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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Georgia GOP Passes Sweeping Bill Restricting Voting Access; Biden Promises to Tackle the Nation's Crises But Some May Wait; U.K. Government Extends Emergency Coronavirus Laws Six Months; Deadly Tornadoes Inflict Heavy Damage Across 5 Southern States; Stuck Rock Solid. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired March 26, 2021 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:22]

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Don't feed a hungry voter in Georgia, that's now a crime. A new restrictive voting measure signed into law. How it already led to one lawmaker's arrest.

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: Gun reform, climate change, immigration not priorities for now. Where the president is focusing his agenda.

ROMANS: And stuck rock solid. It could take weeks to dislodge a ship blocking the Suez Canal.

Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

JARRETT: Good morning, Christine.

I'm Laura Jarrett. It's Friday, March 26. Happy Friday, everyone. It's 5:00 a.m. here in New York.

And we begin this morning with your right to vote. The bedrock of democracy in peril in so many states across the country, perhaps no more so than Georgia. Hours after President Biden offered a passionate defense of voting rights, a visceral reminder of where it's in jeopardy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One more time, like you're going to do something. Are you serious?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, you are not.

((END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: That is Georgia State Representative Park Cannon being arrested and removed from the state capitol after she kept knocking on the door of Governor Brian Kemp as he signed SB-202, a new elections bill rolling back voting rights.

ROMANS: That sweeping new law includes a proof of identity requirement for absentee voting. It limits ballot drop box toss inside early voting locations during business hours and makes it a misdemeanor to give food or drinks to voters. I think a bottle of water on a hot day.

Voting rights groups have filed a lawsuit challenging this new law. Here is the reaction of another State Representative Erica Thomas to her colleague's arrest.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERICA THOMAS (D), GEORGE STATE HOUSE: We sit here every single day and we defend these bad bills like SB-202 and all we ask is for her to be able to see him sign a bill that is signing our rights away and you arrested her. She has not -- anybody, she has not said any slanderous words but you're going to tell me that you arrested a sitting state representative for nothing. She didn't do anything but knock on the governor's door.

I'm tired. I'm so tired. I'm so done. Protect and serve who? Protect and serve who?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Arrested for knocking on the governor's door.

Late last night, Representative Cannon was released from Fulton County jail but she faces two felony charges.

For more now on the battle over voting rights, let's bring in CNN's Daniella Diaz live on Capitol Hill.

That was really an emotional, emotional moment there in Georgia.

DANIELLA DIAZ, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: That's right, Christine. And in his first press conference, President Joe Biden slammed any efforts by Republican states -- Republican-led efforts across the country to limit voter access. He called it un-American and this was a direct result of Georgia and just hours later when Brian Kemp actually signed that bill same day as President Joe Biden's first press conference.

Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEPH R. BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What I'm worried about is how un-American this whole initiative is. It's sick. It's sick. Deciding in some states that you cannot bring water to people standing in line, waiting to vote. Deciding that you're going to end voting at 5:00 when working people are just getting off work. Deciding that there will be no absentee ballots under the most rigid circumstances.

The Republican voters I know find this despicable, Republican voters, folks outside this White House. I'm not talking about the elected officials, I'm talking about voters. (END VIDEO CLIP)

DIAZ: So a lot of these Republican-led efforts across the country come as a result of Biden winning the election and President Donald Trump pushing the lie that the election was stolen from him. Biden is emphasizing and hoping that Senate Democrats will pass this bill in the Senate right now that already passed the House that would counter these Republican-led efforts across the country to limit voter access.

But as we always talk about when it comes to any legislation in the Senate it is currently stalled in the Senate.

[05:05:01]

But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has committed to making this a priority and is fighting to make sure to see if this legislation can pass in the Senate.

But the bottom line here is that these bills that are being worked on to pass across the country have massive -- will have massive ramifications on voting efforts across the country.

ROMANS: Yeah, what the vote looks like next time around is happening right now, right now with what so many of these state legislatures are trying to do.

Daniella, thank you so much.

Laura?

JARRETT: All right. President Biden is facing a number of questions on the border and the filibuster in the Senate, used his first news conference to lay out his priorities, but he also said some of them may have to wait.

CNN's Jasmine Wright is live for us at the White House this morning.

Jasmine, good morning.

It was interesting to watch that presser yesterday and the president seemed to say, look, I want to do a lot of things but it all comes down to timing.

JASMINE WRIGHT, CNN REPORTER: Look, it's President Biden's timeline, that is what he made clear yesterday. He said that he is going to do things his own way at his own time and first up is this infrastructure bill. And that is despite pressure on Biden to really take up some of these societal issues like voting rights we just heard, like gun reform, like immigration. Those things are requiring likely changes to the filibuster because of the way that Congress looks right now.

Now, that's something that President Biden inched closer to basically accepting, but he didn't fully endorse, he did not take the bait. Instead, he said that first thing that he is going to do is that infrastructure bill. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Successful presidents better than me have been successful in large part because they know how to time what they're doing. Order it, decide on priorities, what needs to be done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WRIGHT: Now, we can look at this infrastructure bill really and this insistence on pushing it first as a jobs bill they say, a way to boost the economy and the theory is that if the economy is flowing the way that it should, then everything else will fall behind it and that includes Republican voters. Not necessarily those voters in Congress but the voters across the country. Biden was focused on those in his press conference. He said some of them approve what he is doing including that COVID relief bill that he just got passed.

What he thinks about bipartisanship it's not necessarily who is voting for him in Congress, it's who is supporting him outside and that's what he's going to push and that's a line we're going to continue to see the White House push as he looks to govern in this next four years -- Laura.

JARRETT: All right. Jasmine at the White House, thanks so much.

ROMANS: Yeah, that's roads, bridges, clean energy. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on the Hill selling the president's next big priority.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE BUTTIGIEG, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: I believe that we have at this moment the best chance in any of our lifetimes to make a generational investment in infrastructure that will help us meet the country's most pressing challenges today and create a stronger future for decades to come. We face an imperative to create resilient infrastructure and confront inequities that have devastated communities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: President Biden's aides are working on this $3 trillion spending package split into two parts, big infrastructure and clean energy investments first. Then, what's being called the care economy, with potential tax increases to fund both. Together, the spending package would be a recovery plan to build on the president's big achievement at $1.9 trillion rescue package.

The infrastructure push has money for roads, bridges, rails, clean energy as well as domestic manufacturing potential 5G investments. Buttigieg said the country faces a trillion dollar backlog of repairs and improvements. Buttigieg wouldn't comment on how to pay for the proposal.

Earlier this week, the Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said a 28 percent corporate tax rate is on the table, Laura. JARRETT: You know, it's interesting. It strikes me coming out of that

news conference yesterday, you really see this president believes that the economic prosperity of Americans is how he is going to be successful here. Everyone else wanted to talk about a lot of other stuff.

ROMANS: That's right.

JARRETT: But he clearly sees that being his ticket to success.

ROMANS: And I think he's got the victory of the $1.9 trillion rescue package but just the size of the priorities he's looking at right now, it's astonishing just what's on the table that he wants to try to do. We'll see what happens with the Senate and with Congress of course, but there are big priorities and a big vision here this president is exploring.

JARRETT: Yeah.

All right. Still ahead for you, deadly tornadoes carving a path of destruction across the Southeast. That's next.

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[05:14:03]

JARRETT: President Biden now upping the ante on vaccination goals, having blown past the original target of 100 million shots in his first 100 days. At Thursday's news conference, he doubled it to 200 million doses by April 30th. He called the new goal, quote, ambitious.

But in reality, if the U.S. just keeps up to its current pace of 2.5 million doses per day, we will actually reach 205 million shots in total by Biden's 100th day in the White House.

ROMANS: All right. Family gatherings for Passover and Easter just as cases of COVID have stopped falling.

Now, most U.S. states are moving away from prioritizing who gets the vaccine. At least 35 states plan to expand vaccine eligibility to anyone 16 or older by the end of April. Minnesota, New Hampshire, Florida, North Carolina are the latest to open up in the coming weeks. Six states are already offering vaccinations to anybody 16 and older.

ROMANS: British lawmakers voting to go extend the country's coronavirus laws for another six months.

[05:15:01]

CNN's Scott McLean is live in London with more.

Scott, if they are extending it for six months, clearly they see the end is not necessarily just around the corner.

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, big difference right now, Laura, between what's happening in the U.K. and what's happening in France. Over the past two months, the U.K. has seen their daily case counts steadily declining, while France, well, they're going in the opposite direction, with case counts steadily rising and hospitals starting to fill up.

One of the big differences is vaccinations. The U.K. is vaccinating three times the number of people per day than France is. So, you can -- France simply just does not have the vaccine supply to stave off a third wave of the virus and so you can understand then why French President Emanuel Macron is so supportive of vaccine export restrictions from the E.U.

The only option France really has right now is to, well, put in new restrictions. So, more regions are going into lockdown and across the country social gatherings are being restricted to six people. On the other side of the English Channel, well, the U.K. on Monday is going to loosen the restrictions on social gatherings and next month, pub patios are going to be reopening.

And so, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says that he is thinking deeply about this issue of vaccine passports even for the pub which would potentially require people to show proof of either antibodies from a previous infection and negative test or of course a vaccination which more than half of the adult population has right now.

This plan, though, has been getting a lot of push back from pub owners who are expecting all COVID restrictions to be fully lifted by the end of June. The prime minister also acknowledged that there are serious moral and ethical issues with any kind of a plan like this right now, but hinted that if anything like this were to be implemented, it likely would not come until every adult in the country is offered their first shot the vaccine which would be by the end of July, Laura.

JARRETT: I've heard of a passport for traveling but I have not heard of a vaccine passport for the pub. I guess it shows you people want to get back into their bars.

All right. Scott, thank you.

ROMANS: All right. Medical leaders of the war on COVID break their silence. A CNN special report, "COVID War: The Pandemic Doctors Speak Out".

Join Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Sunday night at 9:00, only on CNN.

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[05:21:53]

JARRETT: At least five people are dead after a wave of tornadoes across five southern states, three people from the same family killed in Calhoun County, Alabama.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

JARRETT: That was in Pelham. A total of 14 tornadoes were reported in Alabama on Thursday. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Start hearing the wind, we felt the house shake a little bit. You could see outside the windows how everything was going, I took everyone down stairs. The street right here, my cousins live here, I came to check on them and it's destroyed. It's terrible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Overnight a dangerous situation in Newnan, Georgia, heavy tornado damage reported around the city's historic downtown area.

Central Tennessee also seeing widespread damage from a suspected twister and now the storm is heading north.

Here is meteorologist Tyler Mauldin.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TYLER MAULDIN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Christine and Laura, with he saw nearly two dozen tornadoes on Thursday, these were long-lived, long track tornadoes which left behind a trail of destruction across portions of Alabama and Georgia, as well as extreme flooding across portions of the Deep South. That system now is up here across the northeast bringing them heavy rain and potential for wind. Then a trailing cold front will bring showers and thunderstorms to portions of the Deep South later on today, but these will not be as severe as what we saw on Thursday.

However, as we get into this weekend we have to watch Saturday and Sunday very closely because the Storm Prediction Center is already highlighting the Memphis area for the potential of severe weather. This area could see a level 3 out of 5, damaging winds and isolated tornadoes definitely a threat there. That will continue right on into Sunday across the Southeast. Not to mention we'll also see more in the way of rainfall.

I want to leave you with this: we're in a La Nina right now and that La Nina looked to super charge this tornado season, which is just now beginning and actually doesn't peak until May.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JARRETT: Tyler, thank you for that report.

Boulder Police Officer Eric Talley, one of the ten people killed in Monday's grocery store attack, will be laid to rest on Tuesday. Police say they actually used Officer Talley's handcuffs to place the shooting suspect in custody.

And a friend of the officer spoke to CNN at a vigil honoring the victims.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I work at an elementary school and Officer Talley was always the person that responded to us, and he was just such a remarkable human being. Most of the incidents were very, very minor, having to do with mental health. He managed them so beautifully and emotionally, compassionately.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The family of Kevin Mahoney also grieving. His daughter Erica tells CNN the loss is beyond devastating.

[05:25:03]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIKA MAHONEY, LOST FATHER, KEVIN MAHONEY, IN COLORADO SHOOTING: One thing that makes this harder is being pregnant but at the same time, it also gives you strength because this is such devastating news and it's so hurtful, like, you know, my dad would just want me to be, you know, the mom I will be and to carry on and so we're going to do that for him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The suspected gunman made his first court appearance Thursday, he faces ten murder charges. A charge of attempted murder was added for shots fired at another officer.

JARRETT: The Republican push to restrict voting hits new levels in Georgia. What's in the new law and why one state official is already paying a price?

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