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New York Times Reports, Rep. Matt Gaetz Sought Blanket Pardon from Trump; White House Says, Half of U.S. Adults will be Partly Vaccinated by Weekend; Medical Examiner Expected to Testify on George Floyd's Cause of Death. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired April 07, 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: Welcome to our viewers in the United States around the world. This is New Day.

And there are two hours left of the Alisyn Camerota era of New Day.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN NEW DAY: We also have already fallen off of the bus. I am so distracted by all of the love that is pouring and all of the warm wishes and all of my devastation about leaving you, that, I mean, good luck to me.

BERMAN: I'm waiting for the first guest who's daring enough to come on and say, I've been waiting for this, really.

CAMEROTA: Maggie Haberman is coming up next. We're about to hear that.

BERMAN: All right. We begin with developments on embattled Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz. The New York Times reports Gaetz sought blanket preemptive pardons for himself and his congressional allies in the final weeks of the Trump administration. The reporter who broke that story joins us in just a moment.

It's not clear if Gaetz knew at the time about the Justice Department investigation and allegations of sex trafficking and prostitution. His spokesperson denies, he's asked if a preemptive pardon was related to the probe, man, the timing on that.

CAMEROTA: Meanwhile, the top coronavirus advisers say half of all adults in the U.S. will be vaccinated by this weekend, meaning they will have gotten at least one vaccination and thereby have some level of protection two weeks later.

At the same time, President Biden says we're still in a life-and-death battle with the virus. These five states on your screen in the red, New York, Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, now account for half of all new coronavirus cases.

BERMAN: We're going to begin though with the developments about Congressman Matt Gaetz. Joining us now, The New York Times Reporter and CNN Political Analyst Maggie Hagerman, who helped break the story in The Times about Gaetz asking for this preemptive pardon. Maggie, what was going on here?

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning to both of you. So, John, as you said, the timing is very strange on this. We know that Matt Gaetz both publicly talked about the idea of President Trump pardoning basically everybody under the sun. He said it on Fox News. He tweeted about that.

But then there was a private conversation with White House officials where he sought a blanket pardon, we're told, as well as a similar pardon for several congressional allies. The White House Counsel's Office and other top officials caught wind of this and put a stop to it very quickly. It was never really seriously considered. Several people in the White House considered it bizarre.

I'm told that people in the White House were not aware that Gaetz was under this specific investigation related to sex trafficking. However, as you say, the timing is worth noting, because at that point, Gaetz's associate, Joel Greenberg, this tax collector in Florida, had been indicted on charges related to sex trafficking.

And so Gaetz's folks deny one thing had to do with the other, but several Trump officials are now looking back at what took place and wondering if these things were related.

CAMEROTA: I'll quote him from the Fox News interview where Matt Gaetz was asking, he said, President Trump should pardon him, the Thanksgiving turkey, he should pardon everyone, from himself to administration officials, to Joe Exotic, to Matt Gaetz because his argument at the time was the left-wing mob is coming after you. But I know that you've spoken to people who also suggest that maybe he was suggesting this flurry of pardons to obscure the fact that he really wanted one for himself.

HABERMAN: That's right. We've heard from people who think, and, again, in hindsight that the pardons that he was requested. And our understanding is that in private conversations, it was more specifically about himself and a bunch of allies in Congress, that what he was doing was seeking any number of them so that it essentially masked that he was looking for one himself.

Again, we should say that he has denied -- his folks have denied that one thing had anything to do with the other. He has maintained his innocence. The timing is interesting.

BERMAN: Two points to make there. One, when he's claiming some left- wing mob investigation, it was Bill Barr's Justice Department that launched the federal probe -- first of all, got the charges against or the indictment against Joel Greenberg, his friend, but, second of all, apparently launched the investigation into Matt Gaetz. That's no left- wing mob, as far as we know.

And then second thing, Maggie, to that timing you're talking about there, his friend, Joel Greenberg, we have to believe Matt Gaetz knew about that case to be sure. I mean, there's very little dispute about that, is there? HABERMAN: There isn't. But, again, specifics, just to give the benefit of the doubt, because if somebody who has not been charged in terms of Matt Gaetz, is it possible that he was not fully aware of the details? Sure, it's possible.

But to your point, and as I said earlier, this had already taken place, this indictment, this is his close friend, he has connections to this friend, you know, the allegations related to those connections.

[07:05:06]

It's a stretch of the imagination to believe that Gaetz was completely unaware of what was happening in terms of himself or that he faced some threat potentially.

BERMAN: We know -- it's well-documented and everyone has seen just how far Matt Gaetz was willing to go to suck up to Donald Trump in Trump world, but I'm always curious what Trump world, specifically the president, really thought or thinks of Matt Gaetz. Is it reciprocal, the love?

HABERMAN: So the former president's first impulse, I've been told by several people after this story broke in The New York Times by my colleagues, Mike Schmidt and Katie Benner, that Gaetz is under investigation, his first impulse was that he wanted to defend Gaetz. You know, he's one of our people. Several of his advisers have told him that's a very bad idea, that the nature of what Gaetz is being investigated for is so serious that this is not something former President Trump should be out on a limb.

Remember, he does not on Twitter anymore, so it's not as if he can just go out and do what he wants. So far, they have been successful at keeping him away. Trump did like Gaetz. Gaetz was very a full-throated supporter of Trump. He was defending him during impeachment. He tried to defend him again during the second impeachment. Trump personally like him. Trump's staff has always had issues with him.

CAMEROTA: And now that we know about the investigation, some of Matt Gaetz's votes in Congress seem more curious. I mean, they were curious at the time. But now in the light of day, he was the only vote in 2017 against a human trafficking law, okay? Out of everybody in Congress, he was the only person who didn't like this human trafficking law.

And now, more recently, we know that he was one of only two congressmen to vote against this 2008 -- oh, no, more recent -- this vote against revenge porn.

HABERMAN: Alisyn, the nature of those votes, as you say, is racing lots of questions in hindsight. Certainly though in both cases, the revenge porn one, especially because he defended a former colleague, Katie Hill, a Democrat, who had photos of herself leaked publicly. I think she has now said thatif these claims about Gaetz are correct, that he should resign, that he was showing pictures in Congress, his colleagues, of naked women. But, relatedly, the child trafficking, the sex trafficking bill is really, really worth noting because this is an issue obviously that was bipartisan. It was bipartisan across the board in terms of him being the only one, and this is an issue that Republicans, in particular over the last few years, during the Trump, have pointed to over and over again. So his decision to vote against it really stands out.

BERMAN: Maggie, I want to talk about free speech, I want to talk about corporations, and I want to talk about how some politicians have viewed those issues for some time. Republicans like Mitch McConnell, for years and years and years, have argued that political cash is akin to free speech and that donations should be able to give -- corporations should be able to give what they want as the basis in the Citizens United Case, it's free speech, corporations get into the political process until the corporations start saying things apparently he doesn't like. Like, for instance, they don't like the Georgia voting law. So this is what Mitch McConnell is saying now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): If I were running a major corporation, I'd stay out of politics.

I'm not talking about political contributions. Most of them contribute to both sides. They have political action committees. That's fine. It's legal. It's appropriate. I support that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So we want your money, also we want your opinions unless we disagree with them? Is that the McConnell rule now in terms of free speech?

HABERMAN: It doesn't come as a natural look for him to criticize corporations, so I think that that's part of it. But to your point, he's somebody who has previously been supportive of the idea corporations giving political contributions. He's giving that as some kind of a carve-out. But if you're saying, stay out of politics except for your contributions, then you're basically saying, have no opinions, it's a free country, they are entitled.

Whether people agree with the Georgia law or not, these companies are entitled do what they want. That's how America works.

CAMEROTA: Maggie, wonderful to see you. We don't have time for you to rhapsodize along with John about my leaving, which I know you're --

HABERMAN: Where's my five minutes? Where's my five minutes?

CAMEROTA: I'm sorry, Maggie, we're out of time, we don't have time for that. And you can't get rid of me that easily because I will be seeing in the afternoons. It's great to see you.

HABERMAN: Excellent. Good.

CAMEROTA: Okay. Vaccinations in the U.S. continue at a breakneck pace.

[07:10:01]

19 percent of Americans are now fully vaccinated. Nearly one in three Americans have received at least one dose. But President Biden says it is still a life-and-death struggle, and he's urging Americans not to let their guard down now.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond is live at the White House for us. Jeremy?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. Even as the U.S. enters this next phase of the vaccinations with all American adults becoming eligible for the vaccine in less than two weeks, President Biden is urging Americans to continue following those public health protocols to try and prevent more deaths. He's also urging seniors that now is the time to get your shot.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: Let me be deadly earnest with you. We aren't at the finish line.

DIAMOND (voice over): President Biden pleading with Americans to stay vigilant as coronavirus cases are ticking up.

BIDEN: We still have a lot of work to do. We're still in a life-and- death race against this virus.

DIAMOND: Many states are rolling back restrictions, and some have eliminated mask mandates. Biden, who's called those moves premature, appealing directly to Americans to hold out a little longer and mask up until more people are vaccinated.

BIDEN: And as I've said before, we can have a safe happy 4th of July. The real question is how much death, disease and misery are we going to see between now and then.

DIAMOND: Biden announced on Tuesday more than 150 million vaccine doses have been administered in his first 75 days in office, putting his office on track to reach its increased goal of 200 million shots in arms in his first 100 days.

BIDEN: Everyone is going to be eligible before the month is out.

DIAMOND: Biden and Vice President Harris both visited vaccination sites on Tuesday after the administration announced all adults will be eligible to get vaccinated by April 19th, nearly two weeks earlier than expected.

BIDEN: No more confusing rules, no more confusing restrictions.

DIAMOND: As the vaccine floodgates open, Biden making a direct appeal to seniors and their families.

BIDEN: It's simple. Seniors, it's time for you to get vaccinated now. I also have a message for people under 65. If you know someone over 65 who has not gotten this life-saving vaccine, call them now. Work with them to get their shots this week or next.

DIAMOND: More than 75 percent of Americans over 65 have received at least one dose of the vaccine, and officials say by this weekend, half of all adults will have received at least one dose.

ANDY SLAVITT, SENIOR ADVISER TO WHITE HOUSE COVID-19 RESPONSE TEAM: We've really got to keep pushing because we've got to get closer and closer to that point where every adult who wants one can have a shot, and we think that's going to happen as we get into May.

DIAMOND: While more and more Americans are getting vaccinated, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki insisted the administration will not create a vaccine passport as proof of a shot.

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The government is not now nor will we be supporting a system that requires Americans to carry a credential.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DIAMOND (on camera): And that comment from the White House press secretary coming after New York became the first state last month to roll out its vaccine passport, giving access to events like concerts and other events.

Meanwhile, other states like Texas and Florida, going the opposite route, preventing localities from even enacting vaccine requirements.

And, Alisyn, we will miss you so much in the mornings, and I can't wait to watch your new show in the afternoons. Thank you.

CAMEROTA: I can't wait to have you on, Jeremy.

BERMAN: Jeremy was nervous that he was the reason you were leaving New Day.

CAMEROTA: No, it's not. It's John.

BERMAN: Right. I told him, no, it's not Jeremy.

CAMEROTA: Yes, no problem, Jeremy. Thank you very much.

Okay. So a brand-new troubling study finds that one-third of coronavirus survivors will suffer longer-term brain disease. What that means, we have the details next.

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[07:15:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SLAVITT: We're on track so that by the weekend, half of the adults in the country will have had their first shot. So that's the exact (ph) of where that we've come from when we got here January 20th, we were at about 8 percent. So it's getting easier. Part of it is because there's more supplies, part of it is because it's in more places, part of it is because there's more vaccinators.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Well, despite that progress with vaccines, President Biden stresses that we are not at the finish line of the pandemic.

Joining us now is CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta to tells us where we are in this marathon.

Sanjay, I think it's wonderful -- obviously, it's wonderful that half of all adults will be at least partially vaccinated by this weekend. That's a huge milestone. But, obviously, there's a great concern and risk for the other half of the country.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. I mean, that's basically laying it out perfectly. I mean, you know, at the same time that things are looking so optimistic, there are people who still have not been vaccinated, who are still at risk of getting sick themselves or potentially being sources of spread to other people. That's just the reality. So we are so close to the things, you know, getting much better, but you have to really think about the people who between now and the next couple of months still become infected, still potentially get very sick or, sadly, die. That could still happen so close to the end here.

But the vaccination sort of rollout that Andy Slavitt was talking about, this certainly progressed. It's interesting when we look at as a nation versus when we look at it state to state. For example, we have the graphic one that compare New York or you are in North Dakota, for example. We pick these two states because they are two states that are likely to get to a point where they will vaccinate all willing adults the fastest, within the next couple of months, but for different reasons.

New York is vaccinating really quickly. 6.6 percent were vaccinated just last week, and the willingness to be vaccinated, very high.

[07:20:00]

In South Dakota, they're vaccinating much more slowly but have a much higher degree of vaccine hesitancy. So as a result, for very differences reasons, they'll sort of end up at the same outcome. All willing adults will be vaccinated within the next couple of months. That's what you're sort of seeing play out around the country that's going to make a difference because you may have pockets of areas where you don't have as much of a proximity to herd immunity.

CAMEROTA: Sanjay, I have another related question. I'm seeing on social media, so, in other words, anecdotally, I don't know if you are as well, are you seeing half-vaccinated people still coming down with COVID? Is that happening? GUPTA: I have seen reports of people who have been vaccinated sometimes with one shot, sometimes even both shots still testing positive for the virus. There have been some reports of that. Now, that's not entirely surprising because, you know, while the vaccine is very good at preventing illness, it does seem to be good at preventing infection but not 100 percent. So it can happen.

What I think I'm not seeing, thankfully -- I don't know if you have, Alisyn -- people who have been vaccinated and then subsequently getting very sick. That is really what the vaccine was designed to do, to keep people from getting severely ill, requiring hospitalization or death. I have not seen that yet.

BERMAN: It prevents serious illness. That is where they're nearly 100 percent effective once you receive the vaccine.

We talk about the half of the population that isn't vaccinated yet and why even if the death rate is going down and maybe it will continue to go down, right, because we've really vaccinated the most vulnerable population, most susceptible to die, but people can still get it and it can still have serious consequences.

This new study in The Lancet is frightening, Sanjay, which is that a third of patients, according to the study published in The Lancet, who survive COVID are diagnosed with neurological or psychological conditions within six months of infection, anxiety in 17 percent, mood disorders found in 14 percent. Those are big numbers.

GUPA: Yes. I mean, so this is a growing body of evidence around what is happening post-COVID. What we first heard about with long-haulers was that people would have these persistent symptoms that would last a long time, and it did not seem to be correlated to the severity of illness they had in the first place, really important point.

And as I think you guys know, we've talked about this, other respiratory viruses do or sometimes associated with persistent lingering symptoms and even things like brain fog, but this seems to be more common and it seems to last more longer.

And now, this new study, as you mentioned, in The Lancet, again, about a third of people having these sorts of symptoms, they did seem to be more correlated with the severity of symptoms initially. So, if you have more severe symptoms, you're more likely to have some of these neuropsychiatric long-term impacts. Anxiety was the most common, but there were other things too, much more rare, but people developing things like ischemic stroke, Guillain-Barre syndrome, things like that.

There is a lot of research going on this are. This is where my world sort of collide, as you know. I mean, we saw some of this after SARS as well going back to 2003/2004. And, interestingly, at that point, I was talking to some of these researchers, they were looking at the endocrine system. Does this somehow affect your endocrine system, your thyroid hormones, other hormones that subsequently lead to some of these symptoms? They don't know that for sure yet. But this just gives you an idea of the avenues of research that are being pursued. CAMEROTA: And, Sanjay, quickly, I understand why there is so much anxiety because it's so unknown, you don't know how long you're going to be sick, you don't know if it's going to take a turn for the worse. This virus is so mysterious that, of course, it provokes anxiety. But I was interested to hear that the neurological symptoms and the psychological symptoms that we're talking about are different with COVID than they are with even, say, pneumonia or the flu or other things that cause the same symptoms people are mentally and psychologically worse with COVID.

GUPTA: Yes, I think that is absolutely true. That's what we're seeing. They've gone back and looked at it. First of all, again, respiratory viruses can cause some of these persistent symptoms. People may not have talked about it as much in the context of flu, but it does happen. But this does seem to be more severe, objective neuropsychiatric diagnoses and really persisting a lot longer.

Is this somehow affecting the way your body is making some of these hormones? We don't know yet. But, again, this is where researchers are really trying to focus their attention.

BERMAN: Sanjay, thank you very much for being with us this morning and every morning.

GUPTA: I'll see you next hour.

BERMAN: Yes, you will see us next hour. So I don't know if you want to say something to Alisyn both hours. I mean, she never gets sick of --

CAMEROTA: I think, yes, it's different (ph).

GUPTA: Alisyn, you're often the first face I see in the morning, you really are. I have more to say to you next hour, but you really inspire, I think, all of us to do our best work, to challenge us, to ask the good questions and so much more. So I want to talk to you just briefly next hour.

[07:25:00]

So we'll save it for that.

CAMEROTA: Sanjay, with a tease like that, I'll give you all the time you want next hour. This is going to be good. Thank you very much, Sanjay, for all you do.

BERMAN: What's wrong with this face? I don't know. I mean, there're two faces here.

CAMEROTA: Have I inspired you to do your best work? I mean, obviously, everything Sanjay has done this year, I didn't know I was at the root of it, but now I do.

BERMAN: Exactly.

Prosecutors soon expected to turn to George Floyd's cause of death. What will the medical examiner say? Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: The Derek Chauvin murder trial resume this morning as prosecutors prepare to turn the focus to the cause of death for George Floyd. Among the key witnesses expected to testify, the medical examiner who conducted the autopsy.

Joining us now is CNN Law Enforcement Charles Ramsey, he's the former Washington, D.C., police chief and former Philadelphia Police commissioner. Also with us, Channa Lloyd, she's a Managing Partner of the Cochran Firm in Orlando.

And, Channa, I want to start with you because there is a sense that the defense may have had its best day yesterday, that they may have made some inroads or at least had some moments that may have raised questions with the jurors.

[07:30:09]