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New Day

Cases Spike in Michigan; Iran Accuses Israel of Attack; U.S. Defense Secretary in Israel Amid Iran Attack; Biden holds Bipartisan Meeting; Japan's Matsuyama Wins Masters. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired April 12, 2021 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

DR. ABDUL EL-SAYED, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: We involuntarily shut these things down, at least for a couple weeks, to bring the cases down a bit. And so it's a little bit frustrating to watch as Michigan is literally on B117 fire that the governor is not doing the things that seem obvious, while asking for what are secondary and long-term solutions. And I don't mean to say that the vaccine surge isn't a good idea. What I mean to say is it's a secondary idea.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: For people who aren't aware, the governor there is pleading with people not to go eat indoors for the next couple of weeks, but she's not mandating a closure or a re-closure again and you're saying a mandate is needed at this time.

I, you know, I often would grow up drive from Minnesota to Michigan. I mean especially as the weather gest nicer, people travel over state lines. That's what they do. They go to the lakes, et cetera. I've got to think this cannot remain contained to Michigan. I mean there are already concerns in the surrounding states. Governor DeWine in Ohio very concerned as well. Is it just days, weeks before this repeats itself in the neighboring states?

EL-SAYED: You know, the worry here, Poppy, and you're absolutely right, is that B117 exists in every single state. So does the kind of aggressive reopening that had people mixing in ways that earlier in the pandemic we might not have done. And so is the optimism that tells us that because vaccines exist, that the pandemic is over. And those two things are not the same. Vaccines don't work until they turn into vaccinations, until they get into people's arms.

We're at about 25 percent vaccine coverage at this point. We need to get to 75 percent, 85 percent. And so, you're right, if we continue on this trajectory where we have a more transmissible, more deadly variant among us, that we are doing the things that we know could spread COVID-19 and we don't have the vaccine coverage to protect us, that together this spells, unfortunately, it spells the potential for this kind of a surge elsewhere as well.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Look, it's hard. I just don't know that there's the political will anywhere in the country to go in the opposite direction.

HARLOW: Yes.

BERMAN: I think that's hard for any governor, any administration.

Now, look, I asked Kate Bedingfield at the White House last week, what do you do if cases start to rise.

HARLOW: I -- you asked her a few times to try to get an answer.

BERMAN: There's not -- there's not a real -- it's keep doing what you're doing is the political answer right now.

HARLOW: Sure.

BERMAN: And I'm not sure that anyone will go a step further than that.

Let's look at some good news, if we can, Dr. El-Sayed, which is, how safe the vaccines are that people are taking here in the United States. I'm looking at the statistics now. Fewer than one in 28,000 thousand people who receive a COVID-19 vaccine, less than 0.004 percent have reported serious, adverse reactions. I had to put my glasses on to read that, 0.004 percent. I had to make sure I got all the zeroes right there. That's a very small number among a very large number of people who have been vaccinated, Doc.

EL-SAYED: Yes, that's right, John. I really appreciate you ending on an optimistic note.

The vaccines, over the long term, are what's going to get us out of this pandemic. There's no doubt about that. And I agree with you, in the short term, there is very little political will to do the right thing in this circumstance and call for a pause. But it also undercuts the point that a voluntary request for a pause isn't going to work because, at the end of the day, people are really fatigued. And so we've got to be sending the right messaging in as far as a lockdown both reduces the probability that people are going to engage in dangerous behaviors because they're not available. It also sends a message that this is really serious.

The good note here, though, is you're right, vaccinations are accelerating, they're ramping up every day. They are extremely safe and very, very effective. And we know that this surge has been blunted because we have 25 percent vaccine coverage. And the most important thing we can do over the long term, to get ourselves out of this, is to recognize that not only do vaccines save lives, but they also allow us do the things that we've been missing for so long safely. I was really thankful that I was able to have some family, all of whom were vaccinated, over to the place yesterday and we were able to engage together. Things that would have been so mundane to take for granted in the past we can do now.

And so for folks who are watching this and saying, well, I don't know, listen, we've got an opportunity to get back to normal where we can enjoy those things again and not have to ask whether or not we might have gotten someone we love very sick in the process. Go get your vaccine. And in the interim, make sure that you mask up, back up, wash up. And when you get that opportunity, make sure you vacs up. BERMAN: Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, thanks so much for being with us. We're so glad you got to spend some time with your family.

HARLOW: Yes, we're so glad.

Thank you, Doctor.

Well, Iranian officials are vowing revenge this morning. They are blaming Israel for a major attack at one of their nuclear uranium enrichment sites. We'll have the details on what happened, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:38:41]

BERMAN: All right, developing overnight, Iran's foreign minister vowing revenge, blaming Israel for a power failure at Iran's Natanz nuclear sight.

CNN's Frederik Pleitgen, who has done extensive reporting inside Iran, joins us now.

Fred, this is fascinating, the timing of what happened, where it happened, how it happened. The bottom line here, though, is that Iran's major nuclear center appears to be offline this morning.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it certainly does appear to be offline. It really is fascinating, John, you're absolutely right. Some of the statements that we've been hearing It's truly fascinating. Some of the statements that we've been hearing from the Iranians, originally they just said that there was a power failure, they said there was no radiation leak and that no one got hurt. But it certainly does seem as though this incident, as they put it, is more severe than we had thought at the beginning, although we still don't know the exact extent of the damage that was caused by this incident.

And you're absolutely right, the Iranians absolutely lashing out at the Israelis. I want to look at some more of what the Iranian foreign minister, Javad Zarif said. He said, quote, Zionists want to take revenge on the Iranian nation for their success in the course of lifting sanctions. That, of course, referring to those negotiations about the nuclear agreement. But we will not allow the Zionist and we will take revenge on the Zionists for this action.

Now, so far it's unclear what exactly that revenge might look like. But one of the things that the Iranians have already said, they said that the centrifuge that they have, they're at Natanz, they will be replaced by powerful and better centrifuges, they say.

[06:40:07]

And they also say that Natanz will become even more potent than it was before. So certainly the Iranians don't seem to be backing down at all. And you're also absolutely right, John, right now a fascinating time

for this to be happening as the U.S. and Iran are currently engaged in indirect negotiations, those happening in Vienna, to try and salvage the Iran nuclear agreement.

Now, of course, all this is about bringing Iran back into full compliance with the agreement, but also sanctions relief for the Iranians. And there certainly seem to be some headway, at least incrementally, that was being made. Of course, we know that Israel very much against that agreement, Poppy.

HARLOW: Thank you, Fred, very much.

So let's talk about what you just brought up, and that is the fact that overnight U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin refusing to directly comment on any possible Israeli involvement in what happened at Natanz ahead of a joint meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just minutes away.

Secretary Austin is visiting Israel days after Iran and the world powers held talks last week in Vienna aimed at potentially reviving the 2015 nuclear deal.

Let's go to our colleague, Hadas Gold. She joins us lie in Jerusalem with more.

Good morning.

So, I mean, he's not saying much on this.

HADAS GOLD, CNN REPORTER, EUROPEAN POLITICS, MEDIA AND BUSINESS: No, Poppy, and neither are -- officially are we hearing from Israeli government commenting on this incident. But we are getting some possible hints. Israeli media is reporting that unnamed sources are citing that Israeli Mossad was involved. And, importantly, just hours after the incident yesterday, the Israeli army chief, Aviv Kochavi, said Israel's operations throughout the Middle East are not hidden from the eyes of the enemies. And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday also referred to Iran and said the situation that exists today will not necessarily be the situation that will exist tomorrow.

So, again, no official comment, but you do have to take a careful eye on those comments from the Israeli army chief and the prime minister. As you noted, the U.S. defense secretary is in Israel at this very moment meeting with various officials. He was asked about this incident just a few hours ago. He didn't directly comment, but asked if the incident would be an impediment to any sort of Iran nuclear deal, he said that the U.S. will continue to focus doing what the president is trying to achieve. President Biden is, of course, attempting to bring Iran back into diplomatic negotiations. Israel is, of course, against any sort of return to a 2015 Iran nuclear deal, saying it will simply give Iran the green light to a nuclear weapon.

Within the next few hours we are expecting to see Defense Secretary Austin alongside Prime Minister Netanyahu. They're supposed to give a joint statement. I think what will be very important to keep an eye on, Poppy, during this joint statement is the tone between these two and, of course, whether they will give any sort of further comment on this alleged incident.

Poppy.

HARLOW: OK, thank you very much, Hadas Gold for us in Jerusalem this morning.

Ahead, Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz, one of former President Trump's biggest supporters, but Trump appears to be keeping his distance now. CNN's latest reporting, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:47:07]

BERMAN: President Biden will meet today with a bipartisan group of lawmakers to discuss his $2 trillion infrastructure plan. The president's proposal is facing resistance from Republicans who argue that the White House definition of infrastructure is overly broad.

Joining us now is CNN political analyst Margaret Talev. She's the managing editor of "Axios."

I feel like we should, you know, ring bells in celebration every time there's a bipartisan meeting on anything. So, look, it's good. People are talking about something that's very important to a lot of people at the White House today.

What will come of this meeting, Margaret?

MARGARET TALEV, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, John, good morning.

Yes, Congress is finally back after a two-week recess. This is like the kind of opening bell for President Biden's big push now to try to get something moving by Memorial Day so that something can happen by July so that something can pass by September. How does that sound?

And I think like you're going to see things basically move in that fashion. There is a group of eight lawmakers today meeting with the president. Half of them are Republicans. They are not the most bipartisan Republicans, but they are Republicans in places like Alaska and Louisiana that like infrastructure spending that could use the money. And so we're going to begin to see the president and his team try to pick off different selection groups of Republicans who might be in favor of some elements of an infrastructure plan even if they're not in favor of the $2 trillion-plus plan.

(INAUDIBLE) is going to get chased with this like 50 states blitz. The White House is pushing out report cards on every state. And, guess which two states they previewed for us? Kentucky and California. Just a coincidence, I'm sure, talking about the deficits in broadband access in Mitch McConnell's home state, the road conditions in Kevin McCarthy's home states. These are the two Republican leaders, right?

And so that's what's happening. We're going to see this kind of carrot-and-stick approach, trying to figure out if there are kind of individual group of Republicans who can be intrigued by aspects of this. And then the Republican plan, as of now, the talking points, memo passed around in the Senate Republican conference is, call this a slush fund and oppose it at all costs.

HARLOW: I almost want to rename Gumby infrastructure. You know the like, how far can you stretch it little toy that we had as a little kid? Because that's the thing, how far can you stretch the definition of infrastructure? That's the key question.

And to the talking points memo you mentioned, it seems like it must include this, oh, well, only 6 percent of this is actually infrastructure because Liz Cheney said that yesterday, John Thune. But then Republican Senator Roy Blunt said a week ago, you know, about 30 percent, 40 percent is infrastructure. And I think Republicans can get behind that.

Which is it? I mean what actually are Republicans even behind?

TALEV: Right, it's somewhere between 5 percent and 100 percent of it is infrastructure, depending on the definition you agree on.

[06:50:02]

But, look, I mean here's what the administration is doing. They're coming up with a very expensive plan. They're going to break it into a couple of pieces. It's going to be somewhere probably in the $3 trillion to $4 trillion over a decade scenario, but we really won't know until it's scored. You've got to have a bill to score it. So this is all talking points on both sides right now.

It's obvious President Biden at least wants the kind of roads, bridges, rail, electric car, kind of the more traditional definition of what's infrastructure is transportation and moving stuff around. But when you're coming out of a year of COVID and the economy is like doing OK right now but it's more propped up by a lot of influx of spending, Democrats are trying to make the case that a job creation plan, whether it's kind of soft or hard infrastructure, still counts for what is the point of infrastructure? It is to make the country kind of a more resilient place that's adaptable to grow for the future.

And they're saying the entire jobs climate has changed over the last 30 years. It's not just roads that need the money. Republicans are saying that's too much money. And Biden is willing to take some kind of a deal. He keeps saying that. It's like he's not even pretending that he doesn't want to negotiate. He's like, make an offer.

BERMAN: No, it is interesting. And to your point, you know, Republicans who said it's just roads and bridges are now saying, well, and broadband. I mean every time they talk, they actually open the door a little bit to something else extra.

HARLOW: Yes. And because we really need this in my state.

BERMAN: Right. Exactly. So , you know, there is clearly room for some negotiation.

Margaret, thank you so much for being with us.

TALEV: Thanks, guys.

BERMAN: And, by the way, the bad guy in Gumby was Sluggo, small trivia fact.

HARLOW: How do you even know this stuff?

BERMAN: That's the only thing I remember about Gumby.

HARLOW: I miss you, John Berman.

BERMAN: All right, the green jacket is on its way to Japan because a Japanese golfer has won the Masters -- a Japanese male golfer has won the Masters for the first time ever. A live report from Tokyo, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:56:05]

HARLOW: Well, Japan has a new hero this morning. Golfer Hideki Matsuyama winning the Masters at Augusta National, becoming the first Japanese man to capture a major.

Our Selina Wang has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Matsuyama is Japan's first Masters champion.

SELINA WANG, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Golfing history is made. The first Japanese and Asian man wins the world's most important golf tournament. Twenty-nine-year-old Hideki Matsuyama entered the week as the 25th ranked golfer in the world. He's now shot right to the top. For golf-obsessed Japan, being awarded the famous Masters green jacket is a dream come true.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congratulations, Hideki.

HIDEKI MATSUYAMA, PRO-GOLFER WHO WON MASTERS: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What a thrill and an honor it's going to be to take the green jacket back to Japan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the land of the rising sun --

WANG: With this win, Matsuyama becomes the first Japanese golfer to win any of the four major championships in men's golf.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I just couldn't stop crying. The tear drops wouldn't stop coming down.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I was crying and I didn't even notice I was crying. He gave big hope and dreams to children, future golfers.

WANG: But being thrust into the limelight is not comfortable for Matsuyama. The humble spirit of his team on display when his caddy made a respectful bow after the final winning shot on Sunday.

Matsuyama has been a celebrity in Japan for years, even playing a round with former President Trump during a visit in Tokyo, but he's remained a mystery on the international stage.

WANG (on camera): Here in Japan, Matsuyama's father introduced him to golf when he was just four years old. In 2011, he became the first Japanese armature to compete at the Masters. Turning pro two years later. But in the past few years, he's been struggling, unable to win. Matsuyama says hiring a swing coach recently has made a big difference to his game.

WANG (voice over): His surprise victory prompted messages of congratulations from around the world, including from one of his idols, Tiger Woods.

MATSUYAMA (through translator): I have a lot of great memories watching the Masters as a young boy. The first time I watched, Tiger Woods was the winner. I was always dreaming some day I could play here.

WANG: It's a big week for golf in Japan after a 17-year-old Tsubasa Kajitani won the Augusta National Women's Amateur Tournament a week ago. These two results will give a boost for Japan's sporting prowess in a vital year. Matsuyama is expected to become a key figurehead at the Olympics and he's also predicted to make up to $8 billion in future income following this historic win.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WANG: This is a major morale boost for Japan as the country pushes ahead with the Olympics despite major public opposition at home and despite rising COVID cases across Japan. But more than that, this is a ray of light amid this dark period of rising anti-Asian hate and attacks, to see Matsuyama, an Asian man, have this breakthrough win is meaningful beyond Japan and the world of golf.

Poppy. John.

BERMAN: All right, Selina, thank you so much.

It was a great round of golf. He was so gutsy.

HARLOW: Yes.

BERMAN: There were moments where he -- he bent but never broke. Never broke all the way till the end.

HARLOW: Amazing to see.

BERMAN: It was really good to see.

HARLOW: All right, NEW DAY continues right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BERMAN: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. I'm John Berman. Poppy Harlow joins me this week.

It's been so long since I sat next you that I screwed up the name.

HARLOW: I missed you.

BERMAN: It's nice to see you.

HARLOW: Still -- still pretty far away.

BERMAN: So, we do have breaking news this morning.

Unrest in the suburbs of Minneapolis. The Minnesota National Guard has been deployed. The mayor of Brooklyn Center has ordered a curfew after crowds began protesting the fatal police shooting of a 20-year-old black man. Daunte Wright died following a traffic stop and a car crash just miles from where George Floyd was killed nearly one year ago. Authorities say the officers involved were wearing body cameras.

[07:00:00]