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White House: Half Of U.S. Adults Will Be Partly Vaccinated By Weekend; McConnell Warns Businesses After Many Condemn New Georgia Voting Law; Outrage Over Secret Dinner Parties For Paris Elite. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired April 07, 2021 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[05:30:14]
LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone, this is EARLY START. I'm Laura Jarrett. It's 30 minutes past the hour here in New York.
And the White House says that in just days the U.S. pandemic response will hit a major milestone on the road back to normal.
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ANDY SLAVITT, WHITE HOUSE SENIOR ADVISER FOR COVID RESPONSE: And we're on track so that by the weekend half the adults in the country will have had their first shot. So let's take stock of where we've come from. When we got here on January 20th we were about 80 percent. So it's getting easier and part of it is because there's more supply, part of it is because it's in more places, and part of it is because there's more vaccinators.
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JARRETT: Nearly 42 percent of American adults have been at least partially vaccinated so far, but White House COVID response adviser Andy Slavitt, you saw there, says he expects the pace of vaccinations to pick up.
And meantime, President Biden has now officially moved up the deadline for all U.S. adults to become vaccine eligible.
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JOE 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.
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JARRETT: The president's COVID adviser says there is a reason Mr. Biden is moving up deadlines and urging Americans to get vaccinated as soon as they can.
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SLAVITT: We know we're racing against both the variants, as you've discussed, but also against fatigue. That's very much a reality. And we're going to -- we're going to race. That's why the president keeps pushing us to go faster.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JARRETT: That race to vaccinate growing more and more urgent as more contagious variants are spreading widely in the United States.
CNN has the pandemic covered for you coast-to-coast.
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ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): I'm Alexandra Field in New York City.
The COVID-19 variant first detected in the U.K. has now been detected in all 50 states. Health experts describe it as being more transmissible -- however, they say the vaccines are highly effective against the variant. The race now on between getting more people vaccinated and seeing the spread of that variant across the country.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): I'm Stephanie Elam in Los Angeles.
California plans to fully reopen from its COVID lockdown on June 15th. All businesses and all activities can fully resume at that point.
This is because of the dropping number of hospitalizations and also the stability of the virus, the state is saying. They're also pointing to the fact that the state has the lowest positivity rate in all of the 50 states, below two percent here.
They did say, however, that they are going to continue to follow the data and the science and will adjust, if necessary, because they want to make sure that all Californians who can get a vaccination by that point can. They're also saying that the mask mandate will stay in effect.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): I'm Elizabeth Cohen.
According to a new poll, Americans are taking more risky behaviors than they were earlier in the pandemic. Let's take a look.
In this Axios poll, 55 percent of respondents said that they had seen family or friends in the past week. That's an all-time high during the pandemic.
Also in the poll, 45 percent of respondents said that they had gone out to eat in the past week. That's also higher than earlier in the pandemic. And 64 percent said that they had practiced social distancing. That
number was higher. In other words, more people were being careful earlier in the pandemic.
So-called pandemic fatigue has been of great concern to public health officials. They want to make sure that people continue to wear masks, continue to practice social distancing -- and, of course, when they can, go out and get a vaccine.
ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): I'm Athena Jones in New York, where Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the city would be launching a Cleanup Corps initiative creating 10,000 jobs by July helping to assist the city in both its social and economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic. The jobs will pay $15.00 an hour and will involve cleaning up New York City by eradicating graffiti, beautifying parks, and maintaining open streets.
The mayor said the program was inspired by President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal programs after the Great Depression.
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JARRETT: This morning, "The New York Times" reports Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz privately sought a blanket presidential pardon from Donald Trump before he left office. Now, this request came as the Justice Department had opened an investigation into whether Gaetz had paid a 17-year-old girl for sex and for travel across state lines.
A spokesperson for Gaetz denies the claims. And making assumptions about the "Times", sources here say, quote, "Entry-level political operatives have conflated a pardon call from Gaetz with the trafficking allegations against him." Instead, the spokesperson pointed to Gaetz's public call back in November for a wide-ranging pardon covering himself and numerous allies.
[05:35:00]
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REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FL): President Trump should pardon Michael Flynn, he should pardon the Thanksgiving turkey. He should pardon everyone from himself to his administration officials, to Joe Biden Exotic if he has to. Because you see from the radical left a blood-lust that will only be quenched if they come after the people who work so hard to animate the Trump administration with the policies, and the vigor, and the effectiveness it delivered for the American people.
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JARRETT: Yes. Well, none of that happened.
And the "Times" notes that it's unclear whether Gaetz was aware of the DOJ's investigation when he made that request and that in any event, the request was dismissed as a non-starter by the Trump White House.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell lashing out at big businesses after major companies publicly condemned Georgia's new voting law making it harder to vote. McConnell warning of serious consequences for corporations that engage in what he calls economic blackmail.
CNN's Daniella Diaz live on Capitol Hill for us this morning. Daniella, nice to have you back. What's going on here and what are you hearing on Capitol Hill?
DANIELLA DIAZ, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: First of all, thank you, Laura.
Look, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is doubling down his criticism against these Georgia businesses that are against these voter laws that were passed just a couple of weeks ago by the Georgia state legislature led by Republicans that would restrict voter access in the state.
Of course, McConnell's comments come after backlashes from across the country on these voter laws. Democrats are arguing it would restrict voter access. And there have been several boycotts, including the major one most recently that the Major League Baseball would not host its All-Star Game in Atlanta.
And other corporations such as Delta and Coca-Cola have spoken out against these laws. They're headquartered in Georgia, I should note.
Here's what McConnell had to say on the issue.
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SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): Republicans buy stock and fly on planes and drink Coca-Cola, too. So what I'm saying here is I think this is quite stupid to jump in the middle of a highly controversial issue, particularly when they've got their facts wrong.
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DIAZ: So Republicans are standing firm on their belief that this law would help Georgia residents. They say that it would increase and improve election security in the state. But it's important to note that this law -- these laws would dramatically reduce the number of ballot boxes in larger counties and minimize -- make shorter the runoff elections in the state.
But Democrats have continued to push that they believe that these voter laws restrict voter access. And even President Joe Biden praised these for-profit corporations yesterday for standing firm on their beliefs that these laws restrict voters in Georgia.
JARRETT: All right, Daniella. Thank you so much -- appreciate it.
Well, a Minneapolis police training expert testifying Tuesday that Derek Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd's neck was not a proper restraint tactic. He told the jury police are taught to restrain combative suspects with a knee on the shoulders if necessary, and are told explicitly to stay away from the neck if possible.
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STEVE SCHLEICHER, PROSECUTING ATTORNEY: In addition to the classroom training, you actually teach officers -- show them physically how to do these sort of neck restraints?
LT. JOHNNY MERCIL, MINNEAPOLIS POLICE DEPARTMENT: Yes, sir.
SCHLEICHER: At this time I'd like to republish exhibit 17. Sir, is this an MPD-trained neck restraint?
MERCIL: No, sir.
SCHLEICHER: Has it ever been?
MERCIL: Not to my knowledge. Neck restraint? No, sir.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JARRETT: Meantime, customers inside Cup Foods, where Floyd spent some of his last moments that day, have been hanging on every word of testimony in the trial.
CNN's Sara Sidner has more now.
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SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Few are watching the trial more closely than the folks in the neighborhood where George Floyd took his last breaths.
MAHMOUD ABUMAYYALEH, OWNER, CUP FOODS: Everybody that comes in takes a look at the trial.
SIDNER (voice-over): Inside Cup Foods, the place where Floyd allegedly paid for cigarettes with a counterfeit $20.00 bill, every day the television is set to the trial of the former officer accused of killing him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the training that you received?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the training.
TRACY COWERS (ph), MINNEAPOLIS RESIDENT: It's sad. It's so sad and it's really sad to watch it in the raw.
SIDNER (voice-over): Minneapolis resident Tracy Cowers came in for her breakfast with her dog, Adore. Cowers reveals what everyone around here already knows. The strongest of emotions are just under the surface here. One scratch, this time in the form of a question, and sorrow flows out.
SIDNER (on camera): How hard is it to watch this trial?
COWERS: It's mindboggling how somebody is here to serve and protect and they're the very ones who harm you. Not all, but some do.
[05:40:03]
SIDNER (voice-over): She says she can't look away even though it hurts to watch.
ABUMAYYALEH: Why are you packing?
SIDNER (voice-over): The store owners say they have received both love and hate, especially after their former cashier testified he was the one who took the alleged fake bill from Floyd.
CHRISTOPHER MARTIN, EMPLOYEE, CUP FOOD: The policy was that if you took a counterfeit bill you had to pay for it out of your money -- from your paycheck.
SIDNER (voice-over): Christopher Martin, a teenager, tried rectifying it with Floyd. That didn't work and police were called. Martin now regrets that.
MARTIN: If I would of just not tooken (sic) the bill this could have been avoided.
SIDNER (voice-over): The store owner, Mahmoud Abumayyaleh, says the store has received dozens of fake bills over time.
ABUMAYYALEH: When employees do take counterfeit bills part of our training is we tell them that they're going to be responsible to pay for it just as a deterrent. We've never made an employee pay for a counterfeit bill.
SIDNER (voice-over): The store has also received threats. But most people are sending support via stacks of mail for Christopher Martin and phone calls from all over the country.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just thought I would make a call to you to see if there was something we could do.
SIDNER (voice-over): We happened to be there during one of those calls.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You've done a wonderful job and this is what we need to do in society.
SIDNER (on camera): Outside the Cup Foods store there is not just a memorial to George Floyd anymore; it's more of a community center. There is community gatherings that happen at the former gas station and there's a community garden that all of the people helped plant and take care of.
SIDNER (voice-over): On any given day, Jay Webb, a former professional basketball player, is in the square planting hope and beauty.
JAY WEBB, FORMER PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL PLAYER, CARETAKER, GEORGE FLOYD SQUARE: We beautified an ugly situation.
SIDNER (voice-over): Feet away, Floyd took his last breaths last year. Then in March this year, another man's body lay dying outside the store. He was shot and killed by a resident.
Neighbors, business owners, and activists are battling back violence and arguing over the barriers that have closed off the streets to traffic to the square for nearly a year now. But there is still love and light being shared here.
WEBB: This is our response. Do your worst and we'll do our best.
This is his. This is his. Every direction, peace and love.
SIDNER (on camera): Despite the tension that appears on and off in that neighborhood, Jay Webb summed up the sentiment that he's trying to create there, as well as the others who take care of the memorial every single day. He said, "Do your worst and we'll do our best."
Sara Sidner, CNN, Minneapolis.
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JARRETT: Sara, thank you for that piece.
A doorman and a concierge at a New York City apartment building have been fired after witnessing a brutal attack on a 65-year-old Asian woman and doing nothing. They were initially suspended after surveillance video showed them closing the doors to the building's lobby while the attack happened. Their union says the two fired employees will appeal their dismissal.
The attacker was arrested and charged with assault as a hate crime.
Just ahead, why secret dinner parties are causing an outrage in Paris. Plus, the race to abandon a sinking cargo ship in the middle of a violent storm. That's next.
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JARRETT: All right, 47 minutes past the hour here.
Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny is said to be in failing health while in prison. The Kremlin now pushing back on those reports with video.
CNN's Matthew Chance has more now.
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MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From inside this grim penal colony where Alexey Navalny is languishing, reports are emerging of the Russian opposition figure's failing health. The latest from Navalny, unconfirmed by the authorities, is that he's coughing hard, running a high temperature, and been moved to a sick ward on the prison grounds.
A group of sympathetic doctors has even gathered at the gates demanding access to the jailed Kremlin critic who has complained of a tuberculosis outbreak behind bars.
ANASTASIYA VASILYEVA, DOCTOR AND ALLY OF KREMLIN CRITIC ALEXEY NAVALNY: I'm very troubled about his health -- about what could happen tomorrow with his health. And I understand very clearly about some symptoms that he has now that it can lead to the very serious condition and even to the death.
CHANCE (voice-over): But those in power are pushing back on the claims he's at death's door. This closed-circuit television footage purports to show Navalny in his prison dorm after complaining of a bad back and lack of sensitivity in his legs. You can see him walking across the room and chatting to a prison guard, suggesting his poor health may have been exaggerated.
There's also this broadcast on Russian state media -- silent video of Navalny fast asleep in bed, recorded by a prison employee during an inspection. The opposition figure has described being woken every hour by guards, tantamount to torture by sleep deprivation, he says.
There's also been extraordinary access granted to this woman. Maria Butina is her name, once a high profile prisoner in U.S. jail after being convicted of conspiracy to be a foreign agent, now a reporter of Russian television and comparing Navalny's prison conditions with her own.
MARIA BUTINA, RUSSIAN POLITICAL ACTIVIST: (Speaking foreign language).
CHANCE (voice-over): He should spend time in an American jail, she screams at him off-camera. At least here it's clean, she says.
If was, of course, Navalny who was taken suddenly ill on a flight from Siberia last year with suspected nerve agent poisoning. Amid concerns of neurological damage, the opposition leader who was jailed after recovering and returning to Russia in January, says he's on a hunger strike until he gets proper medical care.
[05:50:12]
But Russian officials are showing no sign of relenting. Navalny's wife said she just got this letter from the penal colony requesting her husband's passport. Without it, the letter says, he can't be treated in hospital. Russia's stubborn bureaucracy now threatening the health of its beleaguered opposition leader.
Matthew Chance, CNN, in Pokrov, Russia.
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JARRETT: Matthew, thank you.
Dramatic new video shows an unmanned cargo ship in danger of capsizing in heavy seas off the coast of Norway after its crew was evacuated in stormy weather. Footage from the Norwegian Rescue Coordination Center shows some of the 12 crew members jumping into the sea before being rescued by a helicopter. Others were picked up directly from the deck. The ship has continued to drift inland without engine power.
Now to outrage in France after an undercover report shows members of the Paris elite enjoying secret dinner parties during coronavirus lockdowns. The expose has sparked an investigation over claims the elite were brazenly ignoring rules they had set themselves.
CNN's Melissa Bell is live in Paris. Melissa, this is quite something. I know fines have already been levied here. What's going on?
MELISSA BELL, CNN PARIS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Laura, you have to understand that here in France restaurants have been closed to the ordinary members of the public and now, in theory, to everyone since the month of October.
And what this footage shows rather dramatically is two restaurants that appear to be open. When you walk in you're told that COVID doesn't exist here. Masks are not being worn by guests.
And one of the owners of the restaurants claims to have dined in such restaurants with ministers these last few weeks. So that, of course, has prompted a great deal of outrage and questions about which ministers might be involved. Now, the man himself has since retracted that claim, explaining that it was simply a joke. Minister after minister has gone on T.V. to deny being involved in any of this.
But the investigation will clearly be looking at both the owners of the restaurants that have opened illegally and the people who attended these evenings -- these evenings where they could wine and dine in a COVID-free space, apparently.
Already, the government says that it's taking this very seriously. Since the month of October when restaurants were closed, it says it's delivered about 1,300 fines. That's about 10 a day, Laura, either to patrons or to owners, trying to crack down on these illegal restaurants.
But clearly, this footage goes further because it appears to show the wealthy and the connected getting access to what ordinary men and women here in France can only dream of, Laura.
JARRETT: Melissa, any idea when exactly this footage was taken? I mean, was this happening sort of at the height of case numbers spiking? Do we have any indication at all?
BELL: I think that's exactly right, Laura. It is the context in which this was shot. It was aired over the weekend. We understand that it was shot these last few days, so fairly recently.
And this, of course, in the context, as you mention, of rising COVID- 19 figures. We're now in the first full week of France's third partial lockdown. The figures are really staggering.
You're looking at ICU numbers at above 5,600 COVID-19 patients. That is the highest it's been in almost a year, Laura. That is how bad the situation here is in France in terms of COVID-19 figures, which adds to the sense of outrage --
JARRETT: Right.
BELL: -- as you watch these people maskless in these restaurants that they're simply not meant to be inside.
JARRETT: That quote of the person saying COVID doesn't exist here is just remarkable and obviously, not true.
Melissa, thank you for reporting, as usual.
And finally this morning, political history in St. Louis. Tishaura Jones elected as the city's new mayor, the first black woman to ever hold the position.
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TISHAURA JONES, ST. LOUIS MAYOR-ELECT: We are done ignoring the racism that has held our city and our region back. I made the same case four years ago and came up short, but I made peace with the fact that I would rather lose another election again than stop having the tough conversations in every corner of our city.
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JARRETT: Jones becomes St. Louis' third black mayor. She will be sworn in on April 20th.
Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Laura Jarrett. "NEW DAY" is next.
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[05:59:07]
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JARRETT: "The New York Times" has a new report on Gaetz's efforts to head off an investigation in the final days of the Trump administration.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was a private conversation that he had with White House officials about a blanket pardon and one for himself.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It demonstrates that at the time he went to former President Trump and asked for this he knew that he had done something wrong.
BIDEN: By no later than April 19th every adult 18 or older will be eligible to be vaccinated.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we hope that going down to 18-year-olds they'll maybe lead the charge and become the warriors and fully step forward.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If we can get people vaccinated even with one dose for now, we can have a major impact. (END VIDEO CLIP)
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