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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Testimony from Supervisor Deals Blow to Former Officer's Defense; CDC: No-Mask Easter Celebration Okay If Everyone's Vaccinated; Rep. Gaetz Investigation: Source Says Feds Probing If Campaign Funds Paid For Women's Travel; At Least 48 Killed, 150+ Injured in Train Derailment in Taiwan. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired April 02, 2021 - 05:00   ET

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

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RETIRED SGT. DAVID PLEOGER, MINNEAPOLIS POLICE DEPARTMENT. When Mr. Floyd was no longer offering up any resistance to the officers, they could have ended their restraint.

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LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: A big setback for Derek Chauvin's defense, his supervisor and other witnesses leaving little doubt he went too far.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Vaccinated Americans can celebrate Easter together indoors without masks. New guidance from the CDC on how to celebrate Easter.

JARRETT: And another shoe drops in the investigation of Congressman Matt Gaetz. What sources tell CNN he showed lawmakers on the House floor?

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

ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It is Friday, April 2nd. It is Good Friday, the holiest day on the Christian calendar. It is 5:00 a.m. in New York.

We begin with a big blow to the defense team's case in the trial of former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin. It came from an unexpected source. Chauvin's former supervisor who told the jury Thursday that Chauvin should have stopped pressing down on George Floyd's neck once he game unresponsive.

JARRETT: Also, testimony from two paramedics one said he could tell from a distance Floyd was dead, he wasn't breathing, and prosecutors also called Floyd's girlfriend to the stand who spoke openly about their struggle with drug addiction. CNN's Sara Sidner starts us off this morning from Minneapolis.

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DEREK CHAUVIN, FORMER POLICE OFFICER: Yeah, I was just going to call you and have you come out to our scene here.

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The jury heard newly released audio of Officer Derek Chauvin talking on the phone with his supervisor to explain his version of events on May 25th, 2020.

CHAUVIN: We just had to -- had to told the guy down, he was -- was -- going crazy -- wouldn't go in the back of the squad.

SIDNER: From the witness stand, Chauvin's police sergeant recalled Chauvin's description of events omitted key details.

STEVE SCHLEICHER, PROSECUTING ATTORNEY: Did he mention anything about putting his knee on Mr. Floyd's neck or back?

PLEOGER: No.

SIDNER: The sergeant says he soon arrived on the scene to talk to the police officers involved, then went to the hospital with Chauvin and other officers to check on George Floyd.

PLEOGER: Someone approached me and let me know that he passed away.

SCHLEICHER: Do you have an opinion as to when the restraint of Mr. Floyd should have ended in this encounter?

PLEOGER: Yes.

SCHLEICHER: What is it?

PLEOGER: When Mr. Floyd was no longer offering up any resistance to the officers, they could have ended their restraint.

SCHLEICHER: And that was after he was handcuffed and on the ground and no longer resisting?

PLEOGER: Correct.

SIDNER: The tears were immediate for Thursday's first witness, Courteney Batya Ross.

MATTHEW FRANK, PROSECUTING ATTORNEY: When was it that you first met Mr. Floyd?

COURTENEY BATYA ROSS, GEORGE FLOYD'S GIRLFRIEND: It's one of my favorite stories to tell.

SIDNER: She testified the first time she met George Floyd, she was upset and he, then a stranger, consoled her.

ROSS: Floyd has this great deep Southern voice, raspy, and he was like, sis, are you okay, sis? And I wasn't okay.

SIDNER: Ross eventually became George Floyd's girlfriend.

ROSS: We had our first kiss in the lobby.

SIDNER: In their nearly three-year relationship, she testified they both struggled with prescription pain pill addiction.

ROSS: Floyd and I both suffered with an opioid addiction. We got addicted and -- and tried really hard to break that addiction many times.

SIDNER: The defense honed in on where the drugs came from and the timeline of their drug use, including an overdose and hospital visit for Floyd two months before his death.

ERIC NELSON, DEFENSE ATTORNEY FOR DEREK CHAUVIN: You did not know that he had taken heroin at that time?

ROSS: No.

NELSON: It was your belief that Mr. Floyd started using again about two weeks prior to his death, correct?

ROSS: I noticed a change in his behavior, yes.

SIDNER: In redirect, this video introduced in court showed the moments paramedics loaded Floyd into their ambulance. Paramedics and firefighters testified they had initially been called to respond to a nonemergency patient with possible intoxication and a mouth injury.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The information you had as you were initially responding was that there was a mouth injury, correct?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

SIDNER: The call was later upgraded.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER (on camera): This was a pretty stunning day for the prosecution, bringing these very strong witnesses including paramedics talking about the fact that they thought when they got to the scene was George Floyd was certainly unresponsive and one of them thought that he was already dead when they got there.

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The fact that the officers couldn't see that is going to be a real problem for the defense. Laura? Christine?

ROMANS: All right, Sara, thank you for that.

Laura, you know, I'm struck by something about the prosecutor's strategy that's emerging this week. They're putting everything out in the open. They talked yesterday about George Floyd and his drug problem. They talked about how he tried to use, you know, a fake money, counterfeit bill.

He was not perfect and they are not keeping that a secret. Does that strategy work? It's almost as if they are inoculating against the defense strategy which will try to, you know, tear down, you know, the victim here?

JARRETT: It's a smart strategy because they know where the defense is going with that and if they get it all out in the open first, then the jury isn't hearing for the first time from the defense. The jury hates the most thinking the information is being withheld from them and they know in this case that the defense wants to highlight the drugs because they want to say the drugs were the reason that George Floyd died not the fact that Officer Chauvin had his knee on Floyd's neck for over nine minutes. So it makes sense.

But I also think putting the girlfriend on the stand was really smart because it humanizes George Floyd. She talked about how they met. She was so sort of relatable on that score.

But I think the big thing is they want to make sure they don't confuse the issues here so prosecutors are going to have to wrap all of this up in closing to make clear. This is not about Floyd's drug use. This is what Chauvin did.

ROMANS: And I think over the past decade, maybe two decades, look, we have a prescription opioid crisis in this country. Every family knows someone who has struggled with opioid addiction. That can cut both ways here I think for the defense.

JARRETT: Yeah, and it's relatable. It's relatable and she spoke about it very eloquently.

All right. To coronavirus now, some encouraging news from the CDC this morning. The agency says if and only if you are fully vaccinated, it is safe to celebrate this Easter with friends and family indoors with no masks. The U.S. will surpass 100 million people with at least one vaccine dose today, that's about 30 percent of the population. But vaccines are in this tough race with the virus. Overnight, the U.S. reported the second highest case count in six weeks.

ROMANS: The FDA says it's okay to squeeze more doses from vials of Moderna's COVID vaccine, 15 doses per vial instead of the 10 or 11 previously allowed. The change should speed up shipments.

And a bit of good news about Pfizer's vaccine. Experts say the number being given for how long protection lasts is a floor not a ceiling. CNN has the pandemic covered coast to coast.

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JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: I'm Jacqueline Howard in Atlanta.

Pfizer and BioNTech say that the protection provided by their COVID-19 vaccine lasts at least six months. This is based on at most latest updated data. The vaccine remains more than 91 percent effective against symptomatic cases of COVID-19 and, again, this lasts six months after the second dose. Some scientists say that they could see similar results with other vaccines.

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Natasha Chen.

The city of New Orleans announced it will be relaxing some COVID restrictions while keeping others in place. Starting today, indoor events can have up to 150 people while outdoor events can have up to 250 people. Outdoor recreation spaces and sports complexes can operate at 50 percent capacity while indoor ones can operate at 25 percent capacity.

New Orleans' citywide case count, transmission and positivity rate have been on the decline for more than eight weeks but the city's press release says there are still concerns given the rise in case numbers across several states.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I'm Alison Kosik in New York.

A limited number of Regal Movie Theaters will reopen today in the U.S. after being closed for six months because of the coronavirus pandemic. Select theaters will show "Godzilla versus Kong" and more theaters will open on April 16th with the release of "Mortal Kombat." Regal joins other theater chains that are reopening. AMC said that most of its theaters would be open by the end of March.

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JARRETT: Thanks to our correspondents for those reports.

And some major props this morning to Arizona senator and former astronaut Mark Kelly. He is helping vaccinate people in Arizona himself. Look at that, doing the shots. And, yes, he is qualified. He was trained as a medical officer on the International Space Station.

Very cool.

ROMANS: That is cool.

All right. Major companies in Texas are lining up now against laws that make it harder to vote. But it's tricky to find the middle ground. Some companies are facing pressure from politicians and competing pressure from consumers.

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JARRETT: Cash, drugs and federal campaign dollars all now part of the deepening scandal around Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz. Sources telling CNN federal investigators have examined whether federal campaign money was used to pay for travel and expenses of women that Gaetz was intimately involved with.

Authorities also now following up on evidence that Gaetz may have used cash and drugs in his dealings with young women as potential evidence of coercion.

ROMANS: Sources tell CNN the Gaetz investigation was initially part of a broader probe of sex trafficking allegations against another Florida politician, Joel Greenberg. Now, "The New York Times" has reviewed receipts from Cash App and Apple Pay showing money being transferred from Gaetz to Greenberg and then to one of the women. Gaetz denied to "The Times" ever paying for sex.

JARRETT: CNN has also learned that Gaetz was fond of bragging about his exploits and showing off pictures on the floor of the U.S. House.

CNN's Lauren Fox has more now from Capitol Hill.

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LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Laura and Christine, before that investigation began by the Department of Justice, Representative Matt Gaetz had a reputation up here on Capitol Hill as being a close ally of former President Donald Trump, someone who enjoyed the conservative media spotlight.

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And behind the scenes, multiple sources telling CNN was a person who liked to brag about his sexual exploits with women.

Now, I want to make it very clear, what we're about to talk about is a separate issue than that ongoing DOJ investigation. There is no evidence that anything is linked to that DOJ investigation, but what multiple sources told CNN is that Gaetz would share images, show colleagues pictures of nude women that he said he had slept with, two of the sources that CNN spoke with had seen these images directly and one of these incidences happened on the House floor. Another one happening just off of the House floor.

Now, CNN has reached out to Representative Gaetz and his office for comment. We have not heard anything in the last day. But I think it's important to point out once again that there is no evidence that any of these images were images of women who were minors, wills no evidence that this is tied in any way into that ongoing DOJ investigation into whether or not Representative Matt Gaetz had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old -- Laura and Christine.

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ROMANS: All right. Lauren, thank you so much for that. We will stay tuned to that sorry.

Major companies speaking out against Republican efforts to restrict voting access, this time in Texas where the State Senate passed a bill with new restriction to ban drive through voting and to limit extended early voting hours. American Airlines and Dell, both based in Texas, publicly opposing the bill. American says: We believe we should break down barriers to diversity, equity and inclusion in our society, not create them. You know, companies face pressure from both sides here. Their

consumers and their employees of these big businesses, they're demanding that the companies take a stand against rolling back voting rights. Politicians are threatening to punish those companies that dare criticize them.

In Georgia, the Republican-led House, for example, voted to revoke a major tax break for Delta after the Delta CEO spoke out against new voting restrictions in Georgia.

Now, the state Senate did not take up that measure before lawmakers adjourned for the year but the threat underscores the potential political backlash companies face for opposing efforts to restrict voting.

A new tally by the Brennan Center for Justice shows 361 bills to restrict voting have been introduced in 47 states. That's a 43 percent rise since the last count a little over a month ago.

JARRETT: We'll following breaking news out of Taiwan. Dozens of dead after a train derailed inside a tunnel. Stay with us.

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ROMANS: All right. Breaking news overnight from Taiwan, at least 48 people are dead, more than 150 hurt after a train derailed in a tunnel.

CNN's Ivan Watson live in Hong Kong following this breaking store for us.

Ivan, what do we know? How did this happen?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Christine, this is the deadliest train disaster in Taiwan's recent history. There was a 408 train headed down the east side of Taiwan, north of the city of Hualien and what apparently happened is judging by some of the aerial images we have seen, some kind of a vehicle was on the road above the railroad as it was coming along a steep mountain, a coastline, and some kind of construction truck skidded down the side this have mountain close to the railroad tracks and the train hit it.

Now, this is a train that could move at speeds of around 90 miles per hour, we don't know if it was going at full speed at that time, but it seems to have hit the vehicle as it was entering this tunnel. And there's been just a huge death toll. At least 48 people killed on this crowded train. We did see images of scores of people who were able to actually walk out.

We're told that the driver of the train was killed and that more than 150 people were injured and rushed to hospitals. It's a tough terrain to get to, to try to rescue people, complicated by the fact that half of the train was inside a tunnel. So you couldn't get heavy equipment in there. Some of the survivors described having to bash their way out through

windows using their luggage to break over the windows and walking past people laying on the ground. And all this starting at the beginning of a four-day holiday weekend, the tomb sweeping festival in Taiwan.

So a lot of the people were on this train presumably heading towards their home towns to be with their families. So, a terrible tragic day for the island today.

ROMANS: All right. Thank you so much for that, Ivan. Just awful.

All right. Laura?

JARRETT: All right. President Biden held his first cabinet meeting to promote his infrastructure plan. We'll break down who he's sending out now to sell the agenda.

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JARRETT: Welcome back.

The billionaire owner of "The L.A. Times" urging America to admit it has a racism problem. Patrick Soon-Shiong is a Chinese American but was born in South Africa and he told CNN's Matt Egan he believes the country can't begin to fix itself unless it at least acknowledges it has a problem.

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PATRICK SOON-SHIONG, LOS ANGELES TIMES OWNER: I came from South Africa where I saw that growing up and the difference there in a funny way it was apartheid but it was apartheid in the open, this unconscious bias and racism is pervasive. It's almost inherent, sadly, in the historic fabric of this country. We have to recognize that, accept it and then break it.

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JARRETT: His comments make him one of the highest profile Asian business leaders to speak out about the recent attacks on Asian- Americans in the U.S. and he's urging more Asian-Americans to do the same.

EARLY START continues right now.

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JARRETT: Good morning, everyone. This is EARLY START. I'm Laura Jarrett.

ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. It's 30 minutes past the hour on this Good Friday, the holiest day of the Christian calendar.

A parade of witnesses one after the next painting a picture of a police officer who went way too far and should have known.

The first trial witness Thursday, one who knew George Floyd personally, his girlfriend.