthew, Putin also wished President Biden good health, somewhat ominous there.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, well, I've seen a lot of that. I can see how, you know, it would be concerning, it would be viewed as concerning that a leader that is accused of having his critics killed or silenced in some other nefarious ways, you know, when he says I hope you're healthy and I'm not joke being that, I can see how that would be concerning but I actually think it wasn't meant in that way. It was meant -- no -- it was meant, I think, to play into a broader campaign that we're seeing played out here in Russia on state media, on state television which is basically putting across this idea that President Biden is too old for the job, he doesn't have full control of his mental faculties, that he made these comments or agreed with these comments that Putin is a killer because of his sort of medical condition and his state of mind.

That's what I think President Putin was playing into. It was a sort of a wink to that and it was a play to the domestic audience here in Russia who have been bombarded with those ideas through state media that the U.S. president is in some way not capable of performing his duties as the leader of the -- of the United States. So that's what that was all about.

There was also a childhood retort, I think, in President Putin's quite angry response I think in the end to this idea that he is a killer. He basically said whether you say I am, that's what you are. It's no great translation of it in English, but takes one to know one or something like that, sort of a childhood playground sort of retort. He said that and saying that it's actually the United States that has blood on its hands and I'm paraphrasing here of course, not me and not Russia.

He did take that step as well as offering an online live debate with President Biden, but that was also a kind of taunt as well because he said something like, you know, you better make a decision quickly, you know, to say whether you're going to do it or not. Another reference to his age. There have been actions as well as words of course in the past 24 hours, Russia has recalled its ambassador from the United States to Russia for consultation consultations, such is the level of anger and concern about those remarks that Joe Biden made about the Russian leader, Laura.

JARRETT: Yeah, I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for that public live debate from the White House yesterday, didn't seem like that was going to happen. All right, Matthew. Thanks so much. Appreciate it.

Just a few hours, the CDC is due to change social distancing guidelines in schools. What this means for your kids. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:13:48]

JARRETT: Welcome back.

A potential surge in infections being met with a surge of vaccinations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID KESSLER, MD, CHIEF SCIENCE OFFICER, HHS COVID RESPONSE: We will have within 90 days in essence quadrupled our vaccine supply. I believe that we're going to be shifting from a supply issue to a demand issue pretty soon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: Okay. So, so far, more than 151 million doses have gone out the door, 240 million doses now ready for shipment by the end of this month.

ROMANS: Dr. Anthony Fauci says children probably need to be vaccinated for the country to achieve herd immunity. That won't happen soon, but the CDC is set to revise its guidelines that could help more students get back to the classroom.

CNN has the pandemic covered for you coast to coast.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Elizabeth Cohen.

CNN has learned that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control is expected to change its guidelines for schools on Friday. Now, the CDC has been telling people throughout the pandemic that in schools children and other people in schools need to stay at least six feet apart, it's expected that the CDC will tell people, do you know what, now you can be three feet or more apart in schools.

[05:15:04]

The hope is that this will hasten an easy return to school if people can be three feet or more apart, but it's unclear exactly what affect the new guideline will have.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: I'm Pete Muntean in Washington.

Air travel just recorded its biggest week of the pandemic. For the first time in a year, the TSA screened more than a million people at airports across the country each day for seven days in a row. Also a pandemic first, Wednesday's number was higher than the same figure from the year before.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian says a recovery in travel demand is under way. These numbers are only about half of what they were pre-pandemic and health officials are still warning against travel.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Jean Casarez in Manhattan.

New Yorker Governor Andrew Cuomo is announcing beginning on April 1st, the opening day of Major League Baseball, the New York Mets and the New York Yankees can resume playing in their stadiums with spectators. Now, if the stadium is 10,000 capacity or more they can reopen on that date at 20 percent. So if you're going to go, you have to have either a recent COVID test that's negative or a full vaccination. You've got to wear masks and remember to socially distance.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JARRETT: All right. Our thanks to Jean and all of our other correspondents for those reports.

The best four days in sports officially get under way this afternoon. Your "Bleacher Report" is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:21:07]

ROMANS: All right. One of the biggest days in all of sports is finally here, the first mound of March Madness tips off this afternoon.

Andy Scholes is in Indianapolis with this morning's "Bleacher Report."

Productivity goes down starting in about seven or eight hours.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, all across the country, Christine, because, you know, these really are the best two days in all of sports. You've got 16 games today, 16 games tomorrow and this year, they're all taking place here in Indiana.

The action got started last night with the first four and a battle between powerhouses, Michigan State and UCLA. The Bruins rallying back from an 11-point halftime deficit to force the game into overtime. UCLA riding that momentum in the extra period, ending Michigan State's season with an 86-80 victory. The Bruins advance to face number 6 seed BYU tomorrow.

In the meantime, Drake digging its way out of a 12-point follow against Wichita State. They had a chance to win the game at the buzzer but Gilbert's three no good. Drake holds on to win its first tournament game in 50 years, 53-52. Next up for the Bulldogs will be USC tomorrow. The first round gets started today, 12:15 Eastern, you can watch all

the action on TNT, TBS, Tru TV as well as tbs. The brackets are all new. Make sure to play along at CNN. Go to CNN.com/brackets.

All right. The NCAA meanwhile it's trying to explain the vast discrepancy between the men's workout room in Indy compared to the women's in San Antonio. The men have a huge weight room set up, the women's, meanwhile, a set of small dumbbells and yoga mats.

A sports performance coach posted the pics saying this needs to be addressed. WNBA star Sabrina Ionescu tweeted saying she thought this was a joke, while Grizzlies star Ja Morant called it disrespectful.

The NCAA said in part it was due to limited space and they were working to add additional equipment.

While Oregon sophomore Sedona Prince not a fan of that response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEDONA PRINCE, OREGON FORWARD: Pictures of our weight room got released versus the men's they came out with a statement saying it wasn't money it was space that was the problem. Here is our practice court and here is that weight room and then here is all this extra space.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: All right. The NFL said it's investigating Houston Texan quarterback Deshaun Watson amid allegations of sexual assault. Three unnamed women now all whom are massage therapists have filed civil lawsuits against Watson this week. The most recent suit filed late Wednesday night claims Watson forced the therapist to perform a sex act during a session in December of 2020. It also alleges Watson made clear repeatedly that he was a professional football player who could help or hurt her career.

Watson denied the allegations made in the first lawsuit in a statement on Tuesday. CNN has reached out for comment on the other lawsuits, the Houston Texans telling CNN they take this matter seriously but that they would not comment until the NFL's investigation is finished.

All right. Finally, the NFL announcing its new ten-year deal with its broadcast partners Amazon will now be the exclusive home for Thursday night football starting in 2023. ESPN and ABC also now enter the Super Bowl rotation. They get the Super Bowl in 2026 which will be Super Bowl LX. It's part of the league's ten-year, $100 billion media rights deal.

[05:25:00]

All right. Laura, let's see, 5:24 right now, you have less than seven hours to fill out that bracket.

JARRETT: I filled it out. I'm done. After you trolled me yesterday, I got on it. I'm done. I picked my home team, Illinois, as the winner. All right. Thanks, Andy, appreciate it.

SCHOLES: There you go. All right.

JARRETT: All right. Consoling a grieving Asian-American community and the nation. Today, President Biden and Vice President Harris head to Georgia.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Good morning, everyone. This is EARLY START, Friday edition. I'm Christine Romans.

JARRETT: I'm Laura Jarrett. Almost 30 minutes past the hour here in New York.

And this morning, President Biden and Vice President Harris head to Georgia to reassure the Asian-American community there and across the country, a community frightened after eight people were shot dead at three Atlanta massage parlors.