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Latest on Trooper who Arrested Georgia Lawmaker; Georgia State Senator Butch Miller is Interviewed about the Georgia Capitol Incident and the Voting Laws; Suez Canal Reopens; Biden Warns of Virus Rebound. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired March 30, 2021 - 08:30   ET

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

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[08:30:58]

JOHN AVLON, CNN ANCHOR: Get this, the Georgia state trooper, seen here on video arresting State Representative Park Cannon, after she knocked on the governor's door during a bill signing, is now telling his side of the story, saying that he was afraid of a January-style -- January 6th-style conflagration at the Georgia State Capitol. Telling his side of the story in the arrest report just obtained by CNN.

CNN's Ryan Young live in Atlanta with more.

Ryan.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, John.

We've got a first look at this, it's about a 13-page report that we've been able to read through. And in it you'll see some of the details here.

Look, this video has gone viral from the state representative knocking on that door. So many people surprised that she'd be charged with two felonies. And, for the first time, we are hearing from that state trooper.

In fact, let's put some of his words on the screen there. You can see, he said, I felt like if I did not take action the other protesters would have been emboldened to commit similar acts. The events of January 6th at the U.S. Capitol were in the back of my mind.

Now, I can tell you, that's not the only thing that it triggered, John. According to this incident report, it also says that a staffer told two other state troopers on the inside of that signing that something was going on. They thought that someone was going to try to breach the doors where the governor was signing that bill, and they actually evacuated the governor and his wife during this incident. Then two other state troopers said they felt that they had to move the governor.

Now, that state trooper goes on to say, his name is Lieutenant Lankford, he said that while they were taking the representative out, that his foot was stomped on by her heels. And he says -- he reports bruise to his foot and that he was injured.

Of course, there's been a lot of conversation back and forth about this arrest because people felt like it was just one woman knocking on the door who was a state representative. Yesterday was sort of a dramatic return as she came back to the capitol. Representative Park Cannon walked in with Martin Luther King III and several other civil rights leaders into the capitol yesterday and they basically said they plan to fight this.

But, obviously, a lot of conversation about this. But the full 13-page report incident is now out there for people to read.

Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK, Ryan, thank you very much for all of that reporting.

Joining us now is State Senator Butch Miller. He's the top Republican in the Georgia State Senate and sponsored the election bill just signed by Governor Kemp.

Senator Miller, thanks so much for being here.

BUTCH MILLER (R), GEORGIA STATE SENATE: Thank you for having me. Good morning.

CAMEROTA: Can we just start there with what Ryan just reported on. Do you think that the officer there who arrested Representative Park Cannon had any reason to fear that your fellow local state Georgia lawmakers would start some sort of insurrection if they couldn't get into the signing ceremony there?

MILLER: Frankly, everything that you're telling me about this, I heard in the media, just like you did. So I wasn't a party to it. I wasn't -- didn't witness it. I wasn't-- I didn't play a role in it. We were in our chamber conducting business. I don't know exactly what happened with Representative Cannon.

CAMEROTA: I know but, I mean, just from the video that we've all seen as -- I mean as --

MILLER: But the video that was (INAUDIBLE) Cannon has a -- I mean Rep. Cannon has a history of -- of arrests and run-ins with state capitol police and other law enforcement. That's all I know about her in her record.

CAMEROTA: I'm sorry, so -- so tell us about that.

MILLER: That's all I know about this.

CAMEROTA: You're saying that -- that Representative Cannon has a history of law enforcement run-ins?

MILLER: I think you should check the record and you'll see for yourself. But I didn't realize that was what this discussion was going to be about. But I only know about Park Cannon what I read in the papers. And you know what Mark Twain said, if you read the paper -- if you don't read the paper you're uninformed, if you do read the paper you're misinformed. So I really don't know much about her.

CAMEROTA: OK. OK. I mean, all right. Well, we will -- we will look into it. But it sounds like you know a headline that you did want to say about her.

But, I mean, look, I don't want to get too bogged down in this but it just -- it seems absurd that the officer would think -- would liken what she was doing by knocking on the door to the insurrection.

[08:35:00]

Do you see the parallel?

MILLER: I think that we would all have our opinion. I wasn't there, so I really don't -- I couldn't pass judgment on it.

CAMEROTA: OK.

MILLER: So everything I know about it is third hand.

CAMEROTA: OK. So let's talk about -- help those of us outside of Georgia understand why this law, this voting law in Georgia was necessary, and particularly some of the elements. Let me just dive into some of the ones that have been questioned the most.

MILLER: Certainly (ph).

CAMEROTA: So this law changes -- it moves the ballot drop boxes, which were so convenient in 2020 -- I used a ballot drop box myself -- inside. Why? Why not keep them the most accessible position outside?

MILLER: If you're familiar with the ballot drop boxes, you'll know that they were not permitted or codified in Georgia law. The drop boxes were only a function of the pandemic. So drop boxes are popular. We kept drop boxes. We did not outlaw drop boxes. Drop boxes are one per 100,000 registered voters. And they are assigned to precincts based on the population density.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

MILLER: So I think that what we tried to have was an even, calm, measured approach across all measures regarding the drop boxes. But I would further point out that 55 percent of all voters --

CAMEROTA: But wouldn't outside be more convenient than inside?

MILLER: Fifty-five percent of all voters in Georgia, as reported by "The Atlanta Journal-Constitution," believe that the election system in Georgia was broken. So 74 percent of all voters --

CAMEROTA: But, I mean, were the drop boxes -- but just so -- just -- hold on -- hold on, Senator, for a second. The outside drop boxes, how was that broken? I mean aren't those more convenient for people to vote? MILLER: I said the process was broken. The -- the -- we still have the

drop boxes. We have them monitored. They should have been monitored all along. So now we have them inside. They're open many, many hours. In fact, we expanded the hours of voting in Georgia so there are many good measures to this piece of legislation.

CAMEROTA: OK. Let me -- let me move on to the next one.

You restrict early voting hours from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Isn't that when most people are at work?

MILLER: Well, actually, we increased early voting hours by 33 hours over the -- over the entire period that early voting is available in Georgia. So if you read the bill --

CAMEROTA: Right, but those particular hours -- but -- but --

MILLER: If you read the bill, you will find that there are 33 more hours.

CAMEROTA: Well, we have -- OK, but I have -- the law specifies that early voting hours must run from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. That's the language in the bill.

MILLER: Or --

CAMEROTA: But isn't that --

MILLER: It shall -- I beg your pardon, shall run from 9:00 to 5:00 but may run from 7:00 to 7:00.

CAMEROTA: OK.

MILLER: So there are a lot of details here that apparently maybe we need to review to make sure that you're clear on. Sorry.

CAMEROTA: Well, look, this is what -- I mean, Senator, this is what we're trying to do.

The point is, is that it sounds like, with some of these things, that you're making it less convenient.

MILLER: Well, we certainly don't want to make it less convenient. We want to make it -- we want to have a clear, accessible, accountable, transparent process for voting in Georgia. Early voting and weekend voting --

CAMEROTA: Well, one of the things that --

MILLER: Early voting and weekend voting were maintained. There's no -- the no fault --

CAMEROTA: Senator, sorry, I think you're breaking up a little bit. Sorry about your satellite for a second there.

MILLER: (INAUDIBLE) very fond of. A lot of Georgians are, were maintained. I'm sorry?

CAMEROTA: Yes. Very quickly because this is one that's gotten a lot -- a lot of attention. The food and drink.

MILLER: Sure.

Oh, yes. That's a great point. Let's go over that.

CAMEROTA: Elderly people need -- let's go over that quickly. Tell us why, why not give elderly people who are waiting for hours in line a bottle of water?

MILLER: Here, again, as reported by the political science department at Massachusetts -- at MIT, this is a false narrative that you can't give food or drink. You can have a water station. You can have a comfort station. You can have an umbrella station. You can have a food station. You can have all of these -- this stuff that's accessible for those that are waiting in line. But what you can't do is go from person to person, electioneering and intimidating and persuading voters in the voting line.

CAMEROTA: Correct. Yes.

MILLER: But the water stations are available. Food stations are available. Umbrella stations are available. Blankets, chairs, whatever you like, but you can't go person to person electioneering.

CAMEROTA: Sure. And I know you already had laws on the books about electioneering. So this feels a little bit different.

But, Senator, I'm sorry we have to let you go. We've had a really busy show.

Butch Miller, thank you very much for coming on to explain your perspective on the new law. We appreciate it.

MILLER: Actually, I'm trying to explain the law, not my perspective. Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Thank you.

The giant tanker ship that blocked the Suez Canal for almost a week is finally free. And we now have pictures of how it got out. That's next.

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[08:43:56]

CAMEROTA: The Suez Canal is finally open again. The vital passageway was blocked for nearly a week after a giant cargo ship ran aground.

CNN's Ben Wedeman has the incredible pictures.

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BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): One final push and the enormous stern and the Ever Given is afloat.

God is great. The ship is floating, they shout. As the little tug boats that could blare their horns in celebration.

Rescuers had been pushing, prodding, prying day and night for six days, trying to dislodge the 224,000 ton behemoth stuck solid in the Suez Canal, damming a shipping lane crucial for world trade.

Monday, it floated free, not a moment too soon.

We'd hoped it would not take this much time, says the man in charge of the Suez Canal, Osama Rabie.

For days machines could dredge but nobody commands the tide.

[08:45:03]

Sunday night offered a high water mark and an opportunity to refloat this stricken ship. The tug boats pushing with all their might. Finally, Monday, 11:00 a.m. local time, movement.

The engines revved, the tide began to float the Ever Given. The stern was lifted, pushed 50 meters toward the center of the canal. The bow freed a little from its entrenchment in the clay bank. But again, by mid-morning, the tide was going out.

One more great tug was needed and by a quarter past three local time, she comes free from the shore. The Ever Given was guided away.

It leaves an almighty bottleneck in its wake, billions of dollars in cargo stranded on more than 400 ships, all backed up and waiting.

In three days or three and a half days I might make up for the loss, Osama Rabie says. We'll work around the clock until we get the ships through.

Time, of course, money for the shipping companies waiting to get goods through what should be a shortcut from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean.

The Ever Given now taken to a place called the Great Bitter Lake, where it will wait to be deemed seaworthy. The joyous farewell to a ship that could continue to fuel much bitterness as an investigation gets set to determine who foots the bill for this great big blunder.

Ben Wedeman, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Our thanks to Ben Wedeman there.

All right, well, President Biden is warning Americans not to let their guard down on the pandemic. We have "The Bottom Line" of what that means, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CAMEROTA: A vast majority of Americans, 72 percent, approve of President Biden's handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

[08:50:02]

So what will he do with that political capital?

Let's get "The Bottom Line" with CNN political director David Chalian.

So, David, with that 72 percent that we've just put up on the screen, approval, what can he do now that we -- now that Dr. Rochelle Walensky seems to be very concerned that we are facing a possible, horrible surge?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, I think we saw some of the ways he wants to spend that political capital yesterday when he came out and urged some of the states that had opened up not to go too quickly, when he urged Americans to get masks back on.

Alisyn, you know, and we discussed this the morning of his press conference, before the press conference, for this White House, dealing with the pandemic and seeing it through to its complete defeat is issue 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Everything else rests on that.

And so what that 72 percent approval on handling the pandemic represents is that Joe Biden has a bunch of credibility with the American people at large. By the way, that number, 44 percent of Republicans approve of how he's handling the pandemic. When was the last time you saw 44 percent of the opposition of a party approve anything? That doesn't sort of speak to our polarized -- that -- that's the credibility Biden has built up on dealing with the virus. And so he's using that credibility to try and urge the American people to not go too quickly with getting rid of the mitigation efforts because there is this potential surge out there.

AVLON: But, David, I mean, obviously, the flip side to that is that there's a real danger for the Biden administration and the president's political capital if we start seeing a serious uptick. We're already seeing it in a lot of states. Michigan numbers in particular are very troubling.

So does that really mean that, you know, if we do see a new surge, because people are taking their focus off the ball, that the Biden overall agenda could be impaired?

CHALIAN: Potentially so, John. That's -- you know this, that that's why everything else I was saying sort of rests on this. If, indeed, we, as a country, go back into some really bad place with the virus, it's hard to imagine how that wouldn't impact the president's popularity and, therefore, impact his ability to get through the rest of his agenda. I'm not suggesting that's why the Biden administration is saying what they're saying so that he can stay popular.

AVLON: Yes.

CHALIAN: They want to see an end to this crisis. But there's no doubt, if we were to see a real rise in cases again, as we're beginning to see, and if it is a full-on surge that shuts society down again the way we were a year ago, I -- it's hard to see how that wouldn't have an impact on his approval numbers.

AVLON: Sure.

CAMEROTA: I want to talk to you about the statement that former President Trump put out overnight. He apparently watched with great interest the CNN documentary on the pandemic, where Dr. Sanjay Gupta interviewed the six top health officials on the pandemic. And President Trump takes great issue with some of the things that Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx said in that. I mean they were really unequivocal, at least Dr. Birx was, in terms of saying how President Trump could have done things differently. And she believes that had there not been so much dysfunction and chaos and had there not been so much mixed messaging that we could have saved or at least mitigated the deaths of about 450,000 people. So it's just, I think, noteworthy, David, that he's quite upset about this documentary.

CHALIAN: Oh, I mean, surprising nobody, right, because we know that Donald Trump does not take criticism well at all.

What I find so interesting in the statement he issued is a tacit admission of his failure in containing the virus because he says in that statement that he had to go in an entirely different direction than Doctors Fauci and Birx were recommending. That he had to go against their advice because of how bad he thought their advice was.

Well, that decision seems to have resulted in part into this, you know, nearly 550,000 deaths in America due to this virus, to his loss in the presidential election, no doubt. So you see, I think it's an odd statement. He's pushing back on criticism. But while doing so, kind of admitting that he took the country in a direction that ended up not being so good.

CAMEROTA: Yes, you're right. So by -- but he's basically -- I'm going to read it, two self-promoters trying to reinvent history to cover for their bad instincts and faulty recommendations, which I, fortunately, almost always overturned.

And so, to your point, David, he's saying I proudly ignored the scientists and the doctors and look at where we are.

AVLON: Yes. And -- yes, and, therefore, by implication, I'm culpable for that delta of 450,000 deaths.

CHALIAN: Without a doubt. You remember from the Republican Convention in 2016, I alone can fix it. We saw he couldn't alone fix it.

CAMEROTA: David Chalian, thank you very much for the bottom line. Great to see you.

AVLON: Be well, David.

CHALIAN: Thanks, guys.

CAMEROTA: And CNN's coverage continues, next.

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