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New Day

Biden and Harris Visit Georgia; Coronavirus Update from Around the World; Human Cost of COVID; Jake Tapper Finds Distant Relative. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired March 19, 2021 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

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JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Are trying to pass new laws to make voting more difficult here. She hopes Biden will prioritize federal election reform, which may only happen by eliminating the Senate filibuster.

NSE UFOT, CEO, NEW GEORGIA PROJECT: I think that the president could clearly and forcefully say that there are no both sides to this debate.

ZELENY: She echoes the sentiment among progressive Democrats who like Biden but are eager to hear concrete plans on his promises, such as a $15 minimum wage.

A new season is dawning, but old signs of the Biden/Harris campaign remain.

For Democrats, it's been a moment to exhale.

KEVIN RANDOLPH, GEORGIA VOTER: Yes, much more peaceful. I mean you come out here and everybody's smiling again and it's just -- there's just like a weight lifted off -- off because you -- you come out and you're just like, oh, you know, like I guess to -- what's that, Toni Morrison (ph), you can breathe again, you know, and just --

ZELENY (on camera): And that's how you felt when President Biden took office?

RANDOLPH: Oh, definitely. Definitely. You could see it in town. Oh, yes. It was -- everyone was so excited and so elated.

ZELENY (voice over): It's that elation that comes to life in conversations with Biden supporters, like Davis, who understands the urgency in the minds of some Democrats, but she's willing to give him a bit of time.

MARIAMA DAVIS, MANAGER, THE BEEHIVE: Just be patient. Like, it's coming. Everything doesn't happen overnight. Folks know that.

(END VIDEOTAPE) ZELENY: And Georgia is also, of course, at the center of efforts to change voting election laws in the country. Republican legislators here are trying to roll back some of those early voting laws that helped lead to the victory for President Biden last fall. So that is one of the topics of a meeting that the president and vice president will have with Stacey Abrams, of course a leader of the movement here who helped register so many voters and really turned the tide of Georgia.

So there are many Democrats who, yes, are satisfied, but there is also a question of when the Biden administration will do a bit more, particularly speaking out on voting rights. And that is something also on the agenda here today.

Erica.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Jeff Zeleny, great reporting, as always. Good to see you. Thank you.

New this morning, on a list, one of three former staffers accusing New York Governor Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment met with investigators from the state attorney general's office on Thursday. Liss tells CNN affiliate WHAM she detailed the toxic, retaliatory workplace for young women in the statehouse.

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ANA LISS: I believe that my story provides contextual, environmental evidence of the really abusive workplace environment that disproportionately hurts women.

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HILL: Two other women, Charlotte Bennett and Lindsey Boylan, also accuse Governor Cuomo of sexual harassment and also met with investigators this week. Cuomo has repeatedly denied the allegations of sexual harassment against him and has rejected calls for his resignation.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: In Texas, authorities are looking for a man who allegedly stabbed a restaurant manager after being told to wear a mask. Police say the man refused and when the manager turned his back, the man tackled him and stabbed him repeatedly before getting away on a bicycle. Police issued an arrest warrant for a homeless man living in the area. The manager was treated at the hospital for three stab wounds and thankfully released. But how horrible.

New coronavirus restrictions in effect in France and Italy. This is a major development across Europe. And, obviously, a concern of what may -- may be to come in the United States if things take a turn for the worse. That's next.

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[08:37:33]

BERMAN: Tougher, new coronavirus restrictions now in effect in France, while Italy in lockdown.

CNN has reporters covering the pandemic all around the world.

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JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Jim Bittermann in France, where new COVID restrictions will go into effect tonight after a sluggish rollout of vaccines, infections and hospitalizations here have grown at an alarming pace. Now from the Paris region up to the English Channel and around the Nice area, new rules go into effect that will require people to carry written explanations of why they are out and about and close non-essential businesses. An estimated 110,000 business and 20 million people will be affected. But critics say the measures still don't go far enough.

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Melissa Bell in Rome.

The rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine resumes here in Italy this morning, as in other European countries after several days of suspension and after the European Medicines Agency verdict last night that, in fact, it was safe to use and was not linked to blood clots.

Here in Italy, it is day five and half of the country's regions of a fairly strict lockdown that has yet to translate in any improvement in those COVID-19 third wave figures. The number of new cases, over 20,000 still at the end of this week.

MATT RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Matt Rivers in Rio de Janeiro.

On a day where Brazil recorded its second most deaths ever from the coronavirus. President Jair Bolsonaro has still found a way to make himself the victim. Speaking on Thursday, he said, quote, here it became a war against the president. It seems that people only die of COVID. He went on to question how many people in these ICUs are dying of COVID versus other illnesses? We are here to tell you that these ICUs are not collapsing because of other illnesses. State after state after state says it is, in fact, because of this wave of COVID-19. In fact, the latest data shows 16 of Brazil's 26 states have ICU capacities at 90 percent.

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HILL: Wow.

Well, in the year since the pandemic swept across the world and in this country, close to 30 million Americans have contracted coronavirus. More than 539,000 have died.

Tomorrow, a CNN special report, "The Human Cost of COVID." Our Miguel Marquez is going to be sharing some emotional stories of loss and survival.

Good to see you this morning, my friend.

You're here with a preview. And you have brought us so many of these important stories over this last year.

[08:40:02]

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, Erica, the last year, I mean, we are PTSD nation, we are PTSD world in many ways. So many people have died.

So what we tried to do with this thing, with the enormous help of Michelle Rosgen (ph) and Jim Murphy (ph), is to focus in on one place that was emblematic of what the country went through in the last year. Dalton, Georgia, is the place that we found.

It's, you know, it's a small town, bit -- small city, sort of big town. It's the flooring capital of the world. It's a very wealthy town. Largely Latino. A big Latino workforce there. Also African- American. It is in Georgia.

But the amount of loss, the amount of fear over this virus. The conspiracy and the disbelief about what this virus was bringing.

Here's a little piece of one story that we covered there.

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ANDREW MARSH, HUBERT'S SON: My dad worked his entire career for the public health system of Georgia.

MARQUEZ: So when COVID-19 came along, he took it seriously?

MARSH: He did. And he would tell me that if him or my mom got COVID, it was not going to be good.

MARQUEZ: Why was he extra worried about himself and his wife?

MARSH: My dad had some pre-existing conditions. He knew that it would not be good because of his respiratory situation.

April 2019, my mom, in a single day, had two brain aneurysms.

MARQUEZ: Oh, dear.

MARSH: And then she had a stroke in the surgery to fix the aneurysms. It left her with left side paralysis.

My dad was her primary caregiver since that happened.

My dad had put a sign on the door. It said no visitors.

MARQUEZ (voice over): But there was at least one, which may be how the couple got COVID.

MARSH: My dad did a great job nursing my mom back to health, but all the while his health was going down, quick, with COVID symptoms. He knew that he had it, but he wasn't going to leave my mom. And it finally got to the point when I said, dad, I need you to go to the hospital. Well, who's going to be with your mom? And I said, I'm in the car right now and I'm headed from New Jersey to Dalton. And my dad drove himself to Atlanta, two hours, to the hospital.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: God, just hearing that and hearing that interview, it was so difficult to talk to Andrew Marsh. On one side we had people like Andrew Marsh. I mean I was in puddles of tears. He was in tears. The photographers that were with us were in tears. Everybody at that shoot was in tears.

And then, on the other side, you had people whose families were immediately affected by COVID as well. People -- people dead. People who got very sick. Dozens of people in some families and still don't believe that it's a real thing, believe that it's a creation of the government, believe that it's something else.

There was one epidemiologist that we spoke to at the hospital there. The other interesting thing about Dalton, Georgia, is, it suffered at a much greater rate than the rest of the state and the rest of the country. More people got sick. More people died in this area per capita than other places. And an epidemiologist there at the hospital said, look, this was a warning. As bad as it was, that it wasn't as infectious as it could be. It wasn't as deadly as it could be. And he felt this was a warning that we, in the future, we'll see more pandemics ahead. Great news, right?

Back to you guys.

BERMAN: Miguel, I have to say, you have done such an amazing job the last year going around the country and telling stories about people, people who are suffering. I mean just off the top of my head, New York, Florida, Texas, Iowa and now Georgia. And I know you do this -- like, literally, it's the opposite of wanting this to be about you. I mean you do it to make it be about the people and the stories and the lives that they're going through.

But I worry about -- I really do worry about how much loss and heartbreak that you've seen. I mean how -- how has this affected you?

MARQUEZ: Look, we -- we both covered war. We both covered Iraq. We both covered Afghanistan. This is the closest thing I have ever seen or felt to what covering overseas conflict feels like. It's the entire government that is focused on this thing.

You know, part of the reason that we are PTSD nation, part of the reason that it's important for me to go out there is that the country was also torn by this. This country and this -- and the world has been through hell in the last year. This -- this hour special gets at a piece of that. But it is going to take years and years to unravel all this and for people to cope with what we've been through in the last 12 months.

And it will probably go on for a bit longer. Right now it is that vaccines versus the variants. How quickly can we get to a point where we can stem the number of infections and stem the number of people dying, because that number, what is it, 539,000 today, it will be higher by the end of this. HILL: Yes, and, to your point, I think this is really the beginning,

too.

[08:45:00]

We're only starting to understand just how deeply this has affected so many people on so many levels.

Appreciate it. Always good to see you.

MARQUEZ: You got it.

HILL: And especially to see your reporting.

You can see Miguel's emotional hour about loss and survival this Saturday. The new CNN special report, "The Human Cost of COVID" begins tomorrow, 9:00 p.m.

Up next, the singer/songwriter who just found out he's related to Jake Tapper. They're long lost cousin.

BERMAN: Thank God there's -- thank God there's some talent in the family.

HILL: Oh, snap.

Berman's been working on that line all morning.

BERMAN: Listen, I've got another one coming up.

HILL: Oh -- oh, yes, yes, I'm here for it.

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HILL: Millions of people have used online services like ancestry.com to find distant relatives. Well, this week, Canadian musician Nic Dyson received a tweet from our very own Jake Tapper, @nicdysonmusic, I was going genealogical research.

[08:50:00]

We're third cousins. We share Winnipeg Mayor David J.J. Dyson as an ancestor. What a fun discovery. Love your music. Hi to the Dysons.

Joining us now, the Dysons. One you may know as Jake Tapper. The other his newly discovered third cousin, Nic Dyson.

I love this.

And, you know, normally I think we would say, Nic, isn't this amazing, you found out you're related to Jake Tapper. But I think the real question is, Jake Tapper, you're related to Nic Dyson. This is huge. How are you feeling?

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, this is -- this is a -- this is -- it was such a great discovery. You know, I guess in this time of pandemic, we're all searching for connections in different ways. And ever since 2013, when CNN had that partnership with Ancestry, I've been really involved in searching for relatives. And a few days ago I just found this branch of the Dyson family, and what a thrill to find out that I'm related, I'm third cousins, with Nic Dyson, who is this incredibly talented musician in Canada. And it's just been so fun making the connection.

BERMAN: You always used to tell me your girlfriend was in Canada. So this is -- this is way -- this is way different than that. Having an actual talented relative in Canada is way different.

So, Nic, I mean, it isn't every day you just get out of the blue a message saying, hey, we're third cousins. So how did it hit you when you first saw it?

NIC DYSON, MUSICIAN: Yes. Well, originally he messaged me from a private FaceBook account, which I thought was fake, honestly. I mean it's the Internet.

But when he started spinning facts about my family, I was like, OK, well, there's got to be something here. And then when he tweeted my music from his verified account, I was like, OK, so this is very real.

And, honestly, I'm just in shock and awe and just riding the wave at this point.

HILL: It's -- I have to say, it's really great. I mean these days especially, you know, Jake, as you point out, it's just so great to have a lovely story that makes you smile and that it comes with fabulous music doesn't hurt. I mean, I have to say, Nic, count me among your newest fans. I know your friends call your music acoustic sad. That's totally my jam, just for the record. So it's fabulous.

I think we can play a little bit of it, too.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DYSON (singing): Nothing tangible. Just whispers in the walls. If you say that you'll stay, I'm waiting (ph).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: It's great. And I love that you're getting this platform.

I know you also, at least as I understand it, you've connected Jake with your grandmother.

Jake, what are you learning from Nic's grandmother about your family?

TAPPER: Well, I haven't called -- I haven't called Grandma Joan yet. I will. I want to have all the family tree stuff in front of me and get ready to download because apparently she's a huge resource. But, you know, it's -- not to be a commercial for Ancestry, we're not being paid for this, but it just really is amazing the algorithms and what you can find out and the discoveries you can make. And now there are all these cousins that I didn't even know I had, foremost among them Nic, but Nic's got a bunch of other cousins as well.

DYSON: Yes.

TAPPER: And I'm really excited to make the connections. Not only to the Canadian history I have and our shared great, great-grandfather, the short-lived mayor of Winnipeg. He lost a recount. He was only mayor for four days. But also just all these other people who are alive and thriving, in addition to the ones who, you know, fought in World War II and the rest. So it's just a great connection.

BERMAN: And, Nic, I have to say, and Jake sort of referred to this, as much fun as I want to make of Jake always, he actually said something which I take to heart, which is, in this pandemic age, when we're all so separate, I mean any chance we can actually have to feel closer to people is such a wonderful thing.

So, Nic, just talk to me about maybe what it means to have -- to have this new, albeit somewhat awkward, family member.

DYSON: It's unbelievable. I've been in awe of his selflessness through this whole thing and he doesn't have to do any of this, and he's just been so generous with his platform and his time talking with me and doing shows like this. It's absolutely beyond anything I could ever imagine, really. And, hopefully, when this is all over, we've talked about this, hopefully when COVID is all over, we can connect, you know, face to face.

BERMAN: I know that would be wonderful. It really would be. And, look, the music is terrific, Nic. Congratulations to you on the work that you continue to do musically.

[08:55:00]

And, Jake, it's a great story. Thank you for making us smile.

DYSON: Thank you.

TAPPER: Well, it's been such a treat and so heartwarming. And I can't wait to meet my new cousin face to face.

HILL: I love it. Maybe Canadian Thanksgiving next year or this year, I should say.

BERMAN: Yes, but you don't -- you don't even -- when is Canadian Thanksgiving? It's maybe --

HILL: It's in October. It's the first Monday in October, isn't it, Nic?

DYSON: Yes. Yes, it is. Yes.

BERMAN: There you go.

HILL: Excuse me.

BERMAN: OK. HILL: John Berman.

BERMAN: For $500, the Daily Double.

HILL: There we go.

Nic, you and I will chat offline.

DYSON: Yes.

HILL: Guys, thank you.

BERMAN: Thank you, Jake.

TAPPER: Erica's invited.

HILL: Yes, I'm invited. Berman's not.

One in five children in this country has a learning difference. This week's CNN Hero understands the challenges because he lives it. David Flink was diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia at age 11 and struggled throughout school. His nonprofit now pairs college or high school students with middle schoolers who have similar learning differences.

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DAVID FLINK, CNN HERO: Eye to Eye provides a safe space that's constructed around what's right with kids so they can talk about their experiences.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you get scared during tests or like nervous or no?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have anxiety. Like, I shake a lot.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, that happened to me sometimes.

FLINK: People's hearts sing when they're seen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is my shield.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My masterpiece.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Really cool. I like how you used the duct tape as a handle.

FLINK: My moment that I am wishing for is when the problem of stigmatizing kids because they learn differently goes away. I want them to know that their brains are beautiful. I want them feeling like they know how to ask for what they need, and they can do it, and that's what we give them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, Daniel!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: To learn more about David, log on to cnnheroes.com. And, while you're there, you can nominate someone you think should be a CNN Hero.

BERMAN: All right, we expect to see President Biden leaving the White House shortly as he heads to Atlanta.

CNN's coverage continues, next.

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