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Is The U.S. Following Europe Into Yet Another Surge?; Signatories Meeting This Week In Vienna To Salvage Nuke Deal; Day Six Of Testimony In Trial Prosecuting George Floyd Killing. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired April 05, 2021 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:30:00]
LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: Reported more than four million COVID vaccine doses given in a single day, pushing the average above three million people for the first time. But U.S. COVID cases are also up and hospitalizations remain stubbornly flat after falling for months.
Remember the trend we've seen throughout the pandemic -- whatever first happens in Europe then happens in the U.S.? Well, cases are surging in Europe, driven by the variant first found in the U.K.
But while European countries are returning to more public health restrictions, governors in the U.S. have been lifting restrictions against President Biden's wishes. Even some top doctors don't exactly seem to agree on where we are right now.
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DR. MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, EPIDEMEOLOGIST, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASE RESEARCH AND POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: The Upper Midwest is just now beginning to start this fourth surge. We will see, in the next two weeks, the highest number of cases reported globally since the beginning of the pandemic. In terms of the United States, we're just at the beginning of this surge. We haven't even really begun to see it yet.
DR. SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER COMMISSIONER, FDA: I don't think it's going to be a true fourth wave. I think we've probably delayed the point at which we can get this behind us for the summer and the level of immunity that we already have in the population. We've vaccinated more than 100 million Americans. We've probably infected about 130 million Americans. So you have somewhere around 200 million Americans that have some level of immunity in them already.
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JARRETT: Forty percent of adults over 18 have had at least one vaccine dose, but only 18 percent of Americans have full protection. And a decline in testing in the U.S. may also be masking the spread of the virus in some states.
The variants could still spell trouble for younger people who haven't been vaccinated yet. Case in point, Michigan, where the numbers are climbing rapidly.
CNN has the pandemic covered, as we do every day, coast-to-coast.
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POLO SANDOVAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): I'm Polo Sandoval in Detroit.
Starting today, every Michigander age 16 and up will be able to secure an appointment for a COVID-19 vaccine and that subsequent shot in the arm.
This comes as Michigan scrambles to try to contain its most recent outbreak that has led to spikes in hospitalizations and also in new case numbers. Over the weekend, the state reporting its highest number of new COVID cases since early December -- roughly 8,400 compared to about 1,500 only a month ago.
EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): I'm Evan McMorris-Santoro.
Pennsylvania is loosening restrictions on drinking and dining. Restaurants can now open to indoor dining at 75 percent capacity and bar customers can now order drinks without ordering food. Rules around masks and social distancing still apply though, so businesses can only open at the new capacities if they can keep customers six feet apart.
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT (on camera): I'm Pete Muntean at Reagan National Airport.
The CDC is now telling fully-vaccinated people that they can travel at low risk to themselves, but it is not telling people that they should travel for non-essential purposes. Even still, this is a massive shift, one that was noticeably absent from CDC guidelines for vaccinated individuals that came out on March eighth.
The CDC is telling domestic travelers they do now not need to get tested for coronavirus before and after their trip. They also do not need to self-quarantine. International travelers, though, still need to show proof of a negative coronavirus test to their airline at the start of their trip back to the United States. All travelers still need to wear federally-mandated masks and still need to socially distance.
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JARRETT: All right, thanks to our correspondents for those updates on the virus.
First it was masks, now vaccine passports -- the latest partisan battleground in the war on coronavirus.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves joining the chorus of conservative opposition on this. He echoed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis who issued an executive order Friday banning private businesses from requiring vaccine documentation, saying it would harm privacy and create two classes of people.
A number of proposed vaccine passports are being developed in the U.S. and abroad. Many businesses are eager for them to help speed up reopening.
President Biden is getting ready to make a public push for this two- part infrastructure plan this week.
It's time for three questions in three minutes. Let's bring in CNN White House correspondent John Harwood. John, good morning. Nice to see you.
You write in a piece --
JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
JARRETT: You write in a piece this morning on CNN that with full control of Congress, Democrats now have this chance to invest in economic growth for everyone after years of frustration being thwarted in this, but Republicans are united in voting against Biden's whole agenda.
And you point out there's actually a very tiny window of opportunity for Democrats. So for people at home who are looking at this and say well, Democrats have the White House and Congress, explain what you mean.
HARWOOD: Well, sometimes Laura, we forget how briefly those moments of unified party control are. Bill Clinton, as president, had his first two years and then he lost control of Congress. Barack Obama had his first two years, then he lost control of the House of Representatives.
And what that means is if you've got an agenda that's ambitious for your party, you've got to move very quickly because there's a good chance you won't have the opportunity because once you lose control of Congress you lost control of the agenda.
[05:35:05]
So, President Biden has got a very narrow margin in the House and zero margin for error in the Senate -- 50-50 Senate -- and the tie is broken by Vice President Kamala Harris. So if he's going to confidently move forward a program he's got to do it now because he could lose control of Congress, just like Clinton and Obama did, next year.
JARRETT: It's amazing just how fragile this is. You know, you think you have so much time but's actually a very, very narrow window.
John --
HARWOOD: Exactly.
JARRETT: -- the infrastructure bill is about physical capital but also human capital to reduce poverty, as you point out that when Biden came of age after World War II, the federal government invested a lot more in sort of the components -- the drivers of economic growth -- than it does now. Why is that?
HARWOOD: Well, changes in our economy, not just in the United States but around the world, have made it much more difficult for people without higher levels of education to make a good living. So much mechanization of the manufacturing process. The fact that global capital -- people can move their money overseas where there's cheaper labor.
So what the United States needs to do in order to keep more economic activity here and make more people better off is to enhance the skills of the American citizenry. So, early childhood education, job training, extended college -- community college access. All of these things are ways in which people who are not making it in today's economy can be empowered to make it.
And Democrats have believed that for a long time but because of the rise of conservative politicians who don't believe in government -- who try to squeeze government -- and also the fact that big Social Security and Medicare entitlements programs have squeezed more of the federal dollars we just haven't had that money in the U.S. government budget to make those investments.
Biden thinks he has a chance now. If he can hold Democrats together, since Republicans are going to be opposed to it, he might be able to get it done.
JARRETT: Yes, holding Democrats together is going to be the challenge for the next four years for him.
I want to get your thoughts on voting rights while we have you today, where you see these states and big businesses now at odds.
This weekend we learned Georgia is going to lose about $100 million with the MLB pulling the All-Star Game out of Atlanta over their new voting restrictions.
We've seen states face pressure like this before. You think about North Carolina a few years ago when it passed that so-called bathroom bill against transgender rights. PayPal, in that case, backed out of a big expansion there. Entertainers pulled out of shows. The NBA canceled the All-Star Game in Charlotte.
Fast-forward in this case. From an economic perspective, how do states and businesses navigate this whole situation with voting rights today?
HARWOOD: Well, one of the challenges Laura, as you know, is that when states have -- they're varied by their politics. You have some very conservative states --
JARRETT: Right.
HARWOOD: -- and some more liberal states.
But these big businesses that operate nationally and internationally answer to a broader constituency and they're not going to tolerate because their customers and their suppliers and the people they interact with are not going to tolerate laws that violate some of their core values. And so, Major League Baseball has spoken up.
And those businesses can put serious pressure on states. As you mentioned, North Carolina backed down. Indiana, before that, backed down as well over the issue of gay rights and Mike Pence was the governor at that time.
So eventually, you can expect that Georgia is going to face a decision as to how much economic pain can we tolerate. Gov. Brian Kemp says I'm not going to back down. We'll see whether he can stick to that, the more pressure he comes under from big companies, from Major League Baseball, from Coke and Delta and other companies that operate not just in Georgia but around the world.
JARRETT: Well, as you point out, it's obviously the customer base that doesn't like it. But it's also their own employees they have to contend with who are saying hey --
HARWOOD: Yes.
JARRETT: -- this violates my rights.
All right, John, great to have you this morning -- appreciate it.
HARWOOD: You bet.
JARRETT: Well, new life, it's hoped, for the Iran nuclear deal. All the countries that originally signed the deal, including the U.S. and Iran, will be in Vienna this week.
International diplomatic editor Nic Robertson joins us live in London. Nic, can this deal finally be salvaged?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: It's in the process I think of heading in that direction but it's way, way, way too soon to know for sure.
And these -- and these talks that are going to be held in Vienna -- I mean, one thing that marks the U.S. out here is it's not going to be at the table. The U.S. lead diplomat on Iran, Rob Malley, will be in Vienna but the E.U. -- the European Union that's chairing these talks with China, with Russia, with Iran, with Britain, with France, with Germany -- all the signatories to that JCPOA -- the Iran nuclear deal -- they'll be around a table face-to-face.
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But the U.S. isn't invited to the table. The Iranians are saying it's not necessary to meet the United States face-to-face. And, of course, the standoff is very straightforward, if you will, in its barest terms, and that is that Iran says before the U.S. can rejoin the JCPOA and come back to the talks table they have to lift the sanctions.
The Biden administration has said very clearly that Iran must come back into compliance with the terms of the JCPOA, but that the United States is willing to let the European Union sort of negotiate a sequencing of steps in this regard. So there's some small flexibility on the U.S. side here and Iran seems to be, at the moment, to be exploiting that if you will.
This is what we saw with Iran when they were -- when they were at the nuclear talks about in 2015 before a deal was signed. They were able to get as many concessions as possible before they finally sealed the deal.
So while this is a positive step in Vienna that everyone's going to be in the same city, it's not a deal done yet. There's still a lot of compromises that need to be made and undoubtedly, the expectation is for a lot of tough talks.
JARRETT: All right. So the short story, not there yet.
Nic Robertson, thanks so much -- appreciate it.
Some business news just in to CNN.
LG will shut down its smartphone business in July. The one-time phone giant struggled to compete with Apple, Samsung, and other companies based in China. Blackberry and Nokia face similar challenges as they struggle to transition to smartphones. LG says it will provide support and updates for existing companies but it's not clear for how long.
We'll be right back.
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JARRETT: Later this morning, the jury enters week two in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Looking to build on a week of heart-wrenching and damaging testimony, prosecutors will call more witnesses as they try to prove their case against the former officer charged with killing George Floyd.
CNN's Sara Sidner is in Minneapolis.
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SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Laura, in the week ahead, we are not given an advance notice as to who is going to testify. The defense is. They are given notice the night before. There are potentially 400 witnesses that can be called in this case.
But one person that a lot of people are waiting to hear from that they believe will be called to the stand at some point during this trial is the chief of the Minneapolis Police Department, Chief Arradondo. Now you'll remember that he fired these officers within 24 hours of the incident in seeing that video go viral because he believed that they violated policy. And we'll be interested to hear what he has to say on the stand and also how the defense handles his testimony as well. We have had, though, a powerful week of testimony -- many, many witnesses -- more than a dozen coming forward. Many of the eyewitnesses crying on the stand. And you had some senior police officers, a lieutenant in particular, who basically went after Derek Chauvin's behavior that day, saying that it was totally unnecessary.
LT. RICHARD ZIMMERMAN, HOMICIDE UNIT LEADER, MINNEAPOLIS POLICE DEPARTMENT: Pulling him down to the ground face down and putting your knee on a neck for that amount of -- that amount of time is just uncalled for.
SIDNER (on camera): Once George Floyd was handcuffed, he said he should not have had his knee on his neck for that long -- Laura.
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JARRETT: Sara, thank you.
A state of emergency in Manatee County on Florida's Gulf Coast as officials scramble to prevent what the governor says could be a catastrophic flood near the leaking Piney Point reservoir. The National Guard is flying in more than 20 additional pumps to drain millions of gallons of contaminated wastewater created by phosphate mining decades ago. County officials are urging residents to follow evacuation orders but do say the water is safe to drink.
Well, as the U.S. struggles to return to normal from the pandemic, the epidemic of gun violence also returning back to normal.
One woman was killed and five other people, including a 4-year-old, were injured in a mass shooting at a park in Birmingham, Alabama. And Chicago police data shows shootings at their highest level of any March in the last four years.
There have now been at least 23 mass shootings in the U.S. since the Atlanta massacre on March 16th, an average of more than one per day.
And yet, in Iowa, the governor signed a new law allowing people to carry guns in public without a permit. And private sellers like Web sites, gun shows, and individuals -- well, they'll no longer have to run background checks.
The personal data of half a million Facebook users posted on a Web site used by hackers. Cybersecurity experts say the details in some cases include full names, locations, birthdays, e-mails, addresses, phone numbers, and relationship statuses of people. Even though Facebook says it's old data from an issue that was fixed back in 2019, the information could still be of value to hackers and cybercriminals like those who engage in identity theft.
Top-seeded Stanford holds off Arizona to win the Women's College Basketball National Championship for the first time in 29 years.
Andy Scholes has this morning's Bleacher Report from Indianapolis, the site of tonight's title game for the men. Hey, Andy.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Yes, good morning, Laura.
It has been quite the journey this season for Stanford because the entire women's tournament was held there in Texas and because of COVID protocols in their home state of California, the Stanford women's team spent a whopping 87 nights in hotels this season. But it was all worth it in the end.
Their game against Arizona last night just an absolute thriller. Under three minutes to go, Haley Jones going to get the bucket plus the foul and put Stanford up by four.
[05:50:00]
Then with five seconds left, Arizona down by one. They had a chance to win the game but Stanford just all over Aari McDonald. Her shot no good and Stanford wins 54-53.
Tara VanDerveer, the winningest coach in women's college basketball history, now has her third national title, her first since 1992.
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TARA VANDERVEER, STANFORD HEAD COACH: It was a very, very tough tournament. To play the three games in a week and deal with all the COVID stuff, I'm so proud of our team.
HALEY JONES, STANFORD GUARD: So many great players have passed through this program and they've all come for the same reason that we have, to be coached by the greatest, to develop not only as a player but just as a person, as a young woman. And so I think this is just -- it's just an honor to be able to do this for her and with her.
KIANA WILLIAMS, STANFORD GUARD: To win this for Tara in the same year that's she's become the all-time winningest coach, it just -- it just means everything.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: All right.
The men, meanwhile, will crown a champion here in Indianapolis tonight and it's the matchup all of college basketball has been waiting for this season, Gonzaga versus Baylor. They've been the best two teams all season long.
The undefeated Bulldogs advancing to the title game after Jalen Suggs in an overtime buzzer-beater -- just an amazing shot against UCLA Saturday night.
The Zags now a win away from their first perfect season since 1976.
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MARK FEW, GONZAGA HEAD COACH: I think the way it turned out is probably the best scenario you could possibly imagine for college basketball in general, and even -- heck, sports in America. SCOTT DREW, BAYLOR HEAD COACH: There's something about the first time you play and the excitement about that, trying to think how things will go and how they'll play out. I think this is -- this is perfect how it's worked out.
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SCHOLES: All right, to baseball.
The Washington Nationals will finally get their 2021 regular season underway tomorrow against the Braves. The team was originally scheduled to open the season last Thursday but their series against the Mets postponed because of multiple players out due to positive COVID-19 tests. Major League Baseball says there were no new positives in the latest round of testing.
And Laura, for that men's championship game tonight, Gonzaga-Baylor, it doesn't tip until 9:20 eastern. So if you're on the east coast you might want to mix in a nap if you're going to stay up to watch that one.
JARRETT: I am a big fan of naps.
All right, Andy, appreciate it. Glad you're there.
All right --
SCHOLES: All right.
JARRETT: -- check this one out. It's the world's deepest dive for a shipwreck. The U.S. exploration team surveying the wreckage of a World War II Navy destroyer. It was found more than 20,000 feet under the sea off the coast of the Philippines.
The USS Johnson was sunk by the Japanese Navy back in October of 1944 as American forces fought to liberate the Philippines from Japanese occupation.
Well, Broadway is coming back. New York's St. James Theater becoming the first to open its doors since the pandemic shut down performance venues.
Actors Savion Glover and Nathan Lane performed for frontline workers on Saturday. It's the first of 10 performances in a pilot program for Broadway theaters to reopen safely.
And legendary comedian Jerry Seinfeld got some laughs at New York City's Gotham Comedy Club Friday night, the first performance since the club closed its doors last year.
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JERRY SEINFELD, COMEDIAN: I love this club and I love performing in New York. So I try -- I don't want to get emotional but I'm really excited to be helping to bring it back.
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JARRETT: Mayor Bill de Blasio expects Broadway and off-Broadway shows to reopen by September.
Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz says he is not resigning despite a sex trafficking investigation, so he can probably expect more of this.
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COLIN JOST, NBC "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE": Representative Matt Gaetz, who looks like a caricature artist drawing of me, is reportedly under investigation for an alleged sexual relationship with an underage girl because Gaetz believes that only voters should have to show I.D.
And if I could get back to Matt Gaetz for a minute, here's the craziest part of this story to me. A sitting congressman is being accused of child trafficking and the QAnon people are suddenly like nah, I need more evidence. That's was your whole thing.
I mean, come on, think about it. Matt Gaetz's girlfriend -- she was allegedly 17. The 17th letter is Q. It all adds up.
What are you waiting for? The storm is finally here and QAnon is like you can't believe everything you read on the Internet.
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JARRETT: Thanks for joining us, everyone. I'm Laura Jarrett. "NEW DAY" is next.
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[05:59:39]
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Experts warn the U.S. may be on the cusp of another surge.
OSTERHOLM: We really are in a category five hurricane status with regard to the rest of the world. In terms of the United States, we're just at the beginning of this surge.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: The more people on a daily basis you get vaccinated the better chance you have of blunting or preventing that surge.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A record-setting weekend for air travel during the pandemic.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Maybe the vaccine -- people are starting to feel a little like they can go back out again.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Top U.S. health officials say vaccination is the solution to COVID.
