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Vaccines Fall below 1 Million; Michigan Advances Bill on Voting Restrictions; Capitol Police Officer Speaks about Insurrection. Aired 9:30-10a ET.

Aired June 04, 2021 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: They met that very easily. This one is proving to be tougher.

Jim. Poppy.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: I suppose 68 percent of the population with one shot -- or adult population not bad considering where we are.

COHEN: Not bad.

SCIUTTO: My personal favorite is the beer for vaccination incentive plan.

COHEN: There you go.

SCIUTTO: So please direct me there.

COHEN: I will.

SCIUTTO: Elizabeth Cohen, thanks very much.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: All right, let's bring in Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, professor at the University of Minnesota.

Good morning. Thank you for being here.

MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: Thanks, Poppy.

HARLOW: What do you think about the divide that Elizabeth just went through in terms of, you know, different states, some doing exceedingly well and some way, way off that 70 percent goal?

OSTERHOLM: Well (INAUDIBLE) kind of the unknown (INAUDIBLE) this past week. And what I mean by that is, we're now seeing this new variant, B-617.2, that is a real concern as it's starting to spread in England. This is the one that originally was found in India.

And what's been seen is, is that with that particular variant, for the first time we're really seeing a marked impact on the efficacy of the vaccine, how well it works. And particularly with the first dose, meaning that those who have only had one dose of vaccine right now are showing potentially only 30 percent to 40 percent protection.

And so this actually not only calls out for the fact that we need to get one dose in people, but we need to really do everything we can to get two doses, because with the two-dose approach we are seeing that the vaccines are working quite well against this 617.2.

So it's kind of taking on a whole new urgency that we do this. I think Elizabeth's report lays it out very nicely in terms of what we see (INAUDIBLE) just because a state (INAUDIBLE) has hit 70 percent, we still see pockets in those states where they're well below 50 percent protection. And so we've got a lot of work to do, but the administration, I think, is doing everything that it possibly can right now to get needles into people's arms.

HARLOW: Are you as hopeful as Dr. Fauci is that weekly we'll see children (INAUDIBLE) under 12 years (INAUDIBLE) with a vaccine (INAUDIBLE) by Thanksgiving?

OSTERHOLM: I am. I think that Dr. Fauci has laid it out very well. I think the data from what we're seeing with the drug trials, and what the companies are doing, surely supports that point. And as a grandfather of five young children under age 12, I can't wait for that day to happen.

HARLOW: I bet. I know, I'm waiting, too.

There is a push now in the administration to share vaccine more globally. The Biden administration this week announcing that plan to share 25 million COVID vaccines with the rest of the world. It's something that has been called out and said -- some have said we should have done this -- the administration should have done this sooner. Their focus was getting Americans vaccinated. I get that. But how significant is this now to share that amount of doses globally and how necessary is it in order to get a real worldwide handle on COVID?

OSTERHOLM: Well, they've often said that the longest journey starts with the first step. Let's just remind the world here of the conditions we have before us. About 6.4 billion people live in low and middle income countries. Less than one half of 1 percent of those people have had access to the vaccine. So while 25 million new doses is surely an important first step, the world has to understand how critical it is that it ramps up as quickly as possible to get those 6.4 billion people vaccinated, too.

I just got done sharing with you this concern that we're now seeing about this new variant, which is actually not only more infectious but now it appears to be evading the immune protection of at least one dose of vaccine. The more variants are going to keep spinning out of the low and middle income countries if we don't vaccinate them. So we're now beginning to see a rise in activity in Africa we've not seen before.

So I think that -- I can't put enough emphasis on the importance of a global response. Every country in the high income brackets have to be right now supporting major efforts to get the rest of the world vaccinated.

HARLOW: When you think about the Olympics and how soon they are in Tokyo, there are nine regions in Japan, including Tokyo, that are under a state of emergency, now with only 3 percent of the population vaccinated. But the games are going ahead and there are a number of different precautions they're taking in terms of testing, in terms of how soon people have to come ahead of the games, quarantines, et cetera.

Where do you fall on this? Are they safe?

OSTERHOLM: Well, actually, I've actually written about that. We published a piece in "The New England Journal of Medicine" last week on the very issue of, can the Olympics be held safely. And we have real concerns about where things are at.

Now, I know that the IOC and the WHO, as well as Japan itself, are responding now to the issues that have been raised about the potential of breaks in safety for protecting athletes as well as others in Japan itself.

[09:35:04]

And so this is still, I think, a real challenge.

We did not, in the article, say cancel the Olympics.

HARLOW: right.

OSTERHOLM: We said lay out here for you all of the issues that need to be addressed. And if you can address them, Godspeed. We want to have a successful Olympics. But if you can't, then you have to really seriously consider this issue in terms of what it may mean in terms of transmission not only in Japan from team players to the Japanese citizens but also from Japanese citizens back to the Olympic villages. And so I think that this is an issue for my mind that's not resolved yet at all.

HARLOW: OK, thank you, Michael Osterholm. We'll talk more about that with you next time. Thanks for coming on.

OSTERHOLM: Thank you.

HARLOW: Jim.

SCIUTTO: Well, Michigan has become just the latest among a slew of states where Republicans are trying, having some success, restricting voting rights. Up next I'm going to speak to the state's top election official who calls this an attempt to undo democracy.

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[09:40:21] SCIUTTO: A familiar story in the country today. Republicans in Michigan's state senate are moving forward with an effort to place new restrictions on voting in the state. Makes it more difficult to vote. Fourteen states have now passed new laws restricting voting since President Trump lost the 2020 election and Republicans in 18 other states are pushing similar measures based on debunked claims of widespread election fraud. The one commonality, it's Republican-led legislatures doing this.

Joining me now to discuss is Jocelyn Benson, she's secretary of state in Michigan, which just this week advanced a host of these restrictive new voting measures.

Ms. Benson, thanks so much for taking the time this morning.

JOCELYN BENSON (D), MICHIGAN SECRETARY OF STATE: Thanks for having me.

SCIUTTO: So let's, if we can, look at some of the measures being proposed by Republicans in the state legislature, limiting the use of ballot drop boxes, require driver's license, state ID plus last four of the social, also new ID requirements for casting provisional ballots and for proactively sending out mail ballot applications.

Did any of these means of voting lead to widespread fraud or significant fraud of any kind in the last election or recent elections?

BENSON: No, not at all. In fact, in 2020, Michigan had our most secure election in history, and we also saw more people vote than ever before. And we have secure ID requirements already in our state and so what these bills actually do is replace those with ones that did nothing to add to the security of the process but only make it more difficult for citizens to vote.

SCIUTTO: Based on the data, and as part of your job you look at sort of the breakdown between Democrats and Republicans and so on, do these measures specifically target Democratic voters or predominantly Democratic voting areas, et cetera?

BENSON: Well, the interesting thing is we've seen the ability to vote absentee be embraced by voters on both sides of the aisle. And so what may happen ultimately is that the voters who are impacted by this are voters on both sides of the aisle again will certainly see more challenging issues in urban communities like Detroit and Flint that have also had historical barriers in place and -- but it's also very likely that some of these provisions may also make it more difficult for all voters to participate and, you know, it's sort of the ironic aspect of this, you know, very misguided effort.

SCIUTTO: So you have the measures designed to make it harder to vote, but you also have the ones, and, arguably, even more alarming, that would allow partisans to influence the counting or the certification process. For instance, in one of these proposals here, the major political parties would submit lists of people to serve as inspectors on their behalf. People on those lists would have to be given first priority over everyone else. Would these changes allow partisans to overrule nonpartisan election

officials in deciding election results?

BENSON: Potentially. It's certainly going to open the door for partisan interference in the tabulation process and in the voting process and polling places. And that's really troubling because it enables and opens the door for chaos and confusion on Election Day, which can be in and of itself a deterrent to participation, but also can really make it more difficult to ensure that every valid vote is counted efficiently and securely.

So, again, ironically, these changes, they're there advanced under the banner of increasing the integrity of the election may actually will likely, if passed, make it more difficult to secure the process.

SCIUTTO: And we saw -- I mean we had a losing president attempt to use these very levers in the last election without success. Interesting in Michigan, you've got a Democratic governor who has veto power to overrule. Republicans in the state legislatures do not have sufficient numbers to overrule that veto, but they do have an interesting little footnote in the way things work in Michigan. Can you explain that? How exactly they would do this with a simple majority vote?

BENSON: Yes, under Michigan law, citizens can actually sign a petition that could be circulated by legislative leaders and with only about 300,000 signatures, which amounts to about 4% of the voting age population, those petitions could be presented to the legislature and the legislature could simply adopt the law proposed in the petitions without needing a governor's signature.

And the chair of the state Republican Party has already openly said this is their strategy. And again, it's particularly pernicious because the voters potentially signing these petitions potentially will be misled about what they're signing, being told, sign this, it secures democracy, it protects your vote, when in reality they're signing measures that will make it harder for citizens to vote and make it harder for us to protect the integrity of the process.

[09:45:09]

SCIUTTO: So, in Texas recently, as Republicans attempted to pass a similar kind of slew of measures here, Democrats pulled -- you know, were able to block it but possibly, most likely, temporarily. And as they did they said, Washington, Congress, you've got to act here now because we can only kind of hold this at bay for a certain amount of time.

In your view, is the president, is the Democratic-led Senate and House doing enough to stand in the way of these on a national level?

BENSON: Well, as I have and many others have said recently, this issue protecting our democracy is the single most important issue of our time. And every single person in -- who's a leader right now at every level needs to be prioritizing protecting the vote because everything we endured in 2020 and everything we're seeing in states right now, this very well is just really the first quarter of an effort that will last through any -- perhaps even beyond 2024, if it's successful.

And what the Texas Democrats have shown is what can happen if people do stand up and say, we're going to put our jobs, even our careers on the line to protect democracy and protect voters. And that's what we should be requiring and demanding of every elected leader right now.

SCIUTTO: Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, nice to have you back on the program.

BENSON: Always a pleasure. Thanks for having me and thanks for prioritizing this important issue.

SCIUTTO: We'll keep it up.

HARLOW: Up next, a Capitol Hill Police officer speaks to CNN for the first time about fighting off those at the insurrection on January 6th.

Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SGT. AQUILINO GONELL, CAPITOL POLICE OFFICER INJURED DURING JANUARY 6TH INSURRECTION: I thought I was going to lose my life right there. All I could think was, we can't let these people in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[09:51:16]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SGT. AQUILINO GONELL, CAPITOL POLICE OFFICER INJURED DURING JANUARY 6TH INSURRECTION: The country that I love, that I came in, that I have sacrificed so much, don't care about us. They don't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Those are the heartbreaking words of Sergeant Aquilino Gonell, one of the heroic Capitol Police officers injured during the January 6th insurrection. He is sharing his story after Senate Republicans squashed a bipartisan commission negotiated by Democrats and Republicans to investigate the attack on the Capitol.

HARLOW: It was our own Whitney Wild who sat down with him for this remarkable interview.

Good morning to you, Whitney.

What more did Sergeant Gonell tell you?

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, that day for him was just so gut-wrenching for a number of reasons, not just because it was physically demanding, but it was so emotionally demanding. He came to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic as a child, when he was 12 years old. Then he deployed to Iraq in 2003. Then he joined Capitol Police. He always expected to fight enemies overseas. He signed up for that. He never expected that the enemy would be here in the country he loves so much.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILD: What was the worst thing they called you?

SGT. AQUILINO GONELL, U.S. CAPITOL POLICE: Traitor.

WILD: Why was that the worst thing?

GONELL: Because I serve my country. I got hurt. I got hurt. I would do it again if I have to. It's my job.

They kept saying, Trump -- Trump sent me. We won't listen to you. We are here to take over the Capitol. We are here to hang Mike Pence.

They thought we were there for them. And we weren't. So they turned against us. It was very scary because I thought I was going to lose my life right there.

I could hear my fellow officers screaming. The agony in some of them. All I could think was, we can't let these people in. There's going to be a slaughter inside.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILD: Obviously, so physically demanding. The emotional trauma still lingers. He's still struggling. He says some days are better than other days. But it's been extraordinarily difficult.

Jim and Poppy, he started his day that day around 4:00 a.m. That's when he left his house, got to the Capitol at 5:00 a.m. January 6th. He did not return home until around 3:00 a.m. January 7th. And even upon returning home, he found little relief.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GONELL: She wanted to hug me. And I told her, no, because I was covered in -- I was covered in pepper spray. My hands were bleeding still. And I even -- I couldn't even sleep, because I went and took a shower, and instead of helping, that reinflamed the chemicals.

WILD: It had soaked through your clothes?

GONELL: Yes. I took a bath with milk. That didn't (ph) help.

I did give my wife a hug and I started crying.

WILD (on camera): Why?

GONELL: It didn't happen. And I think I wouldn't be able to see them.

I went to my son's bed and gave him a hug. He was asleep still. Gave him a big kiss.

[09:55:02]

And I just started crying.

It was like five, ten minutes, a hug, which I just cried. And she kept telling me it's going to be OK. And I'm like, no, I've got to go back to work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILD: Jim and Poppy, he said his wife asked him not to go back to work that day. He said he had to go. He is one of hundreds of officers who was reeling -- who were reeling in the aftermath of that catastrophic event who then, hours later, got back in the car and went right back to work and have done so for months.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

WILD: Jim and Poppy.

HARLOW: Yes.

SCIUTTO: And those accounts, and it's not the only one, did not move the political calculus on The Hill apparently.

Whitney Wild, thanks so much for bringing it to us.

And we'll be right back.

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