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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Biden: U.S. Will Withdraw From Afghanistan By Sept. 11, 2021; Former Officer Faces Manslaughter Charge in Wright Killing; Defense Expert: Heart Disease, Drug Use Caused George Floyd's Death; CDC Panel Delays Decision on J&J's Vaccine to Assess Risks; Administration to Announce New Sanctions Against Russia. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired April 15, 2021 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:25]

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is EARLY START with live reports from Kabul, Minneapolis, London, Berlin, Capitol Hill and Tokyo.

I'm Christine Romans. Laura is off today.

It is Thursday, April 15th. Exactly 5:00 a.m. in New York.

We cannot continue the cycle. Twenty years after the U.S. went into Afghanistan, President Biden says now it's time to bring the troops home. His deadline for the troop withdrawal is September 11th, the anniversary of the attacks that led the U.S. into Afghanistan.

The president faced push back from senior national security and military officials, but the president decided to go ahead and withdraw.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEPH R. BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Concluded that it's time to end America's longest war. We went to Afghanistan because of a horrific attack that happened 20 years ago. That cannot explain why we should remain there in 2021.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The president underscored his announcement with a visit to Section 60 at Arlington National Cemetery where Iraq and Afghanistan war dead are buried.

The image there told the story. More than 2,300 U.S. military lives lost over the course of those two decades. Tens of thousands of Americans wounded, countless Afghans wounded. More than $2 trillion in taxpayer money spent.

Yet parts of Afghanistan are still controlled by the same oppressive Taliban leaders who were there 20 years ago in 2001.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh was based in Afghanistan, of course, at the height of the conflict. He is live this morning for us in Kabul.

And, Nick, the CIA director says, pointedly, gathering intelligence and acting on potential threats will diminish when the U.S. pulls its troops out but the president thinks the withdrawal outweighs that, the benefits of the withdrawal outweighs that.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: I mean, essentially, after 20 years if you haven't won the war or got yourself in a position where you say your job is done, then what less is there to try. And arguably, the U.S. have tried a surge, they've tried withdrawing that surge, they tried just doing counterterrorism and they've tried peace talks.

And so, essentially, the months ahead will be a unilateral American withdrawal here, according to what we heard from President Joe Biden. At the same time, they want diplomacy to take hold, they want the Taliban to come to peace talks in Istanbul on Saturday week and at the same time they are hoping that they can continue to fund the Afghan security forces here.

And there was some wiggle room possibly in Joe Biden's speech, suggesting that if U.S. forces are attacked on the way out, then they may retaliate against the Taliban, including if their partners are attacked in that period, too.

So, we may see U.S. forces in action in the months ahead against the Taliban if they continue to make progress on the territory. The Taliban for their part have said that they wanted all U.S. troops out within 16 days without any condition. That's simply not going to happen in 16 days from now that Joe Biden says the withdraw begins.

But you are dealing with the Taliban who have also said they are not interested in that peace negotiation process at this time. So the fear I think really is an escalation of conflict in the months ahead, further instability possibly here in Kabul and the large question, what can the Afghan government do? I'm sure there was relief to hear that funding for security forces will continue and the possibility you could read between the lines of what Joe Biden said that U.S. airstrikes might still assist Afghan security forces if they were under attack here.

But it's going to be exceptionally difficult for President Ashraf Ghani who sent a welcoming tweet, frankly, despite the fact he's opposed to the U.S. departure saying he would ensure a smooth transition, respecting the U.S. decision. Very difficult for him to find a path between what the U.S. wants, which is a transitional government soon with the Taliban involved through this peace process and what Mr. Ghani -- the President Ghani wants, which is essentially elections, have more forefront rule on what happens next, and what the Taliban wants, which is Americans out in just over two week, and they are in negotiations once those foreign forces have departed.

Back to you.

ROMANS: All right. Nick Paton Walsh, thanks so much. Of course, the Afghan people wondering what the future will look like,

especially all of those gains made for women and women's rights over the past years. We'll talk more about that in half an hour.

Nick, thank you.

To Minnesota now. This morning, former Brooklyn Center Police Officer Kim Potter is out on bail. She has been charged with second degree manslaughter in the killing of an unarmed black man, Daunte Wright. The charge carries up to ten years in prison and a $20,000 fine. Potter makes her first court appearance via Zoom today.

[05:00:01]

She served 26 years with the Brooklyn Center, Minnesota Police Department before shooting and killing Wright during a traffic stop. Potter yelled Taser then seemed shock when she realized she had fired her gun instead of her Taser, but her intent may not matter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELIE HONIG, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: The key phrase here is culpable negligence and that means that the police officer created an unreasonable risk of gross risk, something can be accidental but also negligent. Perhaps she didn't intend to shoot this person, but if her conduct was so reckless, if she created such an undue risk then that can be charged as a crime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: A "New York Times" review of 15 so-called weapon confusion police shooting cases found only five officers were indicted, only three convicted.

In Brooklyn Center, a fourth night of protests following a similar pattern of the previous three, a peaceful demonstration early becoming smaller and rowdier later. Former Officer Potter's home is now barricaded and protected by police.

The defense in the Derek Chauvin murder trial is pulling out all the stop trying to convince jurors that George Floyd's death had nothing to do with their client's knee on Floyd's neck. Josh Campbell is covering the trial and he joins us live from Minneapolis.

An expert testifying that Floyd's death wasn't a homicide, he might have even died from maybe carbon monoxide maybe had something to do with it. Tell us what happened necessary.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Christine, the challenge they are having to overcome, the defense, is that there was this series of damning testimony, these witnesses we saw from the prosecution compelling testimony, explaining that it was the actions of this officer that led to George Floyd's death and but for those actions, George Floyd would still be alive.

So the defense trying to counter those claims, bringing this witness, a medical expert, a former medical examiner in the state of Maryland who refuted the idea that it had to do with Chauvin's knee on Floyd's neck, but was instead a series of other possible reasons.

Take a listen so what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID FOWLER, FORMER CHIEF MEDICAL EXAMINER FOR MARYLAND: We have a heart that's vulnerable because it's too big, there are certain drugs that are present in his system that make it -- put it at risk of an arrhythmia, we have the carbon monoxide which has potential to rob some of that additional oxygen carrying capacity.

ERIC NELSON, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Is it your opinion that Mr. Chauvin's knee in any way impacted the structures of Mr. Floyd's neck?

FOWLER: No, it did not. None of the vital structures were in the area where the knee appeared to be from the videos.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMPBELL: So as you say pulling out all the stops and they certainly did just that. Talking about George Floyd's heart issue, talking about his drug use, talking about carbon monoxide. It was that third issue which I will explain for a second which really raised some of the eyebrows of legal experts.

What this expert suggested is that a contributing factor to George Floyd's death was the fact that he was down on the ground near the rear of a police vehicle that was idling and possibly the exhaust from that vehicle contributed to his death which, of course, obviously raises the big issue here, even if that was the case, Chauvin was still holding George Floyd down on the ground at the rear of this vehicle.

So I don't see how that actually helps their case but as we've been saying over and over, all the defense has to do is raise a mind -- a doubt in the mind of one of these jurors in order to threaten the prosecution's case and we saw that on display yesterday, just a host of other possibilities trying to, again, just throw things out there, again, that's their job as the defense to represent their client, but we heard a number of different contributing factors yesterday other than the actions of this officer -- Christine.

ROMANS: Yeah, it remains to be seen whether it resonates with the jury.

All right. Josh, nice to see you. Thank you, Josh.

CAMPBELL: Okay. So vaccine experts say they just need more time to decide whether to resume use of that Johnson & Johnson vaccine. What that means for the COVID recovery next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:13:19] ROMANS: Welcome back.

The Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine in limbo this morning. A CDC panel wants more time to examine if there is any connection to the vaccine and potentially fatal blood clots. Six cases were reported out of 7 million people who received that vaccine, literally less than one in a million. You have a greater chance of being hit by lightning this year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. PAUL OFFIT, INFECTIOUS DISEASES DIVISION, CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA: I think it was an unfortunate non-decision. I think that the reason that they did that was they wanted more information, but I think there is enough information now to make a decision to help clinicians move forward or not with this vaccine.

One thing they could have said was just explain to feet that there is this very rare but very real side effect, remembering that of every million people that get COVID, 1,850 will die. There are no risk-free choices just choices to take different risks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The pause could last up to ten days before the CDC group meets again. Health experts fear the delay may further erode public confidence in vaccinations. You could also slow the rollout of desperately needed shots to rural and underserved parts of the country.

Meantime, the federal government is helping people scheduled for the Johnson & Johnson shot to get set up with one of the other available vaccines. That may cause a temporary drop in daily vaccination rates.

CNN has the pandemic covered coast to coast.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Athena Jones.

Cities in Michigan account for nine out of ten of the worst recent COVID-19 outbreaks in U.S. metropolitan areas according to a government report. Over the past seven days, the Detroit Metro Area has reported 581 new COVID cases per 100,000 people. More than 25,000 cases total, about four times the national rate per capita.

[05:15:02]

Some metro areas in the state are reporting even higher per capita rates. Federal health officials have rejected Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer's repeated requests for additional vaccine doses to combat the surge in cases driven by the B.1.1.7 variant of COVID-19.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Dan Simon.

Nevada will soon be opened up 100 percent, that from Nevada's Governor Steve Sisolak who says that businesses can open up to a 100 percent capacity by June 1st, at the same time social distancing statewide will also no longer be in effect by May 1st. Those decisions will be up to local officials.

The statewide mask mandate, however, will remain in place for the foreseeable future. It comes as Nevada is seeing like the rest of the country hospitalizations go down but vaccinations going up.

NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Nick Watt in Los Angeles.

Good news out of California, today, across the Golden State anybody, everybody 16 and older is now eligible at least to get a vaccine. More good news, here in Los Angeles second biggest school district in the nation, fourth and fifth graders will today be back in classrooms after more than a year out of their schools.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: I'm Pete Muntean in Washington.

The CDC just released a new study about coronavirus on planes. It says keeping the middle seat empty could reduce coronavirus exposure by as much as 57 percent when compared to a full flight. But airlines are pushing back, they insist that flying right now is safe because of federally mandated masks and heavily filtered air on board, not to mention more people getting vaccinated all the time.

Delta Airlines is the only major U.S. airline to not sell the middle seat right now, but its policy ends May 1st.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Important information there.

Are you ready to take a cruise again? Ships haven't been able to sail to or from U.S. ports in over a year, no you some tourism state lawmakers say it is time to embark.

Florida Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, along with Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan introduced a bill to overrule the CDC and get cruises back to sea by July 4th. The CDC's conditional sailing order in place now gives guidance for a safe return but doesn't provide a timeline. The bill puts pressure on the CDC to resume cruising now that more Americans are vaccinated.

Cruises are a vital part of Florida and Alaska tourism industry, of course. Data shows Florida's tourism industry saw a 34 percent drop in visitors last year, the lowest since 2010. Cruise lines are looking forward to a rebound.

Last week, Carnival said its bookings were up 90 percent from the fourth quarter but with U.S. cruises at a standstill some cruise lines including Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity, Virgin and Norwegian have moved their itineraries for ships overseas.

All right. New overnight, sweeping new sanctions against Russia. Retaliation for cyber attacks and interference, how Moscow is responding, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:22:36]

ROMANS: The Biden administration set to announce new sanctions against Russia today, new financial restrictions that could hurt Russia's economy and the U.S. expelling up to a dozen Russian diplomats. It's retaliation for the SolarWinds hack, election interference, other accused offenses.

International diplomatic editor Nic Robertson is live this morning in London for us.

And, Nic, you know, walk us through this because past sanctions aren't seemed to slow any of this accused Russian behavior. Will this time be different?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: The sense is that this may not be enough to slow down and change Russia's behavior. Putin has sort of shown himself willing to brazen out and tough out and continue with, you know, interfering in the 2016 elections, told not to do that, not so clearly interfering in the 2020 elections despite being warned very clearly that that shouldn't happen.

So, it seems that the previous sanctions haven't done the job. There have been moments when the U.S. has expelled as many as 60 Russian diplomas after the poisoning of a former Russian spy in the U.K. But to the point right now, Russia's response has been as we have it from an official at the U.S. mission in New York, a Russian official who says there will be an adequate response, clearly, there's going to be some kind of tit for tat.

We haven't heard from the Kremlin spokesman yet, he is briefing journalists right now we should get an update soon. But what this diplomat, the Russian diplomat, at the U.N. is saying is that this is a last chance opportunity that's being missed by the United States to head off global powers confrontation. He says this is not our choice.

And, of course, that's the point, isn't it, that sanctions are a reaction to Russia's choice, Russia's choice to interfere in the elections to hack SolarWinds, to pay money to militants in Afghanistan to target U.S. troops. So it's not clear that this message is actually going to succeed.

The Russians already saying we are the victim.

ROMANS: Yeah, the Russians responding with that mood again, that tone again as usual.

All right. Nic Robertson, thank you so much. Nice to see you this morning.

President Biden says it's time to end America's forever war and bring American troops home from Afghanistan.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:29:09]

ROMANS: Good morning. This is EARLY START, Thursday edition. I'm Christine Romans. It is just about 29 minutes past the hour.

There is an end in sight to America's longest war. The deadline for a U.S. troop withdrawal is September 11th, the 20th anniversary of the attacks that led the U.S. into Afghanistan in the first place.

President Biden underscored the announcement with a visit to Arlington National Cemetery's Section 60 where troops killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are buried. The president faced push back on his decision during deliberations with senior national security and military officials. It's a delicate balance to bring troops home while ensuring withdrawal does not erase the work the U.S. military has done over the last 20 years. But President Biden says there's no reason to delay.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: We cannot continue the cycle of extending or expanding our military presence in Afghanistan hoping to create ideal conditions for the withdrawal and expecting a different result.