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CNN Reports, Biden to Announce He's Moving Deadline for All Adults to be Eligible for Coronavirus Vaccine to April 19th; Soon, Prosecution to Call more Witnesses in Chauvin Trial; New Security Concerns at U.S. Capitol after Latest Deadly Attack. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired April 06, 2021 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY: Congratulations to Jim Sciutto there. Again, he's a Mets fan, so it's nice for him to win something, like someday, he finally get some kind of victory.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN NEW DAY: Sweet. It was fun while it lasted. It was fun to be dominant in the bracket while it lasted.

BERMAN: All right. Thanks very much, Andy.

CAMEROTA: Thanks, Andy. And New Day continues right now.

BERMAN: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is New Day.

And happening now, we are learning that President Biden is moving up the deadline for coronavirus vaccine eligibility by two weeks. He wants every adult age 16 and older in every state to be eligible to get vaccinated by April 19th. That date had been May 1st. So this move, again, we're just learning about it now. What does this tell us about how the government thinks it is getting the vaccine to the people who need it most?

CAMEROTA: You really built the suspense in that one. Thank you.

President Biden will tout the pace of vaccinations during a visit to a vaccine site today. But, of course, there's growing concern about the spread of variants, the highly contagious U.K. variant now being reported in all 50 states. Nearly 80,000 new coronavirus cases across the country yesterday as states continue relaxing their restrictions, like this sold out ballpark on opening day for the Texas Rangers on Monday.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond is live at the White House with this developing news. So what's the plan for vaccinations, Jeremy?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn, President Biden trying to move up the target date for all Americans to be able to get vaccinated. April 19th is that new date that President Biden is setting for all American adults to be eligible to receive a coronavirus vaccine. About a month ago, he set that deadline, that target deadline for states to May 1st.

Now, we should note that most states have already opened eligibility to all Americans age 16 or older, and only five states were set to do so on May 1st, rather than earlier. So, the president certainly trying to move the target date here and he can do so directly with the pharmacy program, the community vaccination sites and other federally- controlled programs. The rest of it will be up to the states to follow suit here.

But it is part of a pattern of President Biden trying to move up the target, as he is able to, throughout this vaccination process. You'll remember that the president had set that goal of 100 million shots in arms in 100 days. Now, that is 200 million and the White House and the country is really well on its way to 167 million doses administered so far.

Now, we do expect the president to be visiting one of those vaccination sites in Alexandria, Virginia, just outside of the Washington, D.C. this afternoon. He'll then come back to the White House to deliver remarks on the state of vaccinations.

One other number that he's expected to out the is the fact that 75 percent of individuals age 65 or older who are, of course, at highest risk of hospitalization and death, they have already received one dose at least of this coronavirus vaccine. John?

BERMAN: All right, Jeremy Diamond at the White House with the developing news, the president wants everyone eligible for a vaccine by April 19th.

Joining us now is CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay, that date moving nearly two weeks sooner. This is as we're averaging now, what, 3 million doses administered a day. What does this all tell you?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It tells me they want to try get to these vaccines into increasingly younger people. We know that about 75 percent of people over the age of 65 now have at least some immunity. But what we're seeing around the country is, as a result of older populations now being protected, in part, that's the reason why we're seeing younger people become increasingly infected.

They were not prioritized for the vaccine understandably because they're at lower risk of getting severely ill and dying, but now they need to be vaccinated as well to try and stem the surge that we're seeing in places like Michigan. I think that's the signal. Vaccine hesitancy is a concern, vaccine fade is a concern. People are saying, hey, look, maybe do I really still need to get vaccinated? The answer is yes. And we have clear signs of that from places like Michigan and Minnesota.

CAMEROTA: I mean, of course, the devil is in the details.

[07:05:00]

So, President Biden, he said that he wants this. So it will be up to the states to distribute it -- I mean, to administer them. And so, how tall of an order will it be to -- this is for vaccinating people 18 years and older, right?

BERMAN: I think 16.

CAMEROTA: Is it 16 or 18, Sanjay?

GUPTA: So Pfizer is 16. So you can get the Pfizer -- you can get it as young as 16. And as you know, some of the trials are now ongoing for even younger than that.

But, right, you're absolutely right, the devil is in the details here. People have to get to want to get the vaccine. And I think the message that, as we've been reporting on this, the message that a lot of people are hearing is that this is a concern for people who have pre- existing conditions and who are older, and that is true in terms of severe illness and death.

But, again, we would do well to pay attention to what's happening in Michigan. We still have increased transmission of the virus. The vaccine can help. Younger people should get vaccinated especially as we think about the fall next year. That will help really decrease the potential resurgence.

I think, overall, in the country, I'm still optimistic about things because vaccinations have preceded at such a fast rate, the weather is getting warmer, I think the confluence of events is still in our favor, but this is the race. We've been talking about the variants versus the vaccine. You're now seeing that race play out real-time.

BERMAN: And, I guess, as you say, it's important to get it to young people if the young people are the ones now being affected more than they have been by the new variants.

Sanjay, I also imagine this moves up the date. One of the things that I've been watching is when will demand lag behind supply. When will supply finally outpace demand? Up until this point, there's been more demand than supply. But we're vaccinating 3 million people a day now and it may come soon. There may be a point soon when there's more supply out there than people who actually want to get the shots.

GUPTA: Right. And, frankly, you know, I think when they first announced the May 1st date, I think in the back of the mind when they did the back of the envelope calculations, that was sort of the date where they thought, hey, look, let's open up eligibility at that point because we worry about this idea that the supply will then outpace demand.

Now, I think, in fact, by moving it to April 19th, they're sort of telegraphing that we think that might even happen earlier, so within the next couple of weeks. If we stay on pace, we should vaccinate -- have another 45 million doses roughly administered by April 19th. And at that point, they say well, you know, the supply issues may actually start to outstrip demand. Let's open up eligibility and make sure younger people who may have been sitting it out so far go ahead and sign up and get their vaccine. CAMEROTA: Sanjay, John and I this morning have been talking about how much we've learned over the course of the year. And by we, I mean, top scientists, and about how little we knew. And I'll never forget the morning that you were here on the set and you were talking about how we have to disinfect the surfaces, the desks that we sit at and how easy it is to disinfect and wipe down surfaces and how, after that, we were all wiping down all of our groceries and we were wiping down our cardboard boxes that were delivered, I mean, that whole process.

And then yesterday, the director of the CDC, Dr. Walensky, came out and changed the guidance. Here is that.

(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)

CAMEROTA: That's different.

GUPTA: Yes, right, it is different. I did some of the videos myself of wiping down groceries and all that. It took a year to sort of have enough evidence to say that surface transmission wasn't as big a concern, still little bit of a concern. And like Dr. Walensky said, within 24 hours, if someone has been COVID positive, you should still wipe down surfaces.

But it is interesting -- I mean, you know, I think one of the things that we've learned I think more than anything else besides the specific point is how do you behave in the face of uncertainty. Keep in mind, you talk about the norovirus, right, the cruise ship sort of virus, that is a virus that spreads fairly easily by surfaces. Flu virus can spread easily by surfaces. Was this going to behave totally differently or was it going to behave in the same way?

I think in the beginning, as you point out, we just didn't know. So what side do you err on? Do you err on the side just -- let's be careful, let's wipe down groceries and stuff and wipe down surfaces or do you err on the side of maybe we don't have to worry about it? This is how this played out.

So in this case, the surfaces tend to be a very, very low likelihood of transmission, but airborne, which we didn't think was as big a concern, is a much bigger concern. So we learned that as well.

BERMAN: I mean, cleaning stuff probably never hurt anybody.

CAMEROTA: Well.

BERMAN: I mean, I'm just saying, you may want to keep it up.

GUPTA: Especially during flu season, right.

BERMAN: You can clean stuff. If you want to keep cleaning stuff, I don't think it's going to hurt.

CAMEROTA: You make a good point. It did cut down hugely in all the flu numbers.

[07:10:01]

And I don't regret it. I'm marveling over how much has changed over the course of the year. Sanjay, thank you very much.

GUPTA: You got it. Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Now, to the Derek Chauvin murder trial. This morning, the judge will determine whether jurors will hear from George Floyd's friend who was with him, as you can see in this video, when they were confronted by police and who reportedly does not want to incriminate himself.

On Monday, the Minneapolis Police chief testified against Chauvin, saying he violated policies when he pinned Floyd with his knee on his neck.

CNN's Josh Campbell is live outside of the courthouse in Minneapolis with more. Josh, what have you observed and learned?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning to you, Alisyn. Yesterday, it was more damning testimony for the defense. The focus was on training that Minneapolis Police officers received in the use of force as well as medical training, this requirement that officers have to render aid to people in distress even if they are in an officer's custody.

Now, continuing theme that we've seen is that so much of the damning testimony here is coming from Derek Chauvin's own former colleagues, including yesterday, the chief of police himself who was asked about when he saw that video, that now infamous bystander video, if what took place on that video comported with the Minneapolis Police Department's training. Take a listen to his answer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE SCHLEICHER, PROSECUTING ATTORNEY: Is it your belief then that this particular form of restraint, if that's what we'll call it, in fact, violates departmental policy?

CHIEF MEDARIA ARRADONDO, MINNEAPOLIS POLICE: I absolutely agree that violates our policy.

Once Mr. Floyd had stopped resisting and certainly once he was in distress and trying to verbalize that, that should have stopped.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMPBELL: Now, looking ahead for today, we're expected to hear from at least two witnesses, including one friend of George Floyd, Maurice Hall, who was in the vehicle on that day here last May. We're expecting him to invoke the Fifth Amendment and actually not testify, but he will be questioned by the judge this morning.

We're also expecting to hear from Another Minneapolis Police sergeant, the head of their crisis intervention program. Again, the theme there for prosecutors is to try to show that the training that Derek Chauvin received was not on display that day here in May during that encounter with George Floyd. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: Josh, thank you for all of that.

Joining us now, we have CNN Law Enforcement Analyst Charles Ramsey, he's the former Philadelphia Police commissioner and former D.C. Chief. Also with us, Ayesha Bell Hardaway, she's an assistant professor of law and the co-director of Social Justice Institute at Case Western Reserve University. Great to have both of you.

Commissioner, I want to ask you because you were a police chief for 17 years. And so I want to get your impressions of what you thought of Chief Arradondo.

CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, first of all, Chief Arradondo is highly respected among police professionals. I thought he did a very good job yesterday. He simply laid out the truth, which is the policy, the training and the fact that Chauvin's actions weren't consistent with policy, it wasn't consistent with the training that he received. And I don't know if he could have done any more than that.

BERMAN: And, Professor, it's unusual. I mean, we just don't see that often police chiefs testifying against officers. Bakari Sellers last hour said that Derek Chauvin, to an extent, got tossed over the blue wall that we have come to know. What do you think the jurors see here?

Professor, can you hear me?

AYESHA BELL HARDAWAY, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF LAW, CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY: Yes, I can hear you. Can you say that last part? You went out.

BERMAN: I was saying what do you think the jurors saw here when the police chief testifying against an officer, which is something we very rarely see?

HARDAWAY: Well, number one, we know that in Minneapolis, Chief Arradondo spent a lot of time with the community, and so many believe him to be a friend of the community. To have him there speaking unequivocally, unwaveringly and very patiently for hours about the fact that the defendant violated three policies and that in no shape, form or --

CAMEROTA: Our transmission with Professor Hardaway is coming --

HARDAWAY: - and was (INAUDIBLE) in any of the training. I hear (INAUDIBLE).

CAMEROTA: We'll work on helping that transmission. And so, Commissioner, wasn't it interesting to hear, as the professor just said, how unequivocal the chief was about the policy and the training and to hear the woman who was tasked be training police officers, this in no way, having a knee on the neck for nine minutes is in no training manual, it's in no training course, it was an improvised maneuver, the woman who is tasked with training them said. And so I don't know how you get around that if you are the defense.

[07:15:03]

I mean, that was just clear as day yesterday.

RAMSEY: What was clear as day because, I mean, that's just a fact. It's just true. But getting back to this whole notion how unusual it is, it's unusual for it to be in court or on T.V. that a chief is testifying against one of his members.

Normally, these things occur during arbitration hearings, which obviously are not televised at all. And it happens more often than you believe, and that includes other members of the department other than just a chief testifying against another member who has done something or engaged in some act of misconduct, or what have you. So it's not as unusual as some would think.

But let me just -- I know how bad it looks because it is bad when you look at the videotape of Chauvin's actions. And all that is outside of policy. This is going to come down to the medical examiners and what actually caused the death of George Floyd. And the defense is already setting it up that it wasn't solely the actions of Chauvin, it was the drugs, so forth.

NOW, all they need is to show us that it was a significant contribution to the death of George Floyd but this is still an uphill battle in a lot of ways. This is not over. When the defense starts putting on their witnesses, they're going to have people that will talk extensively about other things that took place, such as the drugs, enlarged heart, all of those kinds of things trying to take away from the actions of Chauvin.

Chauvin's actions were clearly inappropriate, but the defense is going to hone in on other aspects.

BERMAN: Well, let's talk about the medical analysis here, because we heard from the E.R. doctor yesterday who said it was asphyxia and said he believed it was caused by the knee. What do you think the prosecution needs to do with its witnesses then? And we haven't heard yet from the medical examiners. They're on the prosecution witness list. What do you think the prosecution needs to do with them before the defense makes its case?

RAMSEY: Well, I mean, they have just got to keep hammering home what they've already hammered home, and that is that the actions of Derek Chauvin was a significant reason why Mr. Floyd died, that his actions were not consistent with training, not consistent with policy. They did inhibit oxygen flow and blood flow to the brain and really caused him to die. In other words, had Chauvin not done what he did, would George Floyd had been dead at the same moment in time? And I don't believe so but I'm not a medical professional. So they're going to have to really, really hone in on that and keep driving it home as they cross-examine and everything else because all they need to do is raise that one little bit of doubt in one juror and they've won.. I mean, won in the sense of not getting a conviction.

So, the prosecution still has a lot of work to do in terms of really trying to hone in on the cause of death and connected to Chauvin's actions.

CAMEROTA: Commissioner Ramsey, thank you very much. Great to talk to you, and our thanks to Professor AyeshaBell Hardaway also.

So the head of the Capitol Police union warns that hundreds of officers could quit after last Friday's deadly attack. So we'll talk with the leader of a task force that reviewed the security failures around the Capitol insurrection. What does he say has to happen next there.

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CAMEROTA: This morning, growing concerns about security at the U.S. Capitol. First there, was the violent insurrection during which, you know, a mob breached the Capitol barriers. Then came Friday's deadly vehicle attack that killed an officer.

Joining us now is retired Lieutenant General Russel Honore. He was appointed by the House speaker to review -- to lead the review of security at the U.S. Capitol after the insurrection. Great to see you, General Honore.

RET. LT. GEN. RUSSEL HONORE, LED SECURITY REVIEW AT U.S. CAPITOL: Good morning.

CAMEROTA: Let's start with the insurrection. You have concluded your review. What have you learned about how that happened on January 6th?

HONORE: Well, Alisyn, our review focused on how to prevent it from happening again. And as you know, the Department of Justice and the FBI has been doing diligent work on who done it and possibly why they did it. But our focus was on how do we harden the Capitol, how do we do what needs to be done to help the Capitol Police in their resources and their training and intelligence capability, as well as significant focus on hardening the Capitol along with the -- how to protect the Capitol and the sergeant at arms officer in both the House and the Senate. So that basically was our focus, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Okay. So let's look at what your safety recommendations are. Increased Capitol Police staffing, improve the forces intelligence gathering capabilities, create mobile fencing, enhanced protections members of Congress. So let's dig into this.

Increase Capitol Police staffing, by how much? How many more officers do they need? HONORE: Well, to start off with, Alisyn, we have 233 short of the 1,800-plus authorization of uniformed officers. That is exacerbated by last year the Capitol Police did not get to conduct the class of officers through the academy because of COVID. It just couldn't be done. So they are short 233 as we speak as of last week of authorization.

And we recommended a plus up of another 800. Almost 200-plus of those are for dignitary protection and the remainder would go into intelligence as well as the line officers. The line officers, the numbers we speak of are to address the 720,000 hours of overtime that the Capitol Police consumed last year. Much of that is attributed to the civil disturbances that happened in Washington last year.

[07:25:02]

But this has been going on for over a decade, the extensive use of overtime in the Capitol Police. We think that attributed to a lot of the amount of overtime the Capitol officers have to do because they don't have enough staff. And that numbers need to be increased. That's why we recommended those increase in the number of officers, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: I understand how 800 more officers would certainly help stave off the violent mob on January 6th. What about the car attack on Friday? Could more officers have prevented that or is there a different fix?

HONORE: There are different fixes. You know, the technique, and I did this several times when we were there for six weeks, drive up to the Capitol, have privilege to go into one of the drive-in parking lots. The officers stand out front, which is a procedure that they used is a tactic, as you said, to walk up to that car, did it many mornings going to the Capitol. And they check your I.D. card. They ask you to open your trunk and they made you wore an inspect (INAUDIBLE) vehicle then the vehicle is allowed to proceed up toward buffers (ph). When you get to the buffers (ph), they give the thumbs up and you're allowed in.

That technique that afternoon, last Friday afternoon, when that individual slammed his car into the officers unexpectedly, there will be techniques or tactics they will apply to provide further protection to those officers. Every time we use one tactic, the aggressor or the opposition come up with a new challenge to that. And they will be looking at that. And there are tactics that could be used in the future.

But in the meantime, the Capitol Police are protecting the Capitol as they prepare to bury another one of their brothers, Officer Evans. So this is a tough time, but they'll get through it.

CAMEROTA: Well, given everything that you've learned during this review, given the staffing shortages, do you believe that lawmakers today are safe?

HONORE: Yes. And that being said, it comes with a great sacrifice to a lot of these officers, Alisyn, have been working 12, 15 hours a day going on a year now with all the things that happened last summer through 1/6, they went from 12-hour days some to 15-hour days some six, seven days a week. That's a lot of stress. That's a lot of time at work and it has stressed the force.

CAMEROTA: I hear you, and maybe they are. I mean, look, I'm not trying to denigrate them but maybe they are too stressed and too shorthanded to adequately protect lawmakers.

HONORE: I don't think that's the case, Alisyn. I think they have sufficient force. The reorganizations they can and have done inside the force to provide the officers they need and they have several hundred National Guards there with them all the time, just like we did at 9/11, we put 250 National Guards at the Capitol for two years for increased protection.

So I think everybody could feel assured the Capitol is protected, it is safe and the officers are doing their job.

CAMEROTA: General Russel Honore, we always appreciate seeing you. Thanks so much for sharing your findings.

HONORE: And condolences to the Evans family.

CAMEROTA: Indeed.

Coronavirus cases are skyrocketing in Michigan. Up next, CNN takes you to the pandemic's new epicenter. What doctors -- why doctors there say this surge is different than before.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I came in and saw that our unit was full of COVID patients again. It was really difficult. I had tears in my eyes.

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