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WWII Rosie The Riveters Get Long-Awaited Recognition; House Panel Wants Pay Raise For Troops Amid Recruiting Crisis; Measles Outbreaks Threaten Elimination Status In U.S. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired April 12, 2024 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, eight decades after women fill the critical labor gap Rosie the Riveters have at long last earned the top civilian honor for their wartime efforts. Dozens of original Rosie's, as they're called traveled to Washington this week to receive the Congressional Gold Medal, sporting red and white polka dotted scarves tied the iconic recruitment poster from 1942. Take a listen to what one Rosie said on Wednesday's ceremony.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAE KRIER, AN ORIGINAL ROSIE THE RIVETER: Up until 1941, it was a man's world. They didn't know how capable us women were, did they? We're proud. We're so proud of the women and young girls who are following in our lead. I think that's one of the greatest things we've left behind is what we've done for women.

My last thought is remember these four little words, we can do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: What incredible Americans they are this is just one part and a series of efforts to preserve those women's heroic stories during World War II. John?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: That was awesome.

SIDNER: So awesome, right? Yeah. All right, well, on the subject of maybe getting what they deserve. This morning, some U.S. servicemembers and their families could get a pay raise and other new benefits. A bipartisan House panel just put out its report with a recommendation after looking at the quality of life in the military. This came out after concerns about recruitment.

That panel from the House Armed Services Committee is led by the subcommittee Chair Don Bacon of Nebraska and the Ranking Member Chrissy Houlahan from Pennsylvania. They are both with me now. And I'm not going to lie. Anytime we can speak to a Democrat and Republican at the same time, I feel like an angel gets its wings. So we're excited about this.

Representative Houlahan, let me just start with you. You call this one of the most exciting days of the 118th Congress, that might not be such a high bar, but be that as it may, why are you so excited? What's in this?

REP. CHRISSY HOULAHAN (D-PA): Well, we have to celebrate this. This is, as you mentioned, an example of us at our best working together as Democrats and Republicans to help the very people who serve us and who are willing to die for us. Those men and women who are in uniform. And this is a really exciting culmination of nine months' worth of work together.

A report that is expansive, you mentioned pay, but it also is spousal employment, it's also childcare, its health care, its housing access, all of those things that allow for us to honor correctly, those who serve us every day in uniform. I'm very, very excited about the opportunities to follow through on this now.

BERMAN: Chairman Bacon, what else is in this and when do you think it can get passed through?

REP. DON BACON (R-NE): Well, first of all, we had to identify a problem, we have a lot of our listed folks around SNAP, rely on food banks, the barracks, the dormitories are getting failing grades, our spouses are the leading demographic in America for being unemployed, I can just go on and on.

So we recommended, it was a 15% pay raise for E1 through E4, significant pay raise that will get them above that threshold, so they won't have to rely on stamp or food banks. Now we're going to put a lot of money into dormitories and barracks. The military has been subtracting 5% from their housing allowance. I don't think that's right, we authorized it, allowed it to happen, we're going to shut the door on that. And make sure that people are getting 100% of their housing allowance.

And we're going to work on day-care to get more workers there so we can have 100% occupancy there. Right now, we're limited by how many people are working. We're going to work on health care, people shouldn't have to wait two months to get specialty care for example. We're going to continue to work with their chambers of commerce, to help get our spouses employed for those who want to be right when they do a new move.

So there's a lot of things in this report. And I'm excited to be a part of it. By the way, I want to praise my - my co-leader here. Chrissy Houlahan has done a fantastic job. It was a total bipartisan effort. And we're very proud of it.

BERMAN: So I mean, I can think of a day not long ago where you guys would come on this morning, and it would be a sure thing that this would get passed through. I don't know what a sure thing is anymore necessarily, in Congress. So - so Representative Houlahan, how confident are you that you can get all these measures through?

HOULAHAN: Pretty darn confident and let me tell you why. The NDAA, which is the annual Defense Authorization Act has happened consistently for more than six decades. And that's one of the very few, I can't even name another piece of legislation where that is the case. And so I have hope going in that we have opportunities, but also our chairman and our ranking member, both Democrats and Republicans have supported the work of this panel, and has committed that it will go in basically as the founding body or the grounding work of this year's NDAA. And that's a huge commitment.

I got the chance to present it to our caucus yesterday, the preliminary founding - findings of it and I think it was very well received. When you're talking about people who are on SNAP benefits, as Don mentioned, who are unemployed at the rate 20 something percent I think it really resonates with people particularly at this time when we are in peril I think from a national security standpoint.

[08:35:00]

BERMAN: Look, we're lucky we got you both together this morning, not just because you're a Democrat and Republican because you actually have a vote on an important rule in just a few minutes. It has to do with reauthorizing the FISA surveillance. You know, Chairman Bacon to you, look, I mean, this rule got suck the other day, and on the subject of things that almost never happened that used to almost never happen, how much control do you think that speaker Johnson has over your conference this morning?

BACON: Well, the norms have integrated unfortunately. For 15 years, I believe we've never had a rule vote go down. When you had a majority of the - majority for a speaker, you've never taken down a speaker. We've never had to vacate the chair and that's happened. Now we have folks campaigning against each other. The norms have been violated here. And I don't think it's been good for the institution. Probably - it's not good for either party, frankly.

I think today that we're bringing this bill back up. It's needed. I believe that people are confused between 702 FISA versus Article I FISA, two different things. We need to have FISA to track foreign terrorists, to know what Putin is doing, what President Xi is doing. It's in our national security interest that we get this done. And we built in 51. additional protections to protect folks' Fourth Amendment rights.

So this is a better bill. It's a good bill. We need to get it done. But we have a one seat majority and the - and with a one seat majority with 218 or 219 votes. It's very tough to keep control this conference. I think Speaker Johnson is doing the very best he can you.

BERMAN: Chairman, just very quickly, you said people are confused about what the FISA 702 does. Do you think they're confused because Donald Trump tweeted yesterday, that FISA 702 was used to spy on him when it wasn't 702 at all?

BACON: I think there was a bit of that. He was referring to actually Article I FISA, which is different. And I think it was a chance for us to educate everyone. 702 FISA is targeting foreign enemies, adversaries. Article I FISA is used by the FBI or DOJ for investigations, and I think it is confusing because they both have the word FISA and, and so I feel like we've cleared that up. But I'm not sure how this vote will go under or how I'm voting. And

that's all I can worry about.

HOULAHAN: This bill must pass bill, it's essential.

BERMAN: Go on.

HOULAHAN: I just was saying that this bill must pass. I'm a member of the Intelligence Committee. And this has been the bulk of the work of this committee this last year or so. And I'm very worried that we are not going to be able to vote for the bill. And so I'm looking forward for the opportunity for it to finally cross the finish line. The Fourth time's the charm, I hope.

BERMAN: All right, Representative Bacon and Representative Houlahan, I really I can't thank you both for coming on and talking about this bipartisan effort you are doing for U.S. troops. Thank you so much for being here.

BACON: Thank you.

HOULAHAN: Thank you.

SIDNER: It is nice to see cooperation for once. Thank you, John. All right. An alarming warning from the CDC, as measles cases continue to surge. The disease, by the way, has been considered eliminated here in the U.S. for more than two decades. But that could soon change because of these recent spikes in cases across the entire country.

CNN's Jacqueline Howard is joining us now. Jacqueline, what is going on?

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: Sarah, that is the big question here. So far this year, we've seen more than 100 measles cases reported across the country. This is in 17 different states and New York City. And as you said, in the year 2000, we eliminated the measles virus here in the U.S. That was a huge public health achievement. And we were able to do that because of high vaccination coverage.

But recently, we've seen declines in vaccinations, many outbreaks are occurring in pockets of communities with low vaccination rates. And just this week, health officials warned we need to do more to make sure people are getting vaccinated to rapidly investigate new cases because Sara, according to the CDC, if the measles outbreak continues for a year or more, we could lose our elimination status.

And that's what's concerning here. We're only in the month of April for this year. And we already have 113 cases in the United States. That's way more than what we saw in all of last year when there were 58 total cases for 2023. Another thing that puts this in perspective from 2020 to 2024, there were about 300 measles cases here in the U.S.

29% of all of those cases, so almost a third occurred just recently, in the first quarter of this year. And nearly all of those cases were in people who were unvaccinated or didn't know their vaccination status, Sara and we know the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. Two doses of the vaccine is 97% effective against the measles virus. That's why it's so important to make sure that we have that high vaccination coverage across the country, Sara.

[08:40:00]

SIDNER: Yeah, it sounds like it's the vaccination coverage that is the main issue here. People resistant to doing that. And I've heard of people having measles parties, for their kids, but kids can get really, really, really sick. And I don't think people realize just how bad it is. How should they be protecting themselves? Is there anything else?

HOWARD: Yeah, I mean, it can be deadly and really getting vaccinated is the most important thing and also looking out for symptoms. If you have a young child who's not vaccinated. Symptoms that are cold, like fever, or that signature measles rash, Sara.

SIDNER: All right, Jacqueline Howard, thank you so much for that update, John.

BERMAN: All right. This morning, we're asking you questions about what the funeral plans might be for O.J. Simpson who died of prostate cancer at the age of 76. With us now is Jean Casarez and Jean, you were just telling me, I mean, obviously, there was a murder trial for O.J. Simpson. Then there was the wrongful death trial, but then there was also the criminal trial in Las Vegas ultimately, where he was convicted.

You covered that every day every day.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I was there and that was a life felony kidnapping in Las Vegas in Nevada. And he was out on bail. So he was in the hallways during breaks. He was talking with people in the gallery, anyone very down to earth very nice. When he found out I was an USC Trojan, he really liked me and wanted to talk to me a lot. But it was a far different person, a humble person I saw then that wild bronco chase in the mid 90s.

That was the beginning of it all. I think millions in this country watched that white Bronco stormed the streets of Los Angeles up and down. While law enforcement was saying that they were out for O.J. Simpson. He was going to be charged with two counts of first degree murder. It was that Los Angeles case that took the country by storm. Cameras were in the courtroom. So one of the first times people could watch a courtroom in action with that trial from their living rooms.

Bob Costas, who was a friend but also had worked with O.J. Simpson. When that wild bronco Chase was going on, he almost spoke with O.J. He spoke to CNN. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOB COSTAS, SPORTS COMMENTATOR: O.J. and Al then as part of small talk, say, we tried to call you from the back of the Bronco and I inquired why, why would you call me in that moment. And his statement was. They were - the press was on me not so much about this, but about my whole reputation and my whole life. And in effect, he wanted me to act as a character witness for him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: And once he was acquitted in that trial, he led a bit of life he moved to Florida, of course, that he was found liable in a civil suit, but then came criminal charges, kidnapping, armed robbery, Las Vegas, life felony. He was there. He was convicted. And he pleaded for justice at his sentencing. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

O.J. SIMPSON, AMERICAN FOOTBALL PLAYER & FELON: No, I wasn't there to hurt anybody. I just wanted my personal things and I realized I was stupid. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to steal anything from anybody. And I didn't know I was doing anything illegal. I thought I was confronting friends.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: He was sentenced to 33 years he served them at Lovelock penitentiary up in northern Nevada. He went before the parole board. That was public and he was released after nine years.

BERMAN: You know, quite an odyssey, an American Odyssey as I said, we're still waiting to learn the funeral plans. Obviously we're all thinking about the Goldmans this morning also. People who lost loved ones.

CASAREZ: Very difficult time right now for them.

BERMAN: Very.

CASAREZ: They still want answers.

BERMAN: Jean Casarez, thank you so much for being with us. So would you rather be in bed right now than at work? That reality might be closer than you think. We got major developments seriously in the push for a four day workweek.

Donald Trump's stoking fears that Christianity is under attack. Pastors are fighting back and speaking out about why they see this as a real threat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The rhetoric that we're hearing a lot from loudmouth, MAGA preachers, is leading us towards the possibility of no holds barred warfare. We really do think that democracy is at stake in this election.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) SIDNER: Now to a story you'll only see here on CNN. There is church,

there is state and then there are the MAGA movements. Blurred Lines that literally sometimes likened Donald Trump to Jesus Christ. And now church leaders are fighting back. CNN's Donnie O'Sullivan explores what's going on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Your t shirt says Jesus Christ 24.

SHARON MANDERS, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Yes.

O'SULLIVAN: Is he on the ballot?

MANDERS: He's not on the ballot. But Trump is so doggone close.

O'SULLIVAN: Do you believe America is a Christian country?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were founded on Christianity, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I still believe it's a Christian country.

O'SULLIVAN: Are you a Christian?

MANDERS: Yes, I am. And I don't like what's going on with what they're trying to do to us.

O'SULLIVAN: What are they trying to do?

MANDERS: Well, they're just trying to silence us.

O'SULLIVAN: Are Christians under attack?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

O'SULLIVAN: America's Founding Fathers intentionally separated church and state. But Trump and some of his most vocal supporters have tried to blur those lines.

MICHAEL FLYNN, FORMER U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: We are going to have one nation under God which we must. We have to have one nation under God and one religion under God.

O'SULLIVAN: This vision of America is known as Christian nationalism, a belief that America is a Christian nation and that Christianity deserves a privileged place in the American government. What I'll hear at events is the founding fathers were Christian. America was built off Christian values.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why then, is Jesus nor Christianity mentioned in the Constitution?

O'SULLIVAN: Trump has seized on Christian nationalism and is feeding into it. From speeches. DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL

CANDIDATE: We are a nation that is hostile to liberty, freedom, faith, and even God.

O'SULLIVAN: To hooking a $60 Bible.

TRUMP: I'm proud to endorse and encourage you to get this Bible.

O'SULLIVAN: A Bible that includes the U.S. Constitution and lyrics of a Lee Greenwood song.

[08:50:00]

TRUMP: How any Christian can vote for a Democrat? Christian are a person of faith, a person of faith, how you can vote for a Democrat is crazy.

O'SULLIVAN: Trump is stoking fears that Christianity is under attack, and only he can save us.

TRUMP: But no one will be touching the cross of Christ under the Trump administration.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To use Christianity to control that if you don't see Christianity and Christ the way we see him, then you are not truly Christian. And if you're not truly Christian, then you are not truly American.

REV. JOSEPH JACKSON, MILWAUKEE INNER-CITY CONGREGATIONS ALLIED FOR HOPE: America is a country that has Christians are part of it. Christian nationalism is not Christian at all.

O'SULLIVAN: Pastors Jackson, Jacobsen and Shaw (ph) are part of a campaign here in Milwaukee that is trying to fight back against Christian nationalism. Why is Christian nationalism in your view such a threat?

JACKSON: It is a threat because it simply is exclusive.

REV. DENNIS JACOBSEN, MILWAUKEE INNER-CITY CONGREGATIONS ALLIED FOR HOPE: Can you really with a straight face, look at that life, teachings, way and death of Jesus and line that up with the correlates of Christian nationalism, anti-Muslim, racist, anti-Democratic, I mean, it just doesn't work.

O'SULLIVAN: Polling shows Americans different on the role of Christianity in government. A minority would support the government declaring Christianity, the country's national religion.

JACOBSEN: You can't have a multicultural democracy and have a privileged religion. It doesn't work.

O'SULLIVAN: Do you think the laws in this country, government should be based on Christianity? Or is it just totally separate?

WAYNE CLATT, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Definitely, we should put Christ back into the country where he belongs, and the country would grow a lot stronger.

O'SULLIVAN: What does that look like though putting Christ back into the country?

CLATT: Put God back into the church, put God back into the White House where he belongs?

O'SULLIVAN: 44% of Americans say the Bible should have at least some influence on U.S. law.

Do you think is America a Christian country?

MANDERS: I believed that. Growing up I did.

O'SULLIVAN: Yeah. Founded as a Christian country?

MANDERS: Yes. It was founded as a Christian country.

O'SULLIVAN: But obviously in the Constitution there is that separation of church and state.

MANDERS: Yes. But then there's also always let - when I went to public school. We were allowed to pray.

O'SULLIVAN: When you say Christianity is under attack in America, you're talking about in the schools they're teaching -

MANDERS: Not so much in the schools, but just, I just can't come up with anything right now. But I think the biggest thing is, I just don't trust Joe Biden.

O'SULLIVAN: Some of these fears are fueled by misinformation.

TRUMP: And what the hell was Biden thinking when he declared Easter Sunday to be Trans Visibility Day?

O'SULLIVAN: International Transgender Visibility Day takes place every year on March 31. This year, Easter Sunday also happened to fall on that day.

MANDERS: I think more that Christians are going to be discriminated against under Biden in the second term.

O'SULLIVAN: How would you - what do you mean by that?

MANDERS: By making yesterday which was the worldwide Crichton celebration of the resurrection, Transgender Day. That was quite a slap in the face.

O'SULLIVAN: I will just say that the days - they've had the Trans Awareness Day on the same date, the past few years, that just happened that this year, it fell on Easter Sunday.

MANDERS: OK. Thank you for correcting me, I appreciate that.

O'SULLIVAN: So do you understand it better now? MANDERS: Yeah.

O'SULLIVAN: OK.

MANDERS: Yeah, I do. God loves transgenders and he wants them to come to him too.

O'SULLIVAN: But not everyone is open to accepting facts. Some, including church leaders are pushing lies about the election.

PASTOR GREG LOCKE, GLOBAL VISION BIBLE CHURCH: I'm to the place right now, if you vote Democrat, I don't even want you around this church. You can get out. You can get out you demon. You can get out to baby butchering, election thief. You cannot be a Christian and vote Democrat in this nation.

O'SULLIVAN: And that is what worries these pastors.

JACOBSEN: I think we are at risk of terrible violence, increasing violence in this country, and that the rhetoric that we're hearing a lot from loudmouth, MAGA preachers, is leading us towards the possibility of no holds barred warfare. We really do think that democracy is at stake in this election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'SULLIVAN: And Sara, look, obviously, there's nothing wrong with being a Christian, nothing wrong with being a patriot. But really what these pastors are concerned about is that politicians, Trump, some of his prominence of orders, as you saw, there are weaponizing people's Christianity and people's patriotism in a way that can promote discrimination. That can promote the belittling of other religions.

[08:55:00]

I should point out that pretty much most of the people we spoke to there that day although they said Christianity has a special place in American society, they - they still said they believe in freedom of religion. But obviously, as you can see, there are the extreme elements of this as well, that say Christianity should be the national religion.

SIDNER: When you hear that preacher calling other people demons, who are fellow Americans, who are fellow human beings, that mix of politics and religion can be a really nasty one.

O'SULLIVAN: Not very Christian at all.

SIDNER: At all. Thank you for joining us O'Sullivan, it was really great. John.

BERMAN: Well, we have exclusive first look at how Mexico is trying to stop illegal immigration into the United States. Officials there say they have successfully deterred migration by 10% since December, in part because they established checkpoints and expansion camps at some of the biggest and busiest entry points. CNN's David Culver, got to tour those entry sites himself. David is

with us now. What have you seen?

DAVID CULVER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, John, we had heard over the past few months that some of these numbers were dropping rather significantly when it comes to encounters at the U.S. southern border of migrants who are crossing illegally. So to your point, we wanted to see that firsthand and get a really better understanding as to what was really sparking that stronger implementation of border policy.

And it's interesting where we found it. It's here on the Mexico side of things. And you can see here at National Guard's Truck Park, we've got Mexican Army, National Guard, as well as migration officials who have stepped up patrols a significant amount.

Now, what are they trying to do on the Mexico side in particular? Well, you have images like this, and we can show you what we saw yesterday. Large crowds, that as you see, in some of the drone footage are between two massive walls.

We should point out, they're already on the U.S. side, they've already crossed from Mexico illegally. But the Mexican officials have stepped up where they have put some of these National Guard's troops, where they've put some of the Mexican Army soldiers, as well as migration officials to start deterring some of these migrants from crossing.

A lot of them will cut using smugglers, some portions of the wall so that they can then go through, or they'll climb over using ladders. And they can do this on average in about a minute, 20 seconds. Now, what we've also seen is some increased frustration on part of Mexican residents, people who live on the border and certainly we've seen that on the U.S. side.

We've covered that in San Diego County, where people who have property that goes right up to the border with Mexico, are seeing the floods of migrants come through. Well, on the Mexican side here, we have found that same frustration, and I want to show you some of these images. You'll see some national guards members from the Mexican side, who have been called to patrol neighborhoods.

So imagine just regular suburban communities. And this was one of those where you have smugglers who will come at all hours, and they're often cartel backed, and they will drop off groups of migrants, who will then go through these neighborhoods and go onto people's patios into their backyards, and then jump the fence to get into the U.S.

So they have now John, troops going through these neighborhoods to patrol and stop the smugglers from coming through. And for now, it seems the numbers are showing that it's seeming to work.

BERMAN: David Culver, it's great to have you there in an interesting and informative perspective from where you're standing in Tijuana. Thank you very much. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. You may like this, John, I know you'll like this. Nearly a third of U.S. companies are weighing adopting four day workweeks to help combat employee burnout. That is, according to a new survey of us CEOs. CNN's Matt Egan is joining us now with details. I am so happy to see you on this very subject. So but seriously, when you look at the survey, will that translate into the potential of really having a three day weekend, potentially?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Maybe Sara. I mean, it does sound pretty nice, right? I mean, think about how much more time there would be to spend time with friends and family, right run errands, maybe weekends would actually feel relaxing. And we do know that a lot of companies, they're desperate right now to attract talent and also keep the workers they have before they get burned out and so maybe that's why this KPMG survey found that 30% of CEOs of large companies say they are exploring shifts in schedule, including a four day or four and a half day work week to try to address burnout.

And listen, bosses would not need to sell employees on this. They love this idea. There's a Gallup poll that found 77% of U.S. workers, they are very positive. They support the idea of a four-day work week and 40 hours over the course of the week, four days. That includes we're talking about 46% who were extremely positive.

So it's hard to get 77% of Americans to agree about anything, but they are on board with this idea. And I talked to KPMG's CEO, Paul Knopp and he said, listen, we probably have to tap the brakes a little bit. He said four day workweeks, probably not imminent. He thinks that yes, companies are going to experiment here. But he doesn't think that this is something that is going to happen in the very near term.