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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Top Trump Administration Health Officials Speak Out on COVID Response; Michigan and Florida Struggle with New Wave of COVID Cases; Biden to Launch Infrastructure Agenda on Wednesday. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired March 29, 2021 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:00]
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CO-ANCHOR, EARLY START: A huge number of coronavirus deaths could have been avoided, that revelation from six doctors at the center of the pandemic response. What they saw, what they learned while working in the Trump administration.
LAURA JARRETT, CO-ANCHOR, EARLY START: A new task for President Biden. A bold new $3 trillion infrastructure plan would mean more jobs, better schools, better roads, but will it find GOP support this time?
ROMANS: And that giant cargo ship blocking the Suez Canal? Now partially freed. We'll tell you what this means for prices at the pump. That has been quite a saga there in the U.S. --
JARRETT: That's your favorite story.
ROMANS: Yes, I know. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world, this is EARLY START, I'm Christine Romans.
JARRETT: Good morning Christine, I'm Laura Jarrett, it's Monday, March 29th, it's 5:00 a.m. here in New York. And we start with this. Death threats against doctors. Misleading information and lessons unlearned. Six top health officials who led the Trump administration response to the pandemic now speaking freely and frankly as the country tries to turn the corner in the fight against the virus. No longer constrained by Trump policies, they tell CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, America's leaders were divided in a critical moment over critical issues.
ROMANS: And they now admit the staggering death toll could have been significantly lower if the Trump administration had acted quickly and decisively.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DEBORAH BIRX, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE COORDINATOR: All right, look at it this way. The first time we have an excuse, there were about a 100,000 deaths that came from that original surge. All of the rest of them, in my mind, could have been mitigated or decreased substantially if we took the lessons we had learned from that moment. That's what bothers me every day. (END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Again, the death count is now approaching 550,000 total deaths. Dr. Birx says there was a lot of resistance within the administration even into the basic precaution of wearing a mask.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIRX: There was a feeling in the White House from the beginning, and I don't know if this is true or not, because I never confronted the president because I didn't have access to him by that time, that the president was not supportive of mask-wearing in the White House. And that trickled down through every single leader. I would say majority of the people in the White House did not take this seriously.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JARRETT: The doctors also talked about how they were simply weeks behind in preparing for the pandemic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: How much did you trust the information coming out of China initially?
ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY & INFECTIOUS DISEASES: I always had skepticism about it because of what we went through with SARS. You know, people forget, but in SARS, the Chinese were saying, oh, it's flu. It's flu. And then the next thing you know, that SARS was all over the world, in Canada, in Australia, all over the place. So they are not very transparent in the past. It wasn't outright lying. They just didn't give you all the information.
GUPTA: How big a difference would it have been if our own investigators had been on the ground in China?
FAUCI: I think it would have been a significant difference.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JARRETT: The Trump administration, obviously, no longer controls the U.S. pandemic response, but Americans are still struggling with so many of the problems it left behind, Christine.
ROMANS: One place still in the thick of all of this, Michigan now battling a new coronavirus surge. The state's chief medical executive says cases in Michigan are increasing mostly in younger people, 10 years old to 19 years old. Outbreaks from sports teams, part of the reason, but overall, the rise in cases is caused by more gatherings, increased mobility, economic reopenings and specific outbreaks in some prisons and in schools. Cases in Florida also rising sharply, especially among young people again. The state reports an average of 5,000 new cases a day for the past week, the COVID variant first seen in the U.K. is also on the rise in Florida.
JARRETT: Well, President Biden is preparing to roll out a key part of his economic agenda this week where the White House says he'll focus on infrastructure. CNN's Jasmine Wright is live for us at the White House this morning. Jasmine, the expected price tag of this one about $3 trillion. Do we know anything yet about exactly how this money is expected to be spent?
JASMINE WRIGHT, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, Laura, they're expecting to spend it on a lot. Because listen, this is their recovery part of President Biden's economic agenda.
[05:05:00]
And they're hoping that this proposal that they're going to launch on Wednesday restarts -- jump-starts, really, the economy and gives Americans jobs. Now, Wednesday -- excuse me, yesterday, in a "Fox News" interview, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki confirms CNN reporting that this proposal at least in the rollout will be split into two separate parts with infrastructure, starting on Wednesday. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: What the American people will hear from him this week is part of his plan, the first step of his plan toward recovery, which will include an investment in infrastructure, we shouldn't be 13th in the world, I don't think anyone believes that the wealthiest, most innovative country in the world. And he's going to have more to say later in April about the second part of his recovery plan.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WRIGHT: So, we know a little bit about it. Let me kind of read you some of it. First, for that infrastructure part, it's going to be what we traditionally know, like roads and bridges and railroads, but it's also going to focus on a clean energy and climate measures. And for that second part that she said will come in April, that's going to be what they call the care economy. Kind of the catch on all that focuses on domestic economic issues like universal pre-k, child care, and care giving. Now, we are going to hear from Biden on this on Wednesday. But before we see that -- see him on Wednesday, we'll see him today where he gives remarks on vaccines, and also later this week, the White House will have an event on PPP loans. Laura?
JARRETT: All right, Jasmine Wright, thanks so much, appreciate it.
ROMANS: All right, a little bit more on that big week for the Biden economic agenda, call it infrastructure week, if you will. We're talking about upgrading roads, bridges, rails, ports, investing in domestic manufacturing, also investing in technology. Think electric car-charging stations. The 5G cellular network, America's cyber defenses. The president is vowing to put Americans to work, fixing all this stuff and making the U.S. more competitive with China at the same time. Biden promised infrastructure investments could create 5 million new jobs on the campaign trail and bring back the pandemic jobs lost. The economy still down 9.5 million jobs since February of last year. Infrastructure just the first piece of the plan. The second part will
come later, as Jasmine said, probably in April. That's the care economy. Universal pre-K, free community college, making the child tax credit permanent, and paid family leave. Also on the table, higher taxes for companies and the rich to pay for the Biden agenda. And that seems to be why the president and his team have chosen to separate these two --
JARRETT: Right --
ROMANS: At least for now, we haven't heard the specifics on the tax- raising part of the proposal. We know that some Republicans have said they don't trust this administration to just raise taxes on the rich.
JARRETT: Yes, of course, Mitch McConnell calling it a Trojan horse.
ROMANS: Right.
JARRETT: For liberal policies and taxes on the rich, but you're right. That portioning of the two pieces really interesting --
ROMANS: Yes --
JARRETT: Strategy there. All right, still ahead, right now, a huge effort underway to unblock a key global trade route where a ship has been stuck for a week. We are live in Cairo next.
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[05:10:00]
JARRETT: Well, this morning, Minneapolis is bracing for the start of the most high-profile trial in the city's history. Former police officer Derek Chauvin accused of murdering George Floyd after a video showed him digging his knee into Floyd's neck for nearly eight minutes. CNN's Omar Jimenez is at the courthouse in Minneapolis.
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Christine and Laura, we are just hours from court getting back into session. And with that, the beginning of opening statements in this trial. Something that many people see as a major step toward justice for George Floyd. Now, based on previous filings, defense for Derek Chauvin is likely to argue that his actions were within police policy, and that he did not intend to harm George Floyd. While prosecutors are going to have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Chauvin's actions caused George Floyd's death. Now, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has pleaded not guilty to the charges he faces, second-degree unintentional murder, second degree in manslaughter and third-degree murder.
And while we know what's happened in the court room is going to be very significant. Emotions are going to be running high outside the courtroom. You've already seen multiple protests throughout this process, including on the eve of opening statements over the course of Sunday, not to mention, a vigil that featured the family of George Floyd. A reminder of what many feel is at stake with this trial. Now moving forward, though, the context around this means almost nothing because what really matters is what happens within the walls of this courtroom, specifically when it comes to the death of George Floyd and the cause of death and Derek Chauvin's intent in this.
We know that special assistant Attorney General Jerry Blackwell will be leading the opening statements for prosecutors, as, again, this trial moves forward. We also know a portion of what will be spoken about, eventually, as witnesses are called is a portion of a 2019 George Floyd arrest. And that's partly because the judge said there's a medical parallel of what happens to George Floyd when he's faced with a similar situation in what we saw in May 2020, namely, as the judge pointed out, being put in a stressful situation with police at gunpoint and ingestion of some sort of drugs.
Now, this is all going to play in when opening statements begin as court gets back in the session at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time. As the city, a family and the eyes of a movement watch to see what criminal accountability looks like in the death of George Floyd. Christine, Laura?
ROMANS: Omar, thank you so much for that. A party at a cross-roads after Georgia went blue in 2020, Republicans have responded by making it harder on everyone to vote.
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But the disenfranchisement hasn't gone unnoticed, from film to sports to food, there's now talk of boycotting Georgia businesses, and Democrats also preparing to fight back. CNN's Sara Murray has more.
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Christine and Laura. We are continuing to see the fallout of that sweeping election bill that passed in the state of Georgia, that's the same bill that President Joe Biden called sick and un-American. Now, this is a piece of legislation that would require voter ID for absentee ballots, it would limit access to those drop boxes where you can drop off your absentee ballot, and, of course, in a provision that's causing major controversy, it would make it a crime to hand out food and water to voters waiting in line to cast their ballot. Now all of this, of course, is ramping up pressure on Democrats in the Senate as well as President Joe Biden to find a way to get a sweeping election bill that pass the U.S. House of Representatives to get through the Senate. Here is what Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock had to say about that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. RAPHAEL WARNOCK (D-GA): We have to pass voting rights no matter what. And the reason why I have insisted that we talk to our Republican sisters and brothers on the other side of the aisle is because if we don't do anything else in the Senate, we have to stand up for the democracy. The filibuster at the end of the day is about minority rights in the Senate. How are you going to insist on protecting minority rights in the Senate while refusing to protect minority rights in the society?
(END VIDEO CLIP) MURRAY: So, this is just another item that Senate Democrats as well
as the president are going to face questions on in the coming weeks. We should also note even though that bill has been signed, has gone into law in the state of Georgia, there are civil rights groups who are challenging that law in court. Back to you.
JARRETT: Sara Murray, thank you for that. Buzzer beaters, upsets, and overtime, it must be March Madness. Andy Scholes joins us with the "BLEACHER REPORT" next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:20:00]
ROMANS: All right. UCLA upsets Alabama in an overtime thriller to punch their ticket into the Elite Eight. Andy Scholes has this morning's "BLEACHER REPORT". Hey, Andy.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning Christine. So, UCLA's improbable run continues. The Bruins are now just the second team ever to go from the playing games all the way to the Elite Eight. UCLA jumping on Alabama from the start. Yesterday opening up 11-point half-time lead. Alabama though did fight back, time winding down, Alex Reese going to get the ball in the middle of the floor and hits the three to tie the game at the buzzer. We would go to overtime, but in the extra period, it was all Bruins. They pull away to win this one, 88-78. They're now going to face one-seed Michigan on Tuesday night for a spot in the final four.
Now, the overall number one seed Gonzaga meanwhile keeping their undefeated season alive with a huge 83-65 win against Creighton. The Bulldogs now three wins away from becoming the first unbeaten national champion. Indiana did it back in 1976. The Elite Eight tips off tonight with a double header. My Houston Cougars is going to get things started, taking on 12-seed Oregon state, and then we got Baylor taking on Arkansas.
All right, the women's tournament seeing an upset yesterday. Six- seeded Texas pulling off the upset against Maryland! The Longhorns ending her 15-game winning streak behind top WNBA draft prospect Charli Collier, he scored 16 points, grabbed 11 rebounds to help stun second seeded Maryland 64-61. Texas now going to face top seed South Carolina in the Elite Eight tomorrow. All right, for the first time in 43 years, the NFL appears set to expand the regular season. Owners are going to vote on a plan this week to play 17 regular season games and cut the pre-season to three. The expansion was part of the collective bargaining agreement between the owners and players last year, although it was a sticking points among many players who voted against the deal.
And many players remain unhappy about this. Saints running back Alvin Kamara saying the expanded regular season is, quote, "dumb as hell", and Packers safety Adrian Amos adding, "we really let this happen" with a fist pump emoji. All right, finally, the U.S. men's soccer team won't be playing in this Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Team USA losing 2-1 to Honduras last night in the qualification game. Much of the blame though on 20-year-old David Ochoa for that blunder right there. Two minutes into the second half ended up being the game-winning goal. The U.S. now going to miss a third-straight Olympic games.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JASON KREIS, COACH, U.S. MEN'S NATIONAL TEAM: We were devastated. Absolutely devastated in the locker room. The guys are -- like it's tragedy. Tragedy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: Just makes you shake your head, Christine. This isn't the senior national team, it's just the under 23-year-old team --
ROMANS: OK --
SCHOLES: But still, such a disappointment for the U.S. --
ROMANS: Yes --
SCHOLES: Men's soccer team not to be represented in the Olympics.
ROMANS: All right, Andy Scholes, nice to see you this morning, Andy, thanks --
SCHOLES: Right --
ROMANS: All right, six doctors at the center of the U.S. response to the pandemic, they're speaking out now. What they're saying next.
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[05:25:00]
JARRETT: Good morning everyone! This is EARLY START, I'm Laura Jarrett.
ROMANS: It's Monday! Good morning, I'm Christine Romans, it is 29 minutes past the hour, we begin this morning with this six top health officials speaking out on White House interference in medical matters. A death threats to doctors and controversial theories about how COVID started. The doctors who led the Trump White House response to the pandemic say, Trump and other officials undermined the medical response with their meddling.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GUPTA: I've had a year now, roughly, to reflect on that. Was it the right decision?
STEPHEN HAHN, FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER: I think it was the right decision at the time. I also think that the revocation of that UA was the right decision.
GUPTA: What is the lesson? HAHN: Well, you know, I think my lesson from that is that the
discussion around medical interventions for a public health emergency are best held by medical experts.
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Next, please.
HAHN: When the president, from whatever podium he was at, talked about a therapeutic.
