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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Biden Advances Deadline: All Adults Eligible By April 19; California to Allow Full Reopening (With Masks) By June 15; Prosecutors Focus on Police Training at Chauvin Trial; Iran Says First Day of Nuclear Talks Were "Constructive". Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired April 07, 2021 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:26]
LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is EARLY START. I'm Laura Jarrett.
It's Wednesday, April 7th. It's 5:00 a.m. here in New York.
And we begin this morning with the accelerating pace of vaccination in the use. White House COVID response adviser Andy Slavitt telling CNN he expects the U.S. to hit a milestone 50 percent vaccination mark in the next few days.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDY SLAVITT, WHITE HOUSE COVID RESPONSE ADVISER: We're on track so by the weekend, half the adults in the country will have had their first shot. So, that's let's take stock of where we've come from. When we got here in January 20th, we were at about 8 percent.
So, it's getting easier, part of it's because there is more supply. Part of it is because it's in more places. Part of it is because there's more vaccinators.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JARRETT: Right now, the CDC says almost 42 percent of American adults have been at partially vaccinated. Slavitt says he expects that pace to pick up.
Meantime, President Biden now moving up the deadline for states to make all adults in the U.S. eligible for a vaccine.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSEPH R. BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: By no later than April 19th, in every part of this country every adult over the age of 18, 18 or older, will be eligible to be vaccinated. No more confusing rules. No more confusing restrictions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JARRETT: The president also urging senior citizens to get their shot now before younger Americans rush to get an appointment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: In advance of that new national full eligibility date, I want to make a direct appeal to our seniors and everyone who cares about them. While we have made incredible progress vaccinating three quarters of our seniors and putting vaccination sites within five miles of 90 percent of the public, it still isn't enough. It's simple. Seniors, it's time for you to get vaccinated now. Get vaccinated now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JARRETT: More now from CNN's Kaitlan Collins at the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: With this announcement yesterday, what President Biden is effectively doing is moving that deadline from May 1 up to April 19th for all states to make it eligible for all adult Americans to get the coronavirus vaccine. That doesn't mean you will actually get it by that day, but it means you can get in line if you're someone who hasn't met the restrictions so far that you've seen in place.
And of course some people had asked why is President Biden making this announcement given we had already seen a lot of states that were going to beat his May 1 deadline, beat even this April 19th one by making it open by then, but he said he wanted to offer clarity, because there had been a bit of a patchwork with certain states announcing certain dates for when you could get the vaccine, while others had different ones. And he wanted it to be clear that everyone can now know they will be eligible to get the vaccine by April 19th.
And he also wanted to send a message to those seniors who have not yet gotten their vaccine that now is the time to get in line before that line gets even longer. He says at 75 percent of people over age 65 so far have gotten at least one shot of the coronavirus vaccine, around 55 percent have been fully vaccinated, but that still means there is a lot of seniors who need to get vaccinated. So that is what President Biden was talking about as he was saying we are not close to the finish line yet. Still a lot of people left to get vaccinated.
And even giving credit to a Republican of course Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for making those appeals to Republican men to get vaccinated after polls had shown that they were less likely to do so or more hesitant to do so.
President Biden gave McConnell credit for that during his remarks yesterday as he was talking about how hopefully he is going to meet -- not only meet but pass that deadline to get 200 million doses administered by his 100th day in office. Now he is at about 150 million in his first 75 days in office.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JARRETT: Kaitlan, thank you for that. California is turning a major corner very soon. State officials
announcing plans to fully reopen businesses by mid-June. California was the first state to lock down but with vaccinations increasing and positive COVID tests plummeting, look at that, since a midwinter high, officials feel safe reopening now with max restrictions still in place.
CNN's Nick Watt has more from Los Angeles.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Laura, California has a date, June 15th, the governor says this state will be open back to business as usual. No more blue prints, red tiers, orange tiers, it will be back to some kind of normal, if cases continue to fall and the vaccine supply continues to rise.
[05:05:06]
But the mask mandate in California remains. The governor making it clear this is not mission accomplished. There is still a challenge ahead.
Now, across the country case counts and hospitalizations are climbing again and more cases among younger people. That is worrying the CDC.
And that faster spreading variant first found in the United Kingdom now detected in all 50 U.S. states.
Good news on the vaccinations, they continue to roll out at pace. The president has now moved up the date when all adult Americans will be at least eligible for a vaccine. That's now April 19th.
And good news for Moderna, like Pfizer, they say that their vaccine works for at least six months, many experts expect it is much longer than that.
Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JARRETT: Nick Watt, thank you for that update.
The Derek Chauvin trial resumes later this morning for an eighth day of testimony. Prosecutors on Tuesday focusing squarely on the use of force against George Floyd.
Police witnesses telling the jury Chauvin's actions specifically pressing his knee on Floyd's neck for over nine minutes were not part of his training.
CNN's Omar Jimenez filed this report from Minneapolis.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PROSECUTOR: What is proportional force? LT. JOHNNY MERCIL, MINNEAPOLIS POLICE DEPARTMENT USE-OF-FORCE
INSTRUCTOR: Well, you want to use the least amount of force necessary to meet your objectives.
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): More than 20 witnesses have been called in the trial for Derek Chauvin. Many of them, officers.
OFFICER NICOLE MACKENZIE, MINNEAPOLIS POLICE DEPARTMENT MEDICAL SUPORT COORDINATOR: If you don't have a pulse and a person, you will immediately start CPR. Just because they're speaking, doesn't mean they're breathing adequately.
JIMENEZ: But week two of testimonies has largely focused on training.
Police Lieutenant Johnny Mercil is the use of force instructor with the training division at the Minneapolis Police Department.
PROSECUTOR: Sir, is this an MPD-trained neck restraint?
MERCIL: No, sir.
JIMENEZ: Mercil admitted, though, there are scenarios where a knee on the neck does happen in times of aggressive resistance. But --
PROSECUTOR: For example, the subject was under control and handcuffed. Would this be authorized?
MERCIL: I would say no.
JIMENEZ: The defense for Derek Chauvin, pushing the lieutenant to their central argument --
GEORGE FLOYD: I can't breathe.
JIMENEZ: -- that George Floyd died largely from drugs and his medical history. Asking about drugs and adrenaline, which the lieutenant said could speed up the process of going unconscious from a neck restraint.
MERCIL: The higher your blood rate or your respiration and heart rate is, generally, the faster the neck restraint affects somebody.
ERIC NELSON, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: And how long, based on your training and experience, does it typically take to render a person unconscious using a neck restraint?
MERCIL: My experience is under 10 seconds
NELSON: Under 10 seconds?
MERCIL: Yes, sir.
JIMENEZ: Lieutenant Mercil is among multiple senior level officers at the Minneapolis Police Department to testify in recent days and topics like the use of force in crisis intervention.
The court Tuesday also focused on Chauvin's exact knee placement, which the defense argued was more on Floyd's back at the points.
NELSON: Does this appear to be a problem hold that an officer may apply with his knee?
MERCIL: Yes.
JIMENEZ: While prosecutors argued the exact placement matters less than what they argue it led to, especially, since Floyd was already under control.
STEVE SCHLEICHER, PROSECUTOR: You talked about the prone position, in and of itself being something that could lead to positional asphyxia, is that right?
MERCIL: Yes, sir.
SCHLEICHER: But that risk the increase by the addition of body weight?
MERCIL: Yes, sir.
JIMENEZ: And later in the day, the defense returned to one of their central arguments, that a loud crowd was a distraction for Chauvin.
NELSON: Does it make it more difficult to assess a patient?
MACKENZIE: It does.
NELSON: Does it make it more likely that you may miss signs that a patient is experiencing something?
MACKENZIE: Yes.
NELSON: And so the distraction can actually harm the potential care of this patient?
MACKENZIE: Yes.
JIMENEZ: The defense plans to bring Officer Nicole Mackenzie back as a witness. Among those, the defense also wants to call Morries Hall, who was in the car with Floyd prior to his arrest. The defense wants to ask him about allegations that he supplied Floyd's with drug and the counterfeit $20 bill. Hall's attorney says he'll invoke his Fifth Amendment rights, against self incrimination.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JIMENEZ (on camera): The final witness called over the course of Tuesday was a police sergeant with the Los Angeles Police Department, and he was testifying as a use of force expert. The court ended pretty abruptly in the middle of this testimony after a sidebar discussion. So that's where testimony will pick back up when court gets back into sessions Wednesday morning.
Omar Jimenez, CNN, Minneapolis.
JARRETT: Omar, thank you.
A navy medic shot and injured two fellow sailors at a business park in Maryland before fleeing to a nearby military base where police shot and killed him. Navy officials are still trying to establish a motive and the exact circumstances leading up to the attack. They one victim is in serious but stable condition, the other was set to be released from the hospital today.
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But new video this morning of the man who rammed his car into two Capitol police officers killing one of them. In surveillance video obtained by CNN, the attacker calmly buys a knife just minutes before using it in that attack last week.
Noah Green is the 25-year-old man in the white hoodie you will see on the video and in there. The owner of the shop says, Green, quote, was not acting abnormal. Green brought a $300 Japanese life and left the store. Ninety minutes later, police say officers shot and killed Green after he lunged at them with that knife.
New digs for Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff. The pair finally moving into their official residence at the U.S. Naval Observatory Tuesday night. Their move had been delayed for two months much to Harris' annoyance, we're told, living out of suitcases as the home's floors, chimneys and HVAC system needed work. The move in comes after the Secret Service arrested a man with an AR- 15 outside their residence last month. Fortunately, of course, Harris and Emhoff were not living there yet.
Well, the first day of nuke talks with Iran were constructive according to Iran's chief negotiator, but were any real breakthroughs on the horizon? We are live in Vienna, next.
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JARRETT: Iran's chief negotiator telling state media the first day of talks to revive the Iran nuclear agreement was constructive. Each side is calling for concessions from the other.
CNN's Fred Pleitgen live in Vienna, Austria for us.
Fred, Iran obviously wants the U.S. to lift sanctions that have crippled its economy while the U.S. of course demanding Iran scale back its nuclear program.
So, which side is going to have to concede something first here to get to a new deal?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think both sides, Laura, are going to have to concede, but you're absolutely right, the big question is who is going to make that first move? It's quite interesting because the Iranians are saying before we do anything, before we scale back the nuclear agreement, we want all sanctions to be lifted. But the U.S. says there's not going to be any unilateral measures on the part of the U.S. They said maximalist approaches are not going to lead to success.
I want to listen into what the spokesman for the State Department Ned Price said about this yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NED PRICE, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: I think what we can essentially rule out are the maximalist demands that the United States do everything first and only in turn would Iran then act. I don't think anyone is under the impression that that would be a viable proposal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PLEITGEN: So what's happening right now, Laura, is that other countries that are still part of the nuclear agreement are acting as intermediaries between the U.S. and Iran, the two sides of course not talking directly to one another, but essentially what they've done is compartmentalized all this have into two working groups, one talking to the U.S. about sanctions relief, the other talking to Iran about nuclear issues and scaling back its nuclear program and at some point, they hope to marry those positions together and do everything at once, bring the U.S. back into the deal and Iran back into compliance.
Obviously, it's still a rocky and long road ahead but both sides have acknowledged, both the U.S. and Iran, that they want to salvage the nuclear agreement and they believe that with the U.S. in the nuclear agreement and Iran in full compliance that that would be the best way forward for everyone -- Laura.
JARRETT: That is certainly a starting point. Fred, thank you for that. Appreciate it.
Staying with the State Department now, the agency walking back a claim that it had been considering a boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. A senior official tells CNN, quote: We have not discussed any joint boycott with allies and partners. A State Department spokesman Ned Price had said during a media briefing earlier in the day that a boycott was among the possibilities for dealing with China's human rights abuses.
Well, back here in the U.S., the roll back of voting rights in Georgia now landing at the feet of golf's most famed tournament, the Masters. What the world's top players and the organizers are saying? That's next.
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JARRETT: The Masters tees off tomorrow in Augusta, Georgia, at the same time as controversy brews over the state's new restrictive voting law.
Carolyn Manno has this morning's "Bleacher Report."
Hey, Carolyn.
CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hi. Good morning, Laura.
And those political tensions are threatening to overshadow one of the biggest sporting events in the world. As we documented, those that are critical of this law say it makes it difficult to vote in the state and Major League Baseball has moved its all-star game from Atlanta to Denver as a result of that.
Now some of the best golfers in the world are having their say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAMERON CHAMP, 2-TIME PGA TOUR WINNER: It really targets, you know, certain black communities and makes it harder for them to vote which to me is everybody's right to vote. So, to see that was very shocking and obviously with MLB and what they did moving the all-star game was a big statement.
COLLIN MORIKAWA, 2020 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP WINNER: This voter stuff and voters for American citizens is very important. I think that's the topic that we should all be talking about. We shouldn't be talking about whether we're here or not. The Masters, the PGA tour, we do such a good job and we are trying to help communities out and I think that's our main focus for the week.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MANNO: As for the event itself, reigning Masters winner Dustin Johnson hosting one of the world's most exclusive dinner parties on Tuesday night, a tradition for past winners. On his menu, lobster and corn fritters, filet mignon, sea bass with peach cobble letter and apple pie. That's making me hungry at 5:00 in the morning.
Five-time Masters champion Tiger Woods unable to attend as he continues to recover from his February car crash but in seemingly good spirits, he did tweet this, I will miss running up Dustin's bill at the champions dinner tonight. Still one of my favorite nights of the year.
And after the first four games of their season were postponed due to coronavirus, the Nationals got the season going yesterday, just over 4,800 fans on hand to finally see the 2019 World Series banner raised. It was the first game that fans were permitted since the team won it all 18 months ago. Great start to the night and a great finish as well.
Juan Soto knocking in the game winning run in the bottom of the ninth against the Braves. His first career walk-off hit. That was quite a feat.
So was this one, Cardinals outfielder Tyler O'Neill fouling back a pitch against the Marlins and shattering the lens of the home plate camera in the process. Play was delayed while the glass shards were cleaned from the $15,000 lens, maybe not quite Dustin Johnson's dinner tab but pricey to say the least.
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And lastly for you this morning, the Red Sox unveiled a new uniform for its Patriots Day game later this month, the yellow and sky blue jerseys, a nod to the Boston athletic club and the Boston strong theme commemorating the marathon bombing back in 2013. So, the Red Sox, one of the seven teams who are going to wear Nike's new city connect series uniforms this season. Boston is going to wear theirs on April 17th and 18th against the White Sox.
And, Laura, these designs, explore the franchises connection to the city and their fan base. So, great to see that we're going to see a couple more of these from a number of teams so far this season.
JARRETT: Very cool, they look great.
Carolyn, nice to see you this morning. Thanks.
All right. Was Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz looking for a presidential pardon before anyone even knew he was in trouble? We have new reporting this morning, next.
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