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President And Vice President To Meet With Asian-American Leaders In Atlanta; Migrant Children Held In U.S. Custody Soars To 14,000; AstraZeneca's Vaccine Cleared By European Union After Blood Clot Concerns. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired March 19, 2021 - 05:30   ET

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

[05:30:00]

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: 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.

A Georgia state lawmaker says the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes, especially against women, must be addressed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEE NGUYEN (D), GEORGIA STATE REPRESENTATIVE: Whenever somebody disagrees with my opinion or my policies, the first thing that they do is criticize the country from which my parents come from, and the second thing is my gender.

So I have experienced a lot of targeted misogyny, targeted xenophobia, messages of going back to your own country, though I was born here, I was raised here. I've lived in Georgia almost my entire life. And, you know, it is very real.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Details about the victims have been slow to emerge. One of them was a customer, Delaina Yaun, mother of two. Here's her sister.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA TOOLE, SISTER OF VICTIM DELAINA YAUN: The community -- Asian community was attacked and unfortunately, my sister was in an Asian spa. She was enjoying time -- like, she was just going to enjoy time with her husband -- her husband -- come on. It's supposed to be a safe place. I don't understand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: It's just devastating.

So what do we expect from the president and the vice president in Atlanta today? CNN's Jasmine Wright has more on their trip. She's at the White House

this morning. Jasmine, good morning. What do we expect to see and who are they meeting with?

JASMINE WRIGHT, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, Laura, the White House is really trying to meet the moment today. As you said, they're changing events. They were supposed to do COVID relief bill-related events. Now, they will meet with those Asian leaders in the wake of Tuesday's shooting, really to project that this is a serious issue to them.

So, two things that we can expect to see.

One, President Biden tap into that consoler-in-chief mode. We saw it when he visited Texas after those deadly storms last month and we are expecting to see it again. But also, we are expecting them to really tout what the administration has already done against that anti-Asian- American sentiment roiling the country, really promoting any legislation that they've already -- any bills that they've already signed on it because they don't want to seem like they are behind on the issue.

White House's Symone Sanders really previewed for -- that for us last night on CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SYMONE SANDERS, SENIOR ADVISER AND CHIEF SPOKESPERSON FOR VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: In January, I'd like to remind folks that the president signed a number of executive orders specifically about racial equity, and one of them was specifically about addressing the xenophobia and discrimination against the Asian-American community here in the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WRIGHT: Now, Symone Sanders said this is also going to be about solutions going forward.

Now, President Biden has made clear that he is concerned about the rise of anti-Asian-American hate crimes in this country but he has yet to bring up guns and gun reforms. Usually, when a shooting like this happens, that's one of the first questions. How did this person get the gun?

It's something that President Obama -- former President Obama has already brought up in his statement and it's going to be something that we expect President Biden is going to be asked about. And it's something that the White House says that President Biden is still committed to moving on.

But also when he is in Atlanta today, there's also going to be pressure for him to tie this Tuesday's shootings to racism. Now, we've heard from President Biden saying clearly that there has not been an official motive attached to Tuesday's shooting. But folks in those communities are going to be looking for him to visibly make the connection that it is not a coincidence, as they have said on social media over time that a majority of these victims were Asian-Americans.

JARRETT: Yes, six of the -- of the women were Asian.

All right, Jasmine. Thanks so much.

ROMANS: All right.

The U.S. could be on the verge of a new spike in coronavirus cases but the damage likely different this time around with the most vulnerable Americans now vaccinated. Two-thirds of people 65 and older have received at least one vaccine dose. And as more shots go into arms, one of the biggest states is eyeing a return to normal.

CNN is covering the pandemic coast-to-coast.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): I'm Adrienne Broaddus in Chicago. And here in Illinois, state leaders have their eyes set on life after the pandemic.

On Thursday, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said when at least half of the state's population 16 and up receive at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, Illinois can return to its normal operations. But the state isn't there yet. The governor said right now, that number is hovering around 28 percent.

People 16 and up will be able to receive the vaccine starting next month.

[05:35:03]

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): I'm Alexandra Field in New York.

With more shots going into arms, more states are easing restrictions.

Connecticut, the latest to lift capacity limits on a whole slew of businesses, including restaurants, gyms, stores, and museums. Connecticut is leaving its statewide mask mandate in place.

The governor says that he will move to make vaccines accessible to all adults age 16 and up as soon as April fifth. That is ahead of May first, the date on which President Biden has said all states should make vaccines available to all adults.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): I'm Alison Kosik in New York.

AMC Theaters has announced that 98 percent of its theaters in the U.S. will be open beginning today, with even more theaters opening in a week. The theater chain says it was exactly a year ago the company closed all of its U.S. locations because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

AMC says it's following safety protocols, including mandatory mask- wearing and automatic seat blocking in each auditorium. (END VIDEOTAPE)

JARRETT: All right, thanks to all of our reporters for those updates.

The Biden administration is finalizing plans to send millions of AstraZeneca vaccine doses to Canada and Mexico.

At the same time, the U.S. is urging Mexico to deal with the increasingly large number of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. Two hundred unaccompanied children arrived Wednesday at a downtown Dallas convention center. It's been converted into a temporary shelter to help relieve overcrowding at facilities near the border where 4,500 migrant children are in custody.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is live in Dallas with more. Priscilla, explain what happens to the children who are now going to be sent to that facility.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN IMMIGRATION REPORTER: Laura, the administration is calling this an emergency intake site. They set one up here in a convention center in Dallas and another in Midland, Texas. And the idea behind these is to take children and process them -- start getting the process going so that they can be relocated with family in the United States and again, as you mentioned, to alleviate the overcrowding in border patrol facilities.

So we know that 200 children have already arrived at the center. More are expected in the coming days. And we understand, too, that they will be provided games and books to keep them entertained as they stay here and work with case managers so they can start moving through the process and out of government custody, Laura.

JARRETT: So, Priscilla, the White House is clearly scrambling to deal with this. The president has said clearly, on camera to would-be migrants, don't come. But at the same time, the reality is that Customs and Border Protection is on pace to encounter more people than it's seen in the last 20 years.

So what are you hearing from your sources about the administration's plan to actually slow this down? One of the things I've heard proposed is to actually have more asylum officers at points of entry to process people quicker. But what are you hearing?

ALVAREZ: Look, administration officials also want to go more than just our southern border. They want to look at the region as a whole. So they are setting up plans to restart programs so that children can apply for asylum in-country so that they don't have to make the dangerous journey north. They also want to invest in Latin America to start addresses the root causes of migration.

So the administration is really looking at this as a regional issue and addressing the problems that are driving migrants to come to the U.S. But the problem they're running up against is misinformation and rumors that are shared by smugglers and that is what drives a lot of these migrants to come, compounded with the desperation they're already feeling. Remember, there was two hurricanes that hit the region last year. The

pandemic has decimated their economies. So all of that together still driving migration north as the administration scrambles to set up programs and invest in Latin America to avoid them doing that.

JARRETT: Yes. It's so important to recognize here. These are people coming from the Northern Triangle countries. People who are fleeing violence, poverty, and as you mentioned, the hurricanes. These are not people coming from Mexico, for the most part.

I also think it's important to look at the numbers, right? So there are more than 9,500 children in HHS custody right now. That's up from about 6,800 just a month ago, so almost 3,000. And roughly 4,500 with Customs and Border Protection. That's up from 1,200 just a month ago.

So take a step back. These border sites were not meant to house children for long. They were not meant for children at all. They were meant for adult single men who were coming over 30 years ago. And yet, these children are staying there for more than five days on average.

What is the plan? I mean, that's obviously much longer than usual and part of the reason is you have more people crossing than usual.

ALVAREZ: This is a steep challenge for the administration, Laura. As you mentioned, those facilities are not intended for kids because they weren't designed for them to start. They are -- think of them as jail- like facilities. They have concrete benches, concrete walls. And yet, what we're seeing is thousands of children help up in these facilities for long periods of time.

[05:40:03]

We have sources telling us that children are alternating sleeping schedules to find room to rest. That border patrol agents are bringing in bunk beds, cots, and mats to try to accommodate these kids.

So this is a big challenge for the administration and the reason why the convention center behind me is being used for minors.

And again, like you said, that border patrol number -- the number of kids in custody, that's key. And that's what we're looking at day-by- day to see if it starts to go down because that would indicate that the administration is starting to keep up with the number of children crossing the U.S.-Mexico border alone.

JARRETT: All right, Priscilla. So great to have you in Dallas. Thank you for being there for us.

ROMANS: All right.

House Democrats passing a pair of immigration bills that give farmworkers and immigrants who came to the U.S. as children a path to citizenship. But like much of President Biden's agenda, it could run into trouble in the Senate.

CNN's Daniella Diaz live on Capitol Hill with the latest. And there were Republicans who crossed over for these two measures in the House, but this faces a pretty iffy future in the Senate, doesn't it?

DANIELLA DIAZ, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: That's exactly right, Christine.

As you said, the House passed two immigration bills last night as expected. This is the first time Congress takes up immigration when they have slim majorities -- Democrats have slim majorities in the House and the Senate and Joe Biden is in the White House.

The first bill would allow Dreamers to be able to apply for citizenship, as well as anyone with temporary protected status. The second bill would help farmworkers. It would allow them and their spouses and children to earn legal status through continued employment in the agricultural sector and it would also reform the farmworker visa program.

Both of these bills, achievements for Democrats. They really wanted to pass this. However, they really wanted a comprehensive immigration reform bill. So that was really what they were hoping to do. But these are two piecemeal bills that they were -- piecemeal legislation bill that they were hoping to pass in the House.

Now it faces the Senate where they need 60 votes to be able to pass this legislation. And right now, it doesn't seem that there are 10 Republicans along with the 50 Democrats that could support this.

And for a comprehensive immigration bill, Senate Judiciary chairman Dick Durbin threw cold water on that, saying he doesn't think that there's enough support in Congress to be able to pass that. And Senate Republicans have said that they won't support any legislation unless it includes any stringent border security provisions and any restrictions for asylum seekers.

So right now, very still uphill -- steep uphill climb for Democrats in the Senate to be able to pass any of these immigration bills.

ROMANS: All right, Daniella. Thank you so much. Nice to see you this morning -- Friday. Have a good weekend.

All right, we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:46:50]

ROMANS: Former President George W. Bush speaking out on camera for the first time about how he felt watching the Capitol insurrection.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I was sick to my stomach having to see our nation's Capitol being stormed by hostile forces. And it really disturbed me to the point where I did put out a statement. And I'm still disturbed when I think about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: The FBI releasing graphic new video -- watch carefully -- of rioters beating police officers with metal poles, stolen shields, and chemical spray. The agency is asking for the public's help identifying these people seen on the video and in the images that you are seeing on your left there.

JARRETT: So, if the nation's leading infectious disease doctor gives you advice on how to stay safe during this pandemic, you'd think that might be something worth listening to. Not if you're Rand Paul. The Republican senator once again challenging Dr. Anthony Fauci over the need to wear masks if someone has recovered from coronavirus or have been vaccinated.

Paul, by the way, refuses to wear a mask.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): You're telling everybody to wear a mask whether they've had an infection or a vaccine. What I'm saying is they have immunity and everybody agrees they have immunity. And if we're not spreading the infection, isn't it just theater?

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: No, it's not --

PAUL: You've had the vaccine and you're wearing two masks. Isn't that theater?

FAUCI: No, that's not -- here we go again with the theater. Let's get down to the facts. You talk about reinfection and you don't keep in the concept of variants. That's an entirely different ballgame.

Let me just state for the record that masks are not theater. Masks are protective and we ask --

PAUL: If you have immunity, they're theater. If you already have immunity, you're wearing a mask to give comfort to others. You're not wearing a mask because of any science.

FAUCI: I totally disagree with you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: For anyone still confused about why it's important to wear a mask, here's Dr. Paul Offit, part of the FDA vaccine advisory committee.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. PAUL OFFIT, MEMBER, FDA VACCINES ADVISORY COMMITTEE: The virus that swept through China is not the virus that left China. The virus that left China was the first variant. It was called D614G and it swept across Europe, it swept across the United States. It killed 540,000 people in this country -- that variant. All the vaccines that have been made -- the Pfizer vaccine, the Moderna vaccine, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the AstraZeneca vaccine, the Novavax vaccine are all made to prevent that variant -- infection with that variant.

But other variants have come into this country -- the U.K. variant, the South African variant, the Brazilian variant. Now there's this worrisome New York variant. There's two California variants.

So the question is does immunization with vaccines that are going to prevent the D614G variant -- do they protect against disease caused by these other variants? And all the early evidence is that while it's probably very good at preventing the U.K. -- disease caused by the U.K. variant, it's not so good at preventing disease caused by the South African and Brazilian variants or the New York variant.

So all Dr. Fauci is saying is you don't know, since all those variants are in this country, which virus you're going to be exposed to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: There you go, Sen. Paul. If you need a little more information, there it is.

[05:50:00]

Some European countries set to resume AstraZeneca vaccine shots after the E.U. health agency determined the vaccine's benefits outweigh its potential risks. Germany is one of the countries ready to start up again.

CNN's Frederik Pleitgen joins us live from a vaccination site in Berlin. And we know there were millions of vaccinations, 40 episodes of these blood clots, and a lot of anxiety, really, across Europe. What's happening right now?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, I think you're absolutely right, Christine, there certainly is a lot of anxiety across Europe.

And right now, there is really a scramble also to get this vaccination campaign going again because AstraZeneca is really one of the big vaccines here in Europe that's so key to try and get Europe's vaccination rollout. It's really been sputtering to try and get that going as fast as possible. You're absolutely right.

I'm right here in Berlin at one of the biggest vaccination centers. Berlin immediately said we're going to start vaccinating people right the day after that decision was made by the European Medicines Agency to move forward with that vaccine. So they say they're already getting going here.

There's other places in Germany and other places in Europe where they said look, we called off so many appointments for this AstraZeneca vaccine. It's going to take a couple of days to get people in again to get their vaccinations. At the same time, you do see that public trust among some people here

in Europe really has been hurt by some of the things that happened with that rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine that had been stopped for several days. Look at France, for instance. Their confidence in the AstraZeneca vaccine only at 22 percent of the people who were polled.

At the same time, in all of Europe, there really doesn't seem to be enough vaccine to go around to stop the pandemic, at least at this point in time. I just listened to the German health minister and he said in all of Europe, right now, there isn't enough vaccine to stop that third wave.

Right now, the numbers really are going up across all of Europe. In fact, France already putting new lockdown measures in place. They say it will be at least a couple of weeks before they might be able to recall those -- guys.

ROMANS: All right, Fred Pleitgen. Thank you so much for that, Fred -- Laura.

JARRETT: All right.

Here in the United States, in Texas, authorities are looking for the person they say stabbed a restaurant manager after being told to wear a mask. Police say the man entered a Jack in the Box restaurant, refused to wear a mask, and then when the manager turned his back, this other man tackled him and stabbed him before fleeing on a bicycle.

Police issued an arrest warrant for James Schulz, described as someone transient living in the area. The manager is, thankfully, recovering.

ROMANS: All right, let's get a check on CNN Business this morning.

The bond market was boss Thursday. Stock market investors spooked by rising bond yields. The Nasdaq -- look at that -- fell three percent. Those high-growth tech stocks are seen as less valuable when bond yields rise.

And yields on the 10-year Treasury hit a 13-month high. Yields rising on signs of an improving American economy -- that's a good thing. But there are some who worry about the risk down the road of inflation. That's higher prices and less purchasing power for consumers and companies.

The Federal Reserve forecasts the largest U.S. economic boom in decades this year, thanks to a stimulus sugar rush and pent-up consumer demand.

But a big move in oil, down eight percent, slamming energy stocks. The worry there, Europe's slow vaccine rollout. The Fed I was just telling you about will hurt oil demand.

And this. Exactly one year after the pandemic began, jobless claims still higher than the worst of the Great Recession. And mortgage rates rose for the fifth week in a row. Higher rates

dampen the purchasing power for homebuyers, of course. The housing market has been super strong. Prices rising, inventory running low, but the 30-year fixed above three percent now, again.

To a story that breaks my rational brain. This image of digital toilet paper is worth $2,100. That's the bidding price for NFTs made by Charmin, who is jumping in on this NFT craze.

This is digital content raking in staggering sums of money. Two hundred thousand dollars for a LeBron James dunking clip; $600,000 for -- I don't even know what that is in the middle; and millions for Jack Dorsey's first tweet.

But what are NFTs? Essentially, digital artwork verified by blockchain, the ledger system for cryptocurrency.

And NFT stands for Non-Fungible Token. Now, an economic fungible means you can trade one identical unit for another. Think a dollar bill, gold, oil, or Bitcoin. Non-fungible means it's unique, it can't be replaced -- like a one-of-a-kind trading card or physical art.

NFTs give that same scarcity of value to digital art, like this piece, Laura, by the artist Beeple. Laura, it sold for nearly $70 million.

Think about it like this. An oil painting can only be in one place and has a definitive owner, while a digital image can be duplicated. But by connecting it to blockchain, the image has proof of ownership and can be sold or traded.

You're welcome for breaking your brain this morning, Laura Jarrett.

JARRETT: It's broken. I still don't -- I still don't get it.

ROMANS: When it's starting to be real money, we really looked into this and we --

JARRETT: Seventy million dollars, wow.

ROMANS: Seventy million dollars. I don't get it. I don't get it. But someone's paying a lot of money for it.

[05:55:03]

Thanks for joining us. I'm Christine Romans.

JARRETT: That's your Friday, folks. I'm Laura Jarrett. "NEW DAY" is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Biden's scheduled trip to Atlanta taking on a whole new significance.

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president will offer his support for the AAPI community in Georgia and across the country.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Investigators take a hard look into what motivated the suspect to go on a mass shooting spree that left eight dead, including six Asians.