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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

President to Witness and Speak on Vaccination Today; U.S. Vaccinating at Five Times the Global Average; Chief: Chauvin's Restraint of Floyd Violated Police Policy; Talks Begin Today in Austria to Salvage Iran Nuclear Deal; Baylor Upsets Gonzaga to Win National Championship. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired April 06, 2021 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:24]

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is EARLY START. I'm Laura Jarrett, Christine is off.

It's Tuesday, April 6th. It's 5:00 a.m. here in New York.

President Biden set to speak this afternoon on all the progress that's been made vaccinating Americans to stop the spread of coronavirus just before that the president will see for himself how mass vaccination is working at a site in Alexandria, Virginia.

The White House still confident the U.S. will have enough doses for all Americans by the end of next month, that despite the loss of 15 million doses from Johnson & Johnson.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We are still on track to have the number of doses we need to vaccinate all adult Americans by the end of May. This was not even a facility that was approved by the FDA. So we were not betting on these doses, we were betting on doses coming from Moderna, Pfizer, and also Johnson & Johnson has assured us that we will be getting the 24 million doses that they have promised in April.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: Right now, more than 40 percent of adults in the U.S. have received at least one dose of vaccine and about 23 percent of people are fully vaccinated. The country has come a long way from the days of hunting around for Clorox wipes in stores only to find none, and now, the CDC says all that scrubbing of surfaces isn't so necessary after all.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: Disinfection is only recommended in indoor settings, schools and homes where there has been a suspected or confirmed case of COVID-19 within the last 24 hours. (END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: Instead, the CDC recommends cleaning of surfaces with regular soap and detergent as the risk of infection from contaminated surfaces is quite low. The CDC also revealing that the variant first spotted in the U.K. has now been detected in all 50 U.S. states, totaling more than 15,000 cases.

In Monday afternoon in Texas, more than 38,000 fans but not a lot of masks there at the Texas Rangers home opener, one of the first sporting events with 100 percent capacity since the shutdown more than a year ago.

More on the pandemic now from CNN's Nick Watt.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Laura, let's start with the good news. According to CNN analysis the U.S. is vaccinating at about five times the global average rate, now more than 3 million shots going into American arms every day. That is all great news.

But case counts are also climbing once more, averaging more than 60,000 every day and there are two schools of thought on how bad things might get before we are done with this. Some people say, listen, there is enough immunity in this country already through past infection and vaccination that we won't see this fourth surge. Others saying it could go as bad as it has ever been and the CDC saying its younger people who are getting this virus now.

Michigan, case in point. Full surge, it was mainly the 70 plus getting admitted to the hospital. Now the 50-somethings are getting hit hardest and the numbers are up for those in their 40s, 30s, even 20s -- Laura.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JARRETT: Nick, thank you for that.

West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin warning that he will hold up President Biden's $2 trillion infrastructure package unless changes are made. Senator Manchin says he and a handful of other Senate Democrats believe the corporate tax hikes that are supposed to pay for the measure, well, they are just too steep.

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

Jasmine, Senator Manchin is warning Biden's infrastructure bill is in trouble before it even gets off the ground. What are you hearing?

JASMINE WRIGHT, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Look, Laura, Joe Manchin is back as we expected and ready to use his leverage in the Senate to pull this Americans jobs plan of President Biden's as close to the middle as possible. He has taken umbrage with this corporate tax hike, President Biden proposed it be raised to 28. Right now, it is at 21.

Manchin says that it is too high. He said something around 25 percent is more fair. He said that in a local radio interview.

Listen, at the end of the day Democrats need Senator Joe Manchin, the moderate from West Virginia, to pass anything. He knows that and Democrats know that as evident as when he held up those COVID relief bill on the floor last month for hours and hours on end because he felt blind-sided about a change that was made. So, yesterday, in that local radio interview, he issued a warning to Democrats trying not for that to happen again.

[05:05:03]

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D-WV): If I don't vote to get on it, it's not going anywhere. So we're going to have some leverage here and it's more than just me, there's six or seven other Democrats that feel very strongly about this. We have to be competitive and we are not going to throw caution to the wind.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

WRIGHT: Now, Manchin, like every Democrat in the Senate right now, has a lot of leverage because of that 50/50 split with Vice President Harris coming in as a tiebreaker giving Democrats the majority. Any senator -- any Democratic senator in that body can hold up Democratic legislation.

So the White House is going to be looking to work with all of them to make sure that they can come to a compromise. And Manchin specifically has been really clear that he doesn't want to go Democrats alone, he wants to involve Republicans in the process to try to get this Americans Jobs Plan passed, but, of course, no Republicans have outwardly supported it.

So Senate parliamentarian handed Democrats quite the gift yesterday saying that they can amend the budget that they used to pass that COVID relief bill to potentially -- potentially, Laura -- pass this Americans Jobs Plan. More details need to be worked out but it is now a good thing for Democrats that this ruling was made.

JARRETT: Yeah, that certainly makes the path easier for them, the question is whether they want to take it.

Jasmine, thank you so much. We'll see you back in a little bit.

Now to the Derek Chauvin murder trial where yet another witness testified Monday that the former police officer should not have pressed his knee into George Floyd's neck for over nine minutes. The current Minneapolis police chief, the man who fired Chauvin, testified that the restraint used on Floyd violated police procedure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF MEDARIA ARRADONDO, MINNEAPOLIS POLICE: Once Mr. Floyd had stopped resisting and certainly once he was in distress and trying to verbalize that, that should have stopped. There's an initial reasonableness in trying to just get him under control in the first few seconds, but once there was no longer any resistance and clearly when Mr. Floyd was no longer responsive and even motionless, to continue to apply that level of force to a person proned out, handcuffed behind their back, that -- that in no way, shape or form is anything that is by policy, it is not part of our training and it is certainly not part of our ethics or our values.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: This morning, the judge will hear from George Floyd's friend, Morries Hall, who was in the car with them when they were confronted by police. Hall's lawyer says if ordered to testify he will likely refuse citing the Fifth Amendment.

Well, this morning, the U.S. and Iran will meet for talks, albeit indirectly. The goal, reviving the landmark 2015 nuclear deal three years after President Trump pulled out. But it won't be easy. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:12:19]

JARRETT: Welcome back.

Just getting under way at this hour, talks aimed at saving the Iran nuclear deal. Iran -- officials from Iran, the U.S. and six other parties see the original agreement all in Vienna, all hoping to resurrect the deal after the Trump administration did its best to kill it.

Senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen is live for us in Vienna.

Fred, so many challenges here. Of course, this is just the beginning, but explain for our audience what are the obstacles that have to be tackled first here?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There is a massive amount of obstacles, Laura. One of the first obstacles is that the two sides aren't talking directly to one another. The U.S. and Iran are at different venues here in Austrian capital, in Vienna. What you have is you have diplomats especially from the European Union who are shuttle back and forth in between the venues to offer up proposals to see how both sides can get back into full compliance with that Iran nuclear agreement.

Now, the Iranians for their part have been very clear, this he said they don't want direct talks with the United States. This he say if the U.S. wants to get back into the nuclear deal, they have to lift all of the sanctions against Iran, of course, most of which have been put in place by the Trump administration over the past couple of years. The U.S. for its part is saying that Iran needs to get pack into full compliance with the nuclear agreement. The Iranians, of course, enriched more uranium, also enriched at

higher levels and also conducted some research that experts believe could make it easier for them to make a nuclear warhead. The Iranians for their part, of course, have been saying that they have no intention of building a nuclear warhead or building a nuclear bomb.

So, what you have right now, and you pointed this out very directly, is both sides say they want to get back to the agreement, they want to salvage the agreement but the big question is who is going to move first. One of the big obstacles, you mentioned this as well very correctly, Laura, is also the fact that the Trump administration over the past couple of years have put in place very crippling sanction against Iran, not necessarily only under the nuclear deal umbrella but also in general for other reasons as well, where Trump officials have said that it was put in place specifically to try to block a future administration from easily getting back to the deal.

So, those are all things that all these sides are going to have to work around starting today. They believe that the negotiations could take several weeks, but, again, all sides say they do want to salvage the Iran nuclear agreement -- Laura.

JARRETT: Essentially starting from scratch all over again. Fred, thank you so much for being on the ground there for us.

All right. North Korea apparently dropping out of the upcoming Tokyo Olympics over concerns that athletes could be exposed to coronavirus. This move reported in state media somewhat consistent with Pyongyang's decision last year to sever nearly all ties with the outside world to protect itself from COVID.

CNN's Will Ripley has reported extensively from North Korea and has been following all the developments with the Olympics.

[05:15:05]

He joins us this morning from Hong Kong.

Will, what are you learning about this?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's not a huge surprise, Laura, given that North Korea was the first country to completely seal off their borders at the onset of the pandemic, the borders have stayed closed, leaving the country more her medically sealed now than ever before, most foreign diplomats have left the country. So, to think that North Korea would risk sending athletes with no ability to handle a major outbreak even though they claim not to have a single confirmed case, but to send them to Japan with athletes from 200-plus countries and a possible fourth wage emerging of a more infectious and potentially vaccine resistant variant of COVID-19, well, it just didn't seem plausible that the North would take that kind of a risk.

Not to mention that they don't have a lot to gain politically right now, unlike the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics when Kim Jong-un was eager to open the door with South Korea and eventually the United States. He sent his sister Kim Yo-jong to the opening ceremonies and that got the ball rolling leading eventually to those face-to-face meetings between Kim and former President Trump.

But, of course, we know diplomacy collapsed in 2019 and since then, the North really has no interest in speaking officially with the U.S. or with South Korea so they wouldn't have much to gain by seeing them in Tokyo.

Of course, this is a huge disappoint for South Korea's president, Moon Jae-in, Laura. He's nearing the end of his term. He built his legacy hopes around doing something with the North Koreans and yet, here we are, they are not talking and launched two ballistic missiles last month.

JARRETT: Yeah, certainly got to be a disappointment. This is the very first country that has pulled out of those Olympics.

All right. Will, thank you so much. I know you will stay on top of this.

Still ahead, an epic march madness finish for the Baylor Bears who won their first title after beating the undefeated Gonzaga Bulldogs.

Your "Bleacher Report" is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:21:27]

JARRETT: Baylor ruins Gonzaga's perfect season to win college basketball's national championship.

Andy Scholes has this morning's bleacher report from Indianapolis.

Andy, what an upset.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: It was, Laura. Good morning to you. And just what a performance by these Baylor Bears here at this Final Four.

They dominated Houston and then just crushed Gonzaga's dreams of a perfect season and now for the first time in their history, Baylor can call themselves national champions. This title game, I mean, it really was over from the start. The Bears veteran guards Davion Mitchell, Jared Butler and MaCio Teague bouncing on the Zags. They were knocking down shot after shot, just playing stifling defense.

Baylor was up 19 points halfway through the first half and never looked back. The Bears winning in dominant fashion 86-70 was your final.

Coach Scott Drew took over Baylor after this program was rocked by numerous scandals 18 years ago. Now he's completed one of the greatest turnarounds in college basketball history.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT DREW, BAYLOR HEAD COACH: God has blessed us with unbelievable players, the people that have come for 18 years, that put in work. Our fans that have been with us for the lean years, the good years. And our administration, President Livingstone, Mac Roads, they all they all deserve this. The city of Waco deserves this. Texas, we got a national championship, too, the state deserves it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Check out the wild celebration back on campus in Waco, fans there watching the game. They stormed the field at McClain stadium where the Bears play football after the final buzzer sounded.

All right. Stanford meanwhile celebrating the women's championship with a parade on campus and into downtown Palo Alto. The cardinals beat Arizona on Sunday to win their third national championship, first since 1992.

All right. July's Major League Baseball all-star game will now be played at Coors Field in Denver. That's according to multiple reports. It was originally set to take place in Atlanta but the league decided to move the game and draft in response to Georgia's recently passed law that critics say make it harder to vote.

Major League Baseball has not responded to CNN's request for comment. Now, Texas Governor Greg Abbott meanwhile holding his own boycott against Major League Baseball for moving the all-star game. The Republican governor backing out of throwing the ceremonial first pitch at the Rangers home opener yesterday. In a letter he sent to the Rangers, Abbott wrote in part, it is shameful that America's past time is not only being influenced by partisan politics -- political politics, but also perpetuating false political narratives.

Now, at that Rangers home opener, they had more than 38,000 fans in the stands, this is the first U.S. sporting event to allow 100 percent capacity since the pandemic started. No other Major League Baseball team is allowing more than 50 percent capacity attendance at this time.

Not a lot of mask wearing going on by people in their seats, Laura. I spoke to someone who was at that game, she's fully vaccinated, but she said in the sections around where she was sitting, once people got to their seats they took off their masks, never put them back on and there wasn't really anyone policing people to put their masks back on.

I guess if you have a stadium full of 38,000 fans, it's pretty hard to police everyone and tell them to put their masks on.

JARRETT: But, Andy, masks were required at the game, right?

[05:25:03]

SCHOLES: Yeah, I mean, it's required when you're walking around the concourse, there were signs put up and whatnot, but once you got to your seat and eating peanuts and popcorn, I guess a lot of people didn't put them back on.

JARRETT: Yeah, it's disappointing but not surprising as you point out. Thank you, Andy. Appreciate it.

All right. President Biden speaks to the nation today about the race to vaccinate as new variants of coronavirus continue to spread across the country. We will a live preview from the White House. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JARRETT: Good morning, everyone. This is EARLY START. I'm Laura Jarrett. Almost 30 minutes past the hour here in New York.

And today, President Biden will take a firsthand look at how mass vaccination is working in the United States when he tours a site in Virginia this afternoon. He will then return to the White House and deliver some remarks.