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Sen. Manchin Says He Opposes Reconciliation, Backs Filibuster; CDC Director: U.K. Variant Now Dominant Strain in U.S.; Prosecution to Call More Witnesses in Chauvin Trial. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired April 08, 2021 - 06:00   ET

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

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Joe Manchin stating yet again that we're not going to do anything with the filibuster.

[05:59:27]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If I was Joe Biden I would support getting rid of the filibuster.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The president going through these executive actions that they believe are going to stem some of the gun violence that we've seen.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't need to wait another minute to take common-sense steps that will save the lives in the future.

NICK WATT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): That more contagious coronavirus variant first found in the U.K. now dominates here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All the more reason to get vaccinated as quickly as possible.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Hang in there a bit longer to get each day more and more people by the millions getting vaccinated.

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ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It's Thursday, April 8, 6 a.m. here in New York. I'm John Berman, along with Erica Hill this morning.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Nice to see you this morning.

BERMAN: Good morning to you.

So you know how Dos Equis has the most interesting man in the world, the guy with the beard? Right?

HILL: I know all about it.

BERMAN: All right. I know you do. All right. How about the most powerful man in the world? Or person? This morning it might not be Joe Biden or Speaker Pelosi or Angela Merkel or Xi Jinping. It might be West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin. And the most powerful man in the world, at least in Washington, Joe Manchin, has just put himself smack dab in the middle of the president's efforts to pass the $2 trillion infrastructure bill.

The Democratic senator, Democrat mind you, indicated overnight he is opposed to passing key legislation on strict party votes, that he is alarmed by that process.

And since we haven't heard any Republican saying they support the White House infrastructure plan just yet. That puts it in serious, serious peril. Later this morning, the president will announce his first executive actions on guns in response to the latest flurry of mass shootings.

HILL: Meantime, the United States reporting more than 70,000 new coronavirus cases. Hospitalizations, a key indicator that we look at here, climbing to their highest level in a month, and the CDC confirming that the highly-contagious variant which was first identified in the United Kingdom is now the most common strain of the coronavirus here in the United States.

Now, despite that, the CDC director also saying overnight she does expect all children will be back in classrooms by September.

Let's begin this morning with Jeremy Diamond, who's live at the White House. Jeremy, good morning.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Erica.

Senator Joe Manchin may not have mentioned President Joe Biden by name in his latest op-ed in "The Washington Post," but there's no question that Senator Manchin, the Democrat from West Virginia has just made the president's job that much harder, Joe Manchin not only reiterating his opposition to the filibuster to eliminating the filibuster or reforming the filibuster.

But also, saying that he believes it is dangerous to continue using this budget reconciliation process and passing key legislation along party lines.

Let me read you just a small excerpt from this op-ed. Senator Manchin writes, "There is no circumstance in which I will vote to eliminate or weaken the filibuster. I simply do not believe budget reconciliation should replace regular order in the Senate."

He goes on to say that it would set a new and dangerous precedent if Democrats continued to move forward by using budget reconciliation as the norm instead of regular order in the Senate, which requires not a simple majority of 50 votes plus the vice president or 51 senators but 60 votes in order to proceed on legislation.

Now, why is this key? That's because Democrats have been eyeing this budget reconciliation process, which they used to pass that $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill, now as they look towards passing this massive $2.2 trillion infrastructure proposal that President Joe Biden just laid out over the last week.

Now, to be clear, Senator Manchin did not explicitly say I will not vote for an infrastructure package if, indeed, it moves forward through the budget reconciliation process, but he is setting a clear marker here and setting a very clear signal, not only to Democrats and Republicans in the Senate but also to the White House. That he would like to see this move forward, very much wants to see this move forward in a bipartisan manner.

How exactly that gets accomplished, though, is a whole other question, given the fact that Republicans so far have really rejected not only the size and scope of President Biden's proposal here but also disagree with the ways to pay for it.

The president so far has said that he wants to work with Republicans on Capitol Hill, but those areas of agreement really have yet to actually reveal themselves in any significant way.

Now, today we will also see President Biden talking about some steps that he's going to be taking today to act on gun violence in the United States. He's going to take measures to tighten restrictions on the so-called ghost guns, as well as those pistol stabilizing braces, one of which was used in that shooting in Boulder, Colorado.

The president also nominating a new ATF director to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, who is a gun control advocate and worked very closely with former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who was shot, of course, in that horrific shooting years ago in Arizona -- John.

BERMAN: Jeremy Diamond at the White House this morning. Please keep us posted.

Joining us now, political analyst Alex Burns. He's a national political correspondent for "the New York Times." First of all, congratulations, Alex, to you and M.J. I haven't talked to you since the birth of your child. Beautiful.

ALEX BURNS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Thank you.

BERMAN: I want to read you what Joe Manchin rote overnight. "I simply do believe budget reconciliation should replace regular order in the Senate."

Now, that sounds like a technical line, and I want to play somewhat of a drinking game here. Without saying the words "reconciliation" or "filibuster," please explain to us why this is now such a major problem for the infrastructure bill, which the president has said he's going to focus on almost exclusively for the next several months?

[06:05:16]

BURNS: Well, John, Democrats in the Senate and, really, throughout the party have been looking to a certain legislative procedure that's used for spending and taxes only as a way of escaping the Republicans' influence over the Senate and its sort of the required legislative super majority to proceed on major legislation.

I think I did OK in avoiding the buzz words there.

But, look, there has been a sense among Democrats, particularly after the parliamentarian rule last week that they can use that procedure more often than they previously believed that they could, that maybe they can just ram through a whole bunch of trophy legislation: major, major priorities, including but not limited to infrastructure on a purely party line basis, the same way they did with the recovery plan.

There were a lot of Democrats who were excited about that possibility, because they simply do not believe the Republican Party is interested in doing business and having serious negotiations around their priorities.

And what Joe Manchin is very, very clearly saying now -- and I think it bears sort of a dwelling on, John -- that he has said publicly this many times before, that his strong preference and perhaps his overwhelming preference is that they work with Republicans, that they make concessions to the other side in order to get things done across the aisle. And there remains, needless to say, enormous skepticism among most Democrats that that's a viable legislative strategy.

HILL: You know, to your point, Alex, the fact that this is not the first time we've heard this from Joe Manchin, right? What's behind, then, if you know, the decision to put this out there in this op-ed? What is that changing in terms of the message from Joe Manchin, if anything?

BURNS: Well, there has clearly been, Erica, accelerating momentum on the Democratic side behind this idea of, Let's basically use reconciliation for everything.

BERMAN: Drink.

BURNS: Anything that we can conceivably call budget adjacent, let's ram it into a reconciliation bill and proceed from there, whether it's D.C. statehood or certain immigration provisions, just measures that, in the past, would not have been seen as natural fits for that budget process.

And I think what Manchin is clearly indicating is that that's not an approach that he is enthusiastic about taking right now.

I think one of the big questions for Manchin, and I don't expect him to answer in, necessarily, in a blunt way today, and it might not be answerable right now, is is it a red line for him that he doesn't want to use reconciliation on the broad Democratic agenda? Or is this mostly an emphatic statement that he wants to try other avenues and exhaust those avenues first? That if he were to find himself in a couple of months in a position

where it's clear Republicans are not interested in doing major infrastructure legislation, and he needs to choose between proceeding on a party line basis or not proceeding at all, I think it's an open question what he would do. But it's very clear that he's not prepared to proceed on a purely party line basis tomorrow.

BERMAN: Well, you just got to what I think is the big question here, Alex, which is how far will Joe Manchin push this? How far will Joe Manchin push this? Will he be the person who stands in the way of Joe Biden getting the infrastructure bill? What's your hunch?

BURNS: Look, I think he has -- as much as he has made so many emphatic statements about preferring bipartisanship, he has also made some pretty emphatic statements about wanting Biden to be a successful president.

And so I think on something like infrastructure, if I were the White House, I would be relatively optimistic that you can get to a good place with Joe Manchin eventually. Because it's valuable to his home state of Virginia [SIC]. It is not a super-divisive or controversial sort of second Democrat policy proposals.

But on the wider set of ideas that maybe could be shoehorned into a reconciliation vehicle, I'd be much more pessimistic.

HILL: You know, I do want to get your take quickly on the fact that we're supposed to hear from President Biden on some executive action when it comes to guns, gun control. This is not the only thing we're going to hear about today when it comes to guns. That, too, is another indication of just how difficult it is, I think, to get things done in Washington right now.

BURNS: Absolutely. You know, the -- the image that the president is going to project today and the substance of what he's ordering is a clear indication that he wants to be seen as very active and aggressive on gun control.

And the man he has chosen to head ATF certainly sends a very, very favorable signal to gun control groups.

But it's just really clear right now that there's not a great path in the House and Senate, really in the Senate, for gun control legislation. That the White House doesn't seem to want to spend a whole lot of time on political capital, driving at something that is very unlikely to pass.

BERMAN: Alex Burns, great to see you this morning. Great job playing our games with us.

BURNS: Thanks a lot.

BERMAN: And also explaining what's so important about this, because the infrastructure bill is so important to the administration and to a lot of Americans, as well. Thank you.

BURNS: Thanks a lot.

BERMAN: So the CDC says that the B.1.1.7 variant that we see in the United Kingdom is now the most dominant strain of coronavirus here in the United States. What does this mean for the race between the vaccines and the variants? Next.

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DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: Trends are increasing in both case numbers and hospitalizations. Across the country we're hearing clusters of cases associated with daycare centers and youth sports.

Hospitals are seeing more and more younger adults, those in their 30s and 40s, admitted with severe disease. Based on our most recent estimates from CDC surveillance, the B.1.1.7 variant is now the most common lineage circulating in the United States.

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[06:15:10]

HILL: The director of the CDC there confirming the more transmissible variant first identified in the U.K., the B.1.1.7 variant, is now dominant in the U.S.

Overnight, more than 70,000 new cases of coronavirus added in this country, and hospitalizations are now at the highest point in a month.

Joining us now, Dr. Chris Pernell. She's a public health physician and fellow at the American College of Preventative Medicine.

Doctor, always good to see you. You know, I just want to pick up on hospitalizations there, because we just heard, too, from Dr. Walensky that younger adults are now seeing more hospitalizations. What should we take into account there, because more people are vaccinated, right?

DR. CHRIS T. PERNELL, FELLOW, AMERICAN COLLEGE OF PREVENTATIVE MEDICINE: Yes, yes. Morning, Erica. That is something we need to focus on.

What we know about these mutant strains, in particular, the B.1.1.7 strain, is that they're more transmissible, meaning that they're more contagious. They can be upwards of 50 percent more contagious.

If it's more contagious, it's going to spread amongst those who most likely are not vaccinated and not protected. The more transmissible it is, you will see an increase in hospitalizations and, typically, a later increase in death.

So definitely, this gives us fuel -- this gives us fuel to ensure that our vaccines are getting deep into community. This is probably what drove the president to update or actually, let's say, hasten when we wanted to have vaccines available from all 16-years and older up to April 19 instead of May 1. We definitely have to get ahead of these variants.

BERMAN: Between Erica and me, we've got soccer, baseball, lacrosse covered, in terms of being parents of kids playing youth sports. So when I hear that there are clusters now inside youth sports, it really concerns me, because it's something we haven't seen much in the last year.

Why -- why is this happening now, really for the first time, and what are the longer-term implications of that?

PERNELL: John, I think we should be concerned. I'm having these conversations with friends. I'm having these conversations with family.

Again, the virus is looking for a way to survive. The virus cannot survive without having a host. As you get these more contagious strains -- and we know that B.1.1.7, or the U.K. variant, is the predominant variant in the United States. The virus is going to look for a host so that it can survive, and those hosts, unfortunately, are those who are unvaccinated, and our youths are unvaccinated.

And especially since you have states reopening, not just youth sports or extracurricular activities, you have people trying to resume what they consider to be their normal life. You give an opportunity for people to get together, people are not usually going to practice that safe distancing of at least six feet when they're together. And so unfortunately, our youth and young adults are being left susceptible.

But we can control that. We can control that by following the data, following the science, slowing down that participation or putting in as much safeguards as possible. That's what I'm telling my family and friends.

BERMAN: As May 1, you know it's interesting. Our colleague Kaitlan Collins asked Dr. Fauci yesterday at the briefing, what was -- I'm paraphrasing, obviously -- a marker that we could all look at for when we'll know that we're sort of past this.

And he said, look, there's no number that I can point to. We'll know when we see a dramatic drop in cases, which is obviously, the opposite of what we're seeing now.

So given the COVID fatigue, given this understandable desire for some sort of metric that we can look at and say that's the magic number, how do we keep people engaged in these public health measures?

PERNELL: It's -- it's a challenge. I'm not going to underestimate that challenge. The number that I'm looking at, I'm looking at that seven- day average for new cases. And that it's always flirting between 63,000 and 64,000. And you just announced at the start of this segment that we've added over 70,000 new cases in this past day. That as a baseline is too high.

In order for us to get this pandemic under control, in order for us to be in a safe position or, as I like to say, get safe and to stay safe, we need those baseline cases, those baseline new infections to dramatically increase.

In order for that to happen, we need more people vaccinated. And those who are not eligible to be vaccinated, 16 and under, we need their parents, we need school systems, we need youth sports, those things to keep in mind that, in order for all of us to achieve community immunity, we all have a role to play.

And I want us to have a very robust summer. And when I say a very robust summer, I'm looking at June; I'm looking at July. There are just some hard decisions and some vigilant choices that we need to make throughout the month of April and into the month of May.

BERMAN: Here's the thing, though. I think that, as a society, we've already made the choices. I mean, we know what's happening. Places are opening up. People are going out.

So if you can put your prognosticator hat on here, just what's going to happen? I mean, we know what people are doing right now. We know the vaccination rate. So where will we be in a month if things continue at their current pace?

[06:20:09]

PERNELL: Look, John, we have some evidence of what can happen. Look at what's happening across five states in the United States: Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey.

More than 43 percent of the new cases are coming from those five states. That's likely due to that dominant B.1.1.7 strain. Yet, those states are only responsible for roughly 22 percent of the American population.

I think it's the stories. It's the stories about those type of encounters, how so few states can be actually driving the percentage of new cases. And those states, looking at their practices, families in those states, households in those states, saying what can I do so that I know that our family doesn't become an example, that we don't experience a loss?

I continue to see on my social media feeds very young adults, very young black and Latino adults who are losing their lives. I see that in our hospitals. I see that across our state here in New Jersey.

And so other states that have a positive or a downward trend, they should look at what's happening in those states where we're seeing rises.

And we can control this. We've proven that before. Whenever the numbers uptick, we push down on the gas, meaning that we say, whoa, let's vaccinate more; and that we pull back on our activities. Those are the two actions that need to happen in tandem. And we can do this. I know that we can do this. And this is what we must do so that we can redefine some sort of normal in our country.

BERMAN: Dr. Chris Pernell, thank you for being with us this morning.

PERNELL: Thank you.

HILL: Derek Chauvin's defense team is zeroing in on George Floyd's drug use. Is it relevant? And what can you expect today at the trial? We're going to break all that down for you next.

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[06:26:08]

BERMAN: Testimony resumes in just a few hours in the Derek Chauvin murder trial. In court Wednesday, lawyers pressed the lead investigator about what George Floyd said about drugs as he was pinned to the ground with a knee to his neck minutes before he was killed.

CNN's Adrienne Broaddus live in Minneapolis with the latest -- Adrienne.

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, good morning to you. The prosecution continues to call police officers and expert witnesses to build its case.

A key moment came yesterday when one of the witnesses changed his testimony over what he heard Floyd say when a video clip was played.

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BROADDUS (voice-over) Use-of-force expert Sergeant Jody Stiger testified Wednesday, telling jurors former Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin used, quote, "deadly force" on George Floyd last May.

SGT. JODY STIGER, USE OF FORCE EXPERT: My opinion was that no force should have been used once he was in that position.

BROADDUS: Also taking the witness stand, senior special agent James Reyerson, who investigated Floyd's death. The defense played him a short clip of police body camera footage.

ERIC NELSON, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I'm going to ask you, sir, to listen to Mr. Floyd's voice.

GEORGE FLOYD: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

NELSON: Did you hear that?

SENIOR SPECIAL AGENT JAMES REYERSON, INVESTIGATED FLOYD'S DEATH: Yes, I did.

NELSON: Did it appear that Mr. Floyd said, "I ate too many drugs?:

REYERSON: Yes, it did.

BROADDUS: But when the prosecution presented a longer version of the same video, Reyerson said he heard Mr. Floyd say something different.

MATTHEW FRANK, PROSECUTOR: Having heard it in context, are you able to tell what Mr. Floyd is saying there? REYERSON: Yes. I believe Mr. Floyd was saying, "I ain't do no drugs."

BROADDUS: The defense focusing on one of its central arguments, saying the crowd at the scene was a perceived threat and distracted Chauvin during Floyd's arrest.

NELSON: And when someone starts threatening you, is it a possible, possibility that an officer can view that as a potential deadly assault is about to happen? That's what they're trained.

STIGER: Yes, that's what they're trained.

BROADDUS: When questioned about the possible influence of the crowd on Chauvin's actions, Stiger told prosecutors this.

STIGER: I did not perceive them as being a threat.

FRANK: And why is that?

STIGER: Because they were merely filming and they were -- most of it was their concern for Mr. Floyd.

BROADDUS: The defense also argued Chauvin's knee was sometimes on Floyd's shoulder and not only his neck. Prosecutors pushing back.

STEVE SCHLEICHER, PROSECUTOR: Is the risk related to the pressure on the neck or the pressure on the body?

STIGER: it's the pressure on the body. Any additional pressure on the body complicates breathing more so than if there was no pressure at all.

BROADDUS: Three forensic experts also testified Wednesday, discussing pills found in both Floyd's vehicle and the police squad car.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That the squad collected from that pill, I obtained a single source male DNA profile that matches George Floyd.

BROADDUS: After the eighth day of testimony, an attorney for the Floyd family called the defense's presentation a distraction.

BENJAMIN CRUMP, ATTORNEY FOR GEORGE FLOYD'S FAMILY: They're going to blame everybody and everything except Derek Chauvin. And we can't be distracted by these innuendos and these allegations to try to distract us from what really happened.

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BROADDUS: Meanwhile, Chauvin is charged with second- and third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

Another key moment that could come later this week is when the Hennepin County medical examiner takes the stand. The medical examiner is the person who conducted the autopsy, and the medical examiner will be able to tell us Floyd's cause of death -- John.

BERMAN: All right. Adrienne Broaddus, thank you very much.

Joining us now, CNN legal analyst Jennifer Rodgers. She's a former federal prosecutor. So, Jen, "I ate too many drugs. I ain't do no drugs." Why was that such an important moment?