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President Biden and Vice President Harris Condemn Anti-Asian Violence; U.S. Airports See More than One Million Passengers for 10 Days. Aired 8-8-30a ET

Aired March 22, 2021 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Overnight, the man who led the federal investigation of the Capitol insurrection said the evidence he has seen points to sedition charges against some of the invaders. He also called the former president the quote, magnet, that brought the insurrectionist to Washington and suggested he is still being investigated for possible charges.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: First, the breaking coronavirus news. Joining is now is CNN medical analyst, Dr. Celine Gounder. She's an infectious disease specialist. Dr. Gounder, great to see you.

So this breaking AstraZeneca news that finds that it's 79 percent effective against symptoms, 100 percent effective against, I think, the bottom line that you really want which is severe illness and hospitalization. How is this going to change what's happening in the U.S. now?

CELINE GOUNDER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Alisyn, I don't think it's going to significantly change the situation in the U.S. at this time. It is still going to take time before we do see an emergency use authorization come through, at least another week or couple of weeks.

And then beyond that you still need to have a distribution of a vaccine. I think given that we already have such a large supply of the Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines and sites have been prepared to distribute those.

They have been trained to distribute those. I think it's highly unlikely that the AstraZeneca is going to be a major player in the United States because it really does further complicate the distribution process.

BERMAN: It may be that actually just speaks to the success of -- of the vaccine ramp up in the U.S. By the time that AstraZeneca might actually be available, there will be that much more many vaccines on the market for many Americans.

One other finding though in this large -- very large study was no serious side effects, including no sign of that blood clotting that they had been concerned about in Europe. So what does that tell us? GOUNDER: Right. And I think that's really what is most important about this trial here in the United States is that we do have large supplies of this vaccine and are in a position to be sending, as we are, to other countries like Canada, like Mexico, and elsewhere.

And so I think it's really important that we still vetted the vaccine thoroughly as we would for our own citizens. So this is not seen as an inferior product that we're sending around the world, that it is seen as truly equivalent to what we are using on our own citizens.

CAMEROTA: So Dr. Gounder, let's talk about where we are in this foot race between vaccines and variants. More than 2 million doses of vaccine are being given now on average every day. And the average of new cases per day in the country is 54,000.

So the vaccines are outpacing the variants at the moment. Is there any reason that you believe we still will see a fourth surge in this country?

GOUNDER: We're still waiting to see if that might happen. I mean certain if you look at what's happening in other countries where the U.K. variant, in particular, first emerged in the U.K., they had to lock down over the holidays.

Now they were not as far along with their vaccination as we are now. The same variant has spread elsewhere in Europe and France and in Italy they're also having to reinstitute various strict measures right now.

And in general throughout this pandemic, the U.S. has trended about three, four weeks behind countries like Italy in terms of our -- our transmission, our surges. And so we still really have to wait and see will we have a surge of our own now.

BERMAN: Well, I will tell you they're -- they're not waiting and seeing in Miami Beach. Right, I mean we've seen the pictures from Miami Beach and you can see the streets filled with people there.

And my main concern again isn't necessarily with people outside dancing on cars, it's where they go after inside to some places. So given that this is happening and it is, I mean it's just undeniable it's happening now and will probably happen in other places. How do you handle it? As a public health official, what do you do now?

GOUNDER: John, I think, just like it has been from the beginning of the pandemic, it's really been about communication. And you know, letting people know why it is we need to be just a little bit more patient.

You know we really do need to give ourselves time to get more people vaccinated. We're not quite where we would like to be. And so to be jumping the gun and trying to return to normal life while you have these more infectious, more deadly variants spreading and before you have enough people vaccinated, that -- that really does put us in a very difficult and dangerous position. CAMEROTA: Let me just play for you what Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former FDA commissioner said; because it's different, I think, than what your -- your position is. So let me tell you what he said yesterday.

[08:05:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER: I think the fact that we have so much prior infection; 120 million Americans have been infected with this virus, the fact that we've now vaccinated, we've gotten one shot in at least 70 million Americans; even if you account for the fact that maybe about 30 percent of the people being vaccinated previously had COVID, we're talking about some form of protective immunity in about 55 percent of the population.

So there's enough of a backstop here that I don't think you're going to see a fourth surge --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: How about that, Dr. Gounder? Where do -- where do you think that he might not be right?

GOUNDER: Yes, I think the part about the natural immunity, prior infection -- you know what we're seeing in other countries where you've had new variants emerge, for example, Brazil.

If you look at the city of Manaus where 75 percent of the population was infected by October -- you know just put that in context, in the U.S. we think maybe 20 percent of the population has been infected, 75 percent of their population was infected.

And yet, because of the variants, they still saw a massive surge. Their hospitals were overrun; they've run out of oxygen, they've had to build vertical graves in their cemeteries because the bodies are piling up to that degree. So I really think we have to be very careful about banking on immunity from prior infection here.

BERMAN: The other thing is -- and Gottlieb alluded to this too, is we may stall out. He's not precluding the possibility that we stall out where we are for a while. So what's the implication there if we stall out at 50,000 plus cases a day, stall out at 40,000 hospitalizations a day; what does that mean?

GOUNDER: Well, the real danger is if you have that kind of transmission ongoing is that you may have additional mutations occur. And when you have mutations occur, the virus can become more infectious, so it can spread more easily from person to person. That's what we saw with the U.K. variant.

It can also become more deadly, which is also what we saw with the U.K. variant. And it can mutate to evade our immune responses, whether that's from natural infection or from the vaccine. And what we're seeing with the South Africa and Brazil variants is that they are evading the natural immune response.

For now the vaccines still work but we really don't want to give the virus the opportunity to mutate to where it can evade our vaccines, then we would really be in a very bad position.

CAMEROTA: So we only have a few seconds left. Are pharmaceutical companies working on boosters right now for all of these different variants?

GOUNDER: They are. They are at least for the variants that we currently know about. You know but again, you don't want to create a moving target by allowing the virus to continue mutating.

CAMEROTA: Dr. Gounder, thank you very much. Great information. We really appreciate it.

BERMAN: All right, developing this morning, Axios just published these new images inside a crowded temporary U.S. border patrol tent in Texas. Democratic Congressman Henry Cuellar provided these images to Axios. He did not actually visit the facility.

It comes as the Biden administration is under a growing pressure to contain the surge at the Southern Border. CNN White House correspondent John Harwood joins us now. John, first of all, the reason that we're showing these pictures is we don't have access to these facilities.

You know so when we're seeing these people in pretty tight quarters -- pretty tight quarters, you know, separated by plastic there, this is the first real sense we're getting because there's not the transparency that I think a lot of people want here.

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. And you can see from these pictures why the Biden Administration does not want transparency in this situation because it's really bad. These kids are in conditions that nobody would want their children to be in.

Obviously the -- the cause of the migration is that conditions are bad in their home countries. They think they can get a better life in the United States. Many of them -- many of these children already have family members in the United States.

So it's not that the Biden administration caused this problem. Although if you advertize the fact that you're going to have a humane -- more humane policy than your predecessor, you're naturally going to be more -- the border is going to be more of a magnet than it was before.

But it is now incumbent on the Biden administration to figure out some solution to this. And it's also incumbent on them to be more transparent and let the American people see what's going on as we see in these pictures.

CAMEROTA: Well, I mean to your point, John, Secretary Mayorkas -- DHS Secretary Mayorkas told Dana on "State of the Union" yesterday; well, our southern border is closed to migrants. I'm not sure that message is getting out to desperate families who are sending their children, you know, or their minors here alone. I mean that's not -- that's not effective, apparently, that message.

HARWOOD: It's definitely not effective and -- and again, the reason is especially now that the United States economy is bouncing back, it's more attractive to people, they think they can improve their conditions by getting to the United States.

[08:10:00]

That's -- that's been true for quite some time and we've seen ebbs and flows in the level of the surge of migrants and there have been surges, of course, during the Obama administration, there were during the Trump administration, and now at the outset of the Biden administration we're seeing another surge.

And you can expect that pressure to continue as the United States recovers from this pandemic. But -- so that -- that's the substantive reason for it. Politically it's a big problem for the Biden administration because what's the story of the opening of the Biden administration going to be?

Is it going to be getting on top of the pandemic, getting that COVID relief bill passed, getting the economy going again, or is it this problem, which is was what Republicans are much more eager to talk about.

Immigration is a difficult and divisive issue for Democrats. And so again, there's a lot of pressure on the Biden administration to try to get some -- a more rapid solution to this problem than they've been able to so far.

BERMAN: So John, last night -- overnight we heard from the federal prosecutor who had been leading the investigation into the Capitol insurrection. And we heard, I think, in the most stark terms what he sees as the evidence against some of the people involved here and what charges he expects. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL SHERWIN, FORMER ACTING U.S. ATTORNEY: I personally believe the evidence is trending towards that and probably meets those elements.

SCOTT PELLEY, CBS NEWS ANCHOR: Do you anticipate sedition charges against some of these suspects?

SHERWIN: I believe the facts do support those charges and I think that as we go forward, more facts will support that, Scott.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Sedition charges; the evidence points to sedition, John. Those are serious charges.

HARWOOD: You know I'm struck by the gravity of this investigation and the fact that we are not and Republicans are not and former President Trump is not simply going to be able to turn the page and say yes, that was January that's over.

The Justice Department is taking this with the upmost seriousness. We've got a lot of people charged. And those charges are going to be explosive when they're made. And President Trump -- former President Trump himself has legal vulnerability there.

Not to mention the legal vulnerability he has in Georgia over the potential interference in their election tabulation and in New York with the investigation with Cy Vance, the Manhattan District Attorney.

This story is not going away and they're devoting a lot of resources to both identifying the people involved and also trying to identify their motivations.

CAMEROTA: Here is what Michael Sherwin said about President Trump's rule on January 6.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERWIN: It's unequivocal that Trump was the magnet that brought the people to D.C. on the 6th. Now the question is, is he criminal culpable for everything that happened during the siege, during the breach?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: And it's interesting, John, one of the ways he said last night at least, that they're trying -- that they're figuring out if he's criminal culpable is what the testimony of the 400 people, the insurrectionist who they arrested are saying.

And he said that many are saying we were here at the behest of President Trump. We were serving our president. We were invited by him. That's what we were doing. And some are saying no, we actually thought that he was too soft to get the job done so we felt that we had to come and, you know, stop the vote.

It's just interesting to hear how he says they're gathering that evidence.

HARWOOD: Right. And you know it's -- there's no question that as the persecutor said, President Trump was the magnet. And we've heard from the likes of Liz Cheney in the House, Mitch McConnell in the Senate saying that the president ignited this issue.

I don't know what the elements of crime legally are in that circumstance, whether President Trump can say well, that's not what I meant or I didn't intend for them to do what they ended up doing.

But certainly the testimony of those people from their perception of why they were there and also if the investigators come up with any private communications, any direction from Trump or people close to Trump. You know there's been a lot of attention on Roger Stone and the fact that they were people associated with the Proud Boys who had been providing his security.

If those links can be established, the potential legal danger for former President Trump gets deeper.

CAMEROTA: John Harwood, thank you very much.

HARWOOD: You bet (ph).

CAMEROTA: So President Biden and Vice President Harris both condemning anti-Asian hate. How could they back up their talk with action? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:18:16]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Too many Asian- Americans have been walking up and down the streets and worrying, waking up each morning, the past year feeling their safety and the safety of their loved ones are at stake.

They have been attacked, blamed, scapegoated and harassed.

KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Racism is real in America and it has always been. Xenophobia is real in America and always has been. Sexism, too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: President Biden and Vice President Harris condemning anti- Asian hate in the wake of last week's area shootings at Atlanta-area spas. Six of the eight victims were Asian women.

Joining me now is Cynthia Choi, she is the co-founder of the Stop AAPI Hate and she spoke at a rally in San Francisco over the weekend.

Cynthia, thanks so much for being with us. How important? What is it like to hear the President and the Vice President of the United States speaking out specifically against anti-Asian hate?

CYNTHIA CHOI, CO-FOUNDER, STOP AAPI HATE: Well, it's so important that our nation's leader just to acknowledge the pain and suffering of our community at this time, to have President Biden and Vice President Harris acknowledge this moment and I want to commend both of them for reaching out to the Asian-American community at this time.

BERMAN: You've said that you have never experienced a moment like this when there has been so much focus on the plight, frankly, of Asian-Americans and the hate that has been directed your way over the years.

I guess, my question is, what's taken so long?

[08:20:01] CHOI: You're right. This isn't new to our community and it's a period

of awakening for America that's been our lived experience and we really started Stop AAPI Hate because of the surge in anti-Asian racism as COVID was being racialized.

And so, part of it is documenting it. Asian-Americans across the country speaking out and, of course, the tragedy of the eight lives that were lost and you know a majority of them being Asian-American women, you know, this is a moment that there is no denial that race and gender are factors in this tragedy.

BERMAN: So you have this awakening. What do you need to have come out of it? What concrete measures need to take place?

CHOI: Well, I think it's important to lift up the fact that we have to have a whole of society response and that includes our government. I'd like to start off with our Federal government that there is a role that they can play in resourcing community organizations that have been traditionally first responders to anti-Asian racism violence, and this is the work that needs to be supported across the country.

BERMAN: You are well aware right now there is this discussion/debate about whether the murderers of these six Asian women in these Atlanta- area spas qualify for hate crimes, and maybe this debate obscures, I think what is probably the more important realization that eight Asian women are dead and we need to find out why that happened and mourn their loss.

But you do say that there are issues with reporting -- the reporting of crimes, in general. What do you mean?

CHOI: Well, historically, the Asian community, the immigrant community have not recorded to government entities or law enforcement for a variety of reasons.

There has been distrust, especially over the last four years and a feeling that what can be done about it and I think knowing what their rights are and that it's important to report not just hate crimes, but hate incidents, which should also be taken very seriously.

BERMAN: Cynthia Choi, we are very glad you are with us this morning. As we said, this is an awakening. The important thing is to take advantage of it. We hope our leaders are.

CHOI: Thank you.

BERMAN: Tonight, CNN, we should note is doing a special on the hate and the feelings that so many Americans are feeling right now in this time, and that's I believe at 9:00 Eastern.

More and more states relaxing coronavirus restrictions even as new cases climb. We are going to speak to New Jersey's Governor live, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:26:56]

BERMAN: Air travel back in a big way. That's a roaring sign for health officials. CNN has reporters covering the pandemic from coast- to-coast.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Pete Muntean in Washington. Spring break air travel continues to set records of the pandemic. The T.S.A. says it's screened more than 1.3 million people at airports across the country on Saturday. That means more than a million people have flown each day for 10 straight days.

The record of the pandemic set on Friday when more than 1.4 million flew and that number could be even higher for Sunday. That number will come out later on Monday.

All of this travel is happening as health experts are still warning against spring break trips.

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Dianne Gallagher in charlotte. Vaccine eligibility expansion is happening all across the southeast. Starting today, Monday in Florida, anybody over the age of 50 can get a vaccine.

In Alabama, it's 55 and older as well as those who have developmental or intellectual abilities and anybody ages 16 to 64 who have underlying high risk medical conditions.

Now, in Louisiana, and this is big, all essential workers over the age of 16 are eligible for the vaccine. And Louisiana essential workers could be a member of the clergy, someone who works in higher education, manufacturing, transportation, and those who work in grocery stores and food services.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Alexandra Field, the State of Massachusetts is taking its next steps towards reopening, raising the limits on gatherings at event spaces and in public spaces.

The City of Boston says it will loosen the same restrictions, but they will move to make a more moderate increase for now.

Mayor Marty Walsh says the city can meet the state at that higher threshold, once the city is able to hold a positivity rate at or below 2.75 percent for two consecutive weeks.

BIANNA GOLODGRYGA, CNN SENIOR GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: I am Bianna Golodryga in New York. For the first time in over a year, all of New York City public schools will be offering in-person learning for K through 12 students starting today. Nearly 500 high schools are welcoming back some 55,000 students. That's just a fraction of the city's 326,000 high school students prior to the pandemic. The majority of families continuing to opt for remote learning.

High school students will be subjected to the same safety measures as elementary and middle school students including randomized weekly testing, masking and social distancing.

According to city officials, the coronavirus positivity rate of schools since October is 0.57 percent indicating minimal spread within classrooms.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: All right, thanks to all of our correspondents around the country.

So this morning, new coronavirus cases in New Jersey are spiking. That state now leads the nation in per capita new case, yet the Governor there is relaxing more restriction.

Joining us now is that Governor, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy. Governor, great to see you this morning. So just explain how this works?

[08:30:15]