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New Day
CNN Correspondent Shares Vaccine Trial Experience; Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX) is Interviewed about the Gun Legislation after Colorado Shooting and Immigration; Two Mass Shootings in America in Less Than a Week. Aired 8:30-9a ET
Aired March 23, 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]
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And their fear of vaccines. I wanted to know why. And while we always hear Tuskegee and big high profile cases like that, really, the reasons for this fear may be rooted much closer to home.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm going to have you take some really deep breaths in and out. Nice and slow.
ELAM: OK.
ELAM (voice over): I'm back in the examine room for the third time since December.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Go ahead and relax your fist.
ELAM: My blood is drawn.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Almost done, OK?
ELAM: My vitals are checked.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Perfect.
ELAM: I'm a participate in a phase three trial for the Johnson & Johnson single dose COVID vaccine, which is now authorized for emergency use. It's a blind trial, so I don't know if I got the placebo or the real vaccine.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just breath normally.
ELAM: From day one, I hoped my participation would encourage trust.
ELAM (on camera): I wanted other black people, other people of color to see someone like them going through this process.
ELAM (voice over): That was more than 70 days ago when the new vaccines brought to the forefront vaccine hesitancy among black people. Our initial story spawned press coverage while some black leaders and
celebrities set examples of their own, from Vice President Kamala Harris to basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR: For myself and my family, I'm going to take the COVID-19 vaccine.
ELAM: Yet vaccination rates among minorities still trail that of white Americans. In data reported to the CDC, 66 percent of those who have gotten at least one shot are white, even as people of color make up a disproportionate number of coronavirus cases. Access to the vaccines is a large part of the problem, but generational fear of the medical field is another hurdle.
While there are high-profile examples of doctors experimenting on unwitting black Americans from slavery on, many families also have passed down their own oral history of mistreatment.
JAMECKA BRITTON, REGISTERED NURSE: I do have, you know, relatives who have expressed their concern to me about testing and being quote/unquote lab rats as black people for vaccines.
ELAM: Jamecka Britton, a registered nurse in Atlanta, has treated COVID patients nonstop since the pandemic began.
BRITTON: When it first started, I remember, I would come home just crying.
ELAM: But she's still not vaccinated.
BRITTON: I'm not against vaccines. I just feel like there needs to be more testing done.
ELAM (on camera): I guess it would probably maybe be shocking to you to know that I enrolled in a vaccine trial?
BRITTON: No. Seriously?
ELAM: I did. I did.
BRITTON: OK. I'm impressed. I'm honestly impressed. I would still like to see a large number of African-Americans receive the vaccine. A lot of physicians of color that I know are not willing to receive the vaccine.
KAMAU BELL: I'm talking about black scientists, black doctors and black nurses.
ELAM (voice over): It's an issue being addressed by the Black Coalition Against COVID and the Kaiser Family Foundation, which highlights black doctors endorsing the vaccines.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got my first dose about three weeks ago.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When the vaccine went in, I felt this intense amount of honor. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So this is the moment.
ELAM (on camera): This is the moment.
ELAM (voice over): As for me, I'm finally finding out what I got.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So what does it say?
ELAM (on camera): I got the placebo.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You got the placebo.
ELAM (voice over): But I'm not disappointed. As a trial participant, I'm eligible for one more shot.
ELAM (on camera): It's happening.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One, two --
ELAM (voice over): The real thing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Full dose.
ELAM (on camera): Oh, yes, that definitely felt different (INAUDIBLE). Yes. Look at that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Vaccinated.
ELAM: Vaccinated.
I'm so excited. So excited.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ELAM: Yes, and I'm still excited. That was yesterday afternoon. My arm hurts. It is sore, but I feel like this is just one small step to helping us get the world back on the right axis. And I will be tweeting my picture out, and I will also be sending it to Nurse Britton. We've been texting back and forth. And if at any point this has helped somebody else decide that they could go ahead and get vaccinated, I count that as a win.
Alisyn.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Stephanie, that is so great. I, too, got my vaccine yesterday afternoon. My arm also hurts. And we know it isn't from lifting weights.
And so it's great. I mean it's just -- it's so great. I know the feeling that you have right now. And your messaging goes a long way. So thank you for showing us that whole journey.
ELAM: I hope so.
CAMEROTA: Great, great to see it.
ELAM: Thank you.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So a senior law enforcement source tells CNN the gun used in the Boulder massacre was an AR-style rifle. A look at whether bipartisanship will ever be possible to deal with this issue, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:38:32]
CAMEROTA: Ten people murdered in a Colorado grocery store on Monday. America's second mass shooting in less than a week. The House of Representatives did pass two bills last week expanding background checks on gun purchases but support for those measures in the Senate is beyond slim.
Joining us now is Democratic Congresswoman Veronica Escobar.
Congresswoman, thank you very much for being here.
Is there any reason this morning for any of us to think that this time will be different, this time Congress would do something to stop the epidemic of mass shootings and gun violence?
REP. VERONICA ESCOBAR (D-TX): Good morning, Alisyn.
And I -- I just first want to say, my heart goes out to everyone in Boulder and in Colorado because this is not the first horrible, violent attack on their community. And so they've lived through a lot.
You know, in the Congress, as you mentioned, the House of Representatives, last week, for the second time, we've passed two important initial pieces on gun violence prevention. The problem is in the Senate. Even with a majority, a slim majority, because of the filibuster, it's going to be very, very difficult to get anything done. You know, the filibuster, to many of us, is a tool, an instrument for government gridlock. And we need action and we need it right away.
CAMEROTA: So what are you calling for today?
ESCOBAR: Well, we need to do away with the filibuster. You know, the -- what's -- what we're seeing happening in America is Republicans in the Senate are more interested in eroding voting laws and increasing gun rights.
[08:40:10]
When, you know, it really should be the other way around. We need to look at making sure that we have safe communities and that people aren't afraid and terrified of going to the grocery store or going to a school. And the majority of Americans support common sense gun violence prevention legislation. And -- but we can't get anything done in the Senate because a majority doesn't rule. It's the filibuster that rules. CAMEROTA: Do you think that will be the upshot of what these tragedies
are? I mean, as you know, President Biden has not sounded inclined to do away with the filibuster. Do you think that that's what this will lead to?
ESCOBAR: I really hope so, Alisyn, because the inaction that's occurred is costing people their lives. El Paso knows only too well. You know, we suffered a horrific attack on our community on August 3, 2019. I had hoped that that would have been a wake-up call, not just on gun violence, but on our hate epidemic in this country. But if Congress can't act or won't act because of one vehicle, which is the filibuster, let's do away with it and give the American public -- the majority of the American public the reform that they're asking for.
CAMEROTA: While we have you, I do want to ask you about what's going on at the border. It is the biggest surge in unaccompanied minors in 20 years at the border right now. Former Customs and Border Patrol officials say they tried to warn the incoming Biden administration that this would happen if they did away too quickly with the policies of the Trump administration that so many, including President Biden and so many Democrats found anathema, found inhumane.
But President Biden did do away with those, signing a bunch of executive orders on Inauguration Day that changed the policy quickly and possibly sent a message to migrants that now would be a good time to come.
Do you think that the Biden administration did things too quickly and that their messaging has been off on this?
ESCOBAR: Alisyn, I think context and historical perspective really matters. And, unfortunately, that's what's been lacking in this conversation, especially from the media, and my Republican colleagues have taken advantage of that lack of context.
Now, the Biden administration is still utilizing Title 42, which is expelling families into Mexico. They have -- they are accepting minor children, but that began under the Trump administration. The Trump administration tried to expel kids, but then was forced by a court to accept kids and to not send vulnerable children back into Mexico.
The Trump administration reduced the shelter space for children in order to, you know, follow COVID restrictions. But, on the other hand, they also did absolutely nothing to expand shelter space everywhere. The Biden administration came in and inherited a system that -- a system that was not prepared and policies that had been eroded that could have helped.
As an example, the Central American minors program that would have allowed many of these minors to apply for refugee status in their home country, that was eliminated by the Trump administration. Aid to the northern triangle that could have taken root and provided some benefit to create stability, that was eliminated by the Trump administration.
CAMEROTA: Yes.
ESCOBAR: So what we're seeing are --
CAMEROTA: I mean hundreds of millions of dollars. I -- in terms of that aid. I hear you.
But in terms of the messaging, I mean it's not just Republicans that are saying this and the media. This is one of your Democratic colleagues, Congressman Henry Cuellar of Texas said that, you know, he went, he visited one of these shelters, one of these holding facilities, and he says that he met with these unaccompanied teenagers and asked them what the message was that they were getting, that made them think that they could come.
And here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. HENRY CUELLAR (D-TX): And I said, has anybody heard the White House say "don't come"? Nope, not a single hand. And I had about 20 16, 17-year-olds with me. And I said, what about messaging from your friends and family? Almost everybody raised their hands. They said, yes, we've heard from our family members or friends, come over, come over.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: Should the Biden administration do something different with messaging today?
ESCOBAR: You know, Alisyn, I also have been in facilities and met with families and children here in my district. The messaging that is being used by a lot of the human smuggling organizations this go around is hope.
[08:45:03]
But, again, this is why context matters.
In 2019, when we saw a significant increase also in families and unaccompanied minors arriving at our front door, the message being used by criminal organizations and human smugglers was fear. What I was hearing from families back then was, we're being told that Donald Trump is going to build a wall and if we don't come now we'll never have our opportunity.
So, to me, the messaging is almost inconsequential because, regardless of who's in the White House, those organizations are running a business, basically preying on vulnerable populations, feeding them either truths, half-truths, lies, it doesn't matter, and it's never going to stop until we address the root causes and until we reinstate programs that worked and could help us address this in a humane way, which is what the Biden administration is working on doing.
CAMEROTA: Congresswoman Veronica Escobar, thank you. We really appreciate your time and talking about all of these really tough issues with us this morning.
ESCOBAR: Thank you.
CAMEROTA: Here's what else to watch today.
ON SCREEN TEXT: 10:00 a.m. ET, Senate hearing on gun violence.
10:30 a.m. ET, Boulder shooting update.
1:00 p.m. ET, President Biden leaves for Ohio.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:50:31]
BERMAN: Two deadly mass shootings in the United States in less than a week.
Let's get "The Bottom Line" with CNN political commentator Van Jones.
Van, all morning we've heard from people, including, you know, people in law enforcement, Charles Ramsey, analysts, politicians, others say, you know, we went through Sandy Hook, we went through Parkland. If that didn't change anything, nothing's going to change now.
What do you think?
VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, it does feel like we're stuck in an endless kind of "Groundhogs Day" experience. And I don't know if anything can happen at the federal level.
I do think that at a -- at local and state levels and with, you know, community organizations, with ordinary people, people want answers. Whether it's, you know, something on mental health, whether it's, you know, something on background checks, and I do think it's going to be an issue is we -- if -- I mean, look, at this rate, we're not going to get through the summer without having one of the -- one of the, you know, bloodiest years in American history. If this keeps happening, this could become an issue in the midterms.
CAMEROTA: Yes, I mean, we just get out of a year of quarantine.
JONES: Yes.
CAMEROTA: We get out of a year of quarantine and this is the first thing that Americans go back to.
JONES: Yes.
CAMEROTA: Now we go back to reporting on mass shootings. It's such a sickening spiral, I mean death spiral, frankly, that somehow we found our way back to this.
And I, too, Van, was hopeful. I mean I know you're a glass half full guy, and I try to be many mornings, and I, too, thought after Parkland and what those students at Parkland did that maybe local is the way to go. Maybe you can change your state laws, and they did. But, you know what, Boulder, Colorado, tried to do this. Boulder
Colorado, a couple of years ago, took matters into their own hands and they banned the AR-15-style -- assault-style weapons because they thought that that would keep their community safest.
And on Friday, a state district judge overturned it in Boulder and said, no, you don't have the right to keep your community safe. And so now I don't know what to think this morning.
JONES: Well, I don't have great answers for you. If you're looking for some hope, though, I do think that in the wake and in the aftermath of, you know, this horrific massacre in Atlanta, you have seen, I think, an outpouring of support and particularly I think interesting and encouraging, you know, African-Americans standing with Asian- Americans.
You know, last year it was underreported, but you had Asian-Americans really standing with Black Lives Matter. You had some of the organizations like APIN (ph) and CAAV that, you know, really put the Black Lives banner -- Black Lives Matter banner on their own, you know, shoulders and marched in the middle of the pandemic sticking up for black causes. And now you're seeing African-Americans from, you know, LeBron James and Barack Obama, all the way down to the grassroots folks, you know, sticking up for what's going on with Asian-Americans. You saw, you know, the mayor of Atlanta stepping up.
So, you know, even in these moments of heartbreak and breakdown, you do see breakthroughs toward solidarity and people coming together. Whenever there's a conflict between the black community and the Asian community, in either direction, and we've had our conflicts, we highlight that. I don't think we do enough highlighting of the comfort that goes back and forth between some of these communities.
BERMAN: You know, it's interesting, you bring up the Asian community and what they've been through over the last week, over the last year. We've spoken to so many people here who tell us they've never seen a moment like this where everyone is seeing what they've been feeling for some time, Van.
JONES: Yes.
BERMAN: So, to an extent, there was something that we saw with that last summer as well after the death -- after the killing of George Floyd. People seeing things differently than they had seen them before.
So the question here, in terms of Asian-Americans and the violence that they felt and the hate that they felt, what needs to happen other than just realizing it, other than just opening eyes to it?
JONES: Well, I mean, I think, you know, listening to the voices of the -- of the leaders of the community. First of all, they do want more recognition and more conversation, which, you know, people think, oh, that doesn't matter. That's just talk. You know, talk is what gets you in these situations and talk is what gets you out. When you have irresponsible, you know, comments, you know, talking about, you know, kung flu and this type of stuff and making it -- you know, sending a green light that it's OK to hate people, that, you know, accelerates the, you know, centuries long pattern of saying Asians are the other, Asians aren't really American, no matter how many generations you've been here, you're not really an American.
[08:55:01]
Where are you from? No, where are you from really? Asians have been dealing with that forever. But then you accelerate it in the context of this virus.
You know, that talk got us into this acceleration and talk can get us out of it. So I think the talk is important.
You know, I do think that more resources are going to be needed across the board. As we come out of this pandemic, you've got a lot of mental health issues that have been exacerbated on top of, you know -- you know, some of these crazy conspiracy theories and everything else. And so we're going to have to be a lot more vigilant. We're going to have to put, you know, money and resources toward physical protection for Asians and Asian-Americans, counseling and comfort for that community and also counseling and comfort overall.
We've never been in a situation like this where we're this polarized and this on edge and we can't just be on the back foot all the time responding. We can get out ahead of this stuff by reaching out to people and making sure communities have what they need to be safe and also to be well.
CAMEROTA: Somehow Van has made me feel slightly more optimistic this morning. That is a magic trick.
Thank you very much, Van Jones.
JONES: Thank you.
BERMAN: All right, we have some live pictures to show you right now of the grocery store in Boulder, Colorado. Ten people killed there. We are waiting for more information. We only know the name of one of the victims. We hope to learn more from authorities in the next hour or so.
Our coverage continues right after this.
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[09:00:00]
