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The Lead with Jake Tapper

California Set to Fully Reopen June 15; Biden Wants All Adults Eligible For COVID Vaccine By April 19; CDC: Variant First Seen in U.K. Now Detected in All 50 U.S. States; Arkansas GOP Legislature Overrides Republican Governor Hutchinson's Veto on Anti-Trans Health Bill; Hockey Game to Save World's Biggest Fresh Water Reservoir. Aired 4:30-5p ET

Aired April 06, 2021 - 16:30   ET

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

[16:30:01]

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No, I have not had that conversation with President Xi.

Thank you.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome to THE LEAD.

You have been listening to President Biden announcing a new deadline: All American adults will be eligible for our coronavirus vaccine on April 19. He said he also marked 150 million shots given in the first 75 days of his presidency. He also was very cautious, saying that it's not time for the American people to go back to normal yet because of the new variants.

CNN's Kaitlan Collins is at the White House. We were talking to her before.

Kaitlan, the president really emphasized that we're not at the finish line yet.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jake.

He was saying, despite the progress that's been made, seeing people that get vaccinated does not mean this is over yet, even noting how long it takes if you get a certain vaccine. It takes several weeks for you to be fully protected from that.

But, Jake, before the president started speaking, you asked me, why are they moving this deadline up from May 1 to make all adult Americans eligible to get vaccinated to April 19, given we'd already seen a lot of states, if not most states, already doing that or meeting that deadline?

But President Biden just gave two reasons there. And one is, he says he wants there to be clarity, because, before, it had kind of been a bit of a patchwork, with certain states having certain dates for when everyone could get vaccinated. It wasn't really routine across the line. And so he said he wanted it to be clear that now everyone knows you

can get vaccinated by April 19, get in line, at the latest.

And the other thing he said was, we have got a few days before then. And if you are a senior who has not been vaccinated yet, now is the time to get it. He said 75 percent of people over 65 have at least gotten one shot of the coronavirus vaccine, but he was saying, before other people start to get in line, now is the time for those seniors to go get in line before everyone is eligible to get vaccinated.

And then, of course, you saw there at the end he took a few questions from reporters, because another big aspect of seeing these states open up this eligibility has been questions about vaccine hesitancy, because some states have opened it up pretty early, which has raised concerns about whether or not the entire older population actually got in line to get one.

And he gave credit to Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, saying that, because he's been making these appeals to Republican men to get vaccinated, he gave him credit for actually making those appeals, Jake.

TAPPER: Yes, very important for seniors to -- who are eligible all over the country to go get vaccinated. My parents have been vaccinated. They're fine. My wife's parents have been vaccinated. They are fine.

In fact, my mom was able to come down and see my kids for the first time since Thanksgiving 2019 because she is now vaccinated and safe and protected.

COLLINS: That's awesome.

TAPPER: So, an important message for anyone out there over 65 who has not yet been vaccinated.

Kaitlan Collins, thanks so much.

Let's discuss with our team.

Sanjay, what do you make of President Biden's announcement and where we stand in our vaccination efforts right now?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's a good sign, right?

It's sort of this sign of confidence. Leaving aside the idea that the strategy has always been sort of to underpromise and overdeliver, I mean, the numbers continue to look good. In fact, if you do the math here, you say, by the first 100 days, he says there will be 200 million shots, if things sort of continue the way that they are right now, should be closer to 235 million.

They could go up even higher than that. So, I think what's interesting, Jake, you're going to run into a situation, if you -- if you sort of think that 20 to 25 percent of the country, the adults are -- have this vaccine hesitancy,if you sort of look at the numbers, that means there's around 200 million people who roughly are willing right now, as things stand, to get the vaccine.

And so going into May/June sort of time frame, you're going to get into a situation where I think, for the first time, supply will start outpacing demand. That's what may happen. We will see.

But, overall, the numbers look positive.

TAPPER: And, Dana, President Biden's leadership on this, there's the underpromise, overdeliver part of it, but there's also adhering to science, steady leadership, trying to, like, bring -- talking to the nation regularly about it.

It's not a surprise that his poll numbers when it comes to handling the pandemic are much higher than President Trump's were.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Not at all. And the list is extremely long about why that is.

And, yes, he was talking about -- giving an update and talking about the vaccine and setting goals and, as Kaitlan said, maybe trying to have a common and more uniform goal for all the states, but one of the main goals that I took away from what that speech was about was patience.

And it was a classic bully pulpit moment, Jake, where the president, as most presidents tend to do, stood in front of the cameras and pleaded with Americans to do something together because it is necessary.

[16:35:03]

And the one word he used was time. That is the word that he said need to heed and focus on, that, if you give it a little bit more time, more people will be vaccinated, and the idea of these variants, which he went into detail about, which are -- which Sanjay talks about all the time, which are quite dangerous, can subside.

And it was a real commander in chief moment, not so much of the military, but like a real leadership moment.

TAPPER: Yes. And even though he disagrees with the decisions being made by several governors out there, in Texas, for example, where there was a packed baseball stadium one night ago or two nights ago, he isn't calling out and attacking Republican governors with whom he disagrees, which is a contrast from what we saw last time as well with the last president.

BASH: Right.

TAPPER: Sanjay, at what point could we see the herd immunity that one gets through vaccinations at the pace that we're going at right now?

GUPTA: Well, the -- first of all, the number that people cite as what is necessary for herd immunity is a little bit of a moving target, because it's based on the contagiousness of the virus.

And these variants, as Dana was just talking about, they may be more contagious. So, it's a little bit of a moving target. If you place it around 80 percent, the -- you have to take into account a couple things. That will put vaccination numbers, sort of probably by mid- summer, we could start to get to a point where 80 percent of adults would be vaccinated, again, because 20 percent are so may be hesitant or downright unwilling to get it.

So, that wouldn't get you there.

But there's a nuance here, Jake, that I think is really important. And that is that there's probably been somewhere close to 100 million people that have been previously infected. Now, probably about a third of them have also been vaccinated. But that means that 65 million or so people have immunity just from having been previously infected.

And they count toward herd immunity. They should still get vaccinated, ultimately, because the vaccine is probably going to provide a more durable response. But this is good news, what I'm saying, because, if you start to add the number of vaccinated with the number of people who have been previously infected -- and many of them maybe people under the age of 16 who aren't eligible for a vaccination -- that's when you could start to get to this combination of herd immunity sometime over the summer.

TAPPER: And, Dana, just to change topics for a second, President Biden was just asked whether he thought The Masters golf tournament should move out of Georgia, as the Major League Baseball All-Star Game was, given the state's new, more restrictive voting law.

He said it was up to The Masters, but then he went on to say this:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: It is reassuring to see that. for-profit operations and businesses are speaking up about how these new Jim Crow laws are just antithetical to who we are.

The best way to deal with this is for Georgia and other states to smarten up. Stop it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: What's your take on this, Dana?

BASH: Well he said that, but then he did have the yeah, but.

He did have the yeah, but when a big corporation like the MLB, or potentially -- the question became -- was about The Masters -- moves out of state, you also hurt the people who work there. You hurt the working people.

So you could almost see and hear, yes, he was saying that it was morally something that he supports. That was pretty clear. But he also understands that there is a downside to it, and -- which is why he said it was up to The Masters to decide.

And you're hearing varying degrees of that from politicians, particularly senators from Georgia, the Democrats from Georgia, whereas the activists have the -- frankly, have the ability, because they're not elected leaders, to be much more forceful because of the two sides, very real sides, to the coin of boycotting or moving.

TAPPER: Yes, although Stacey Abrams, who's a very strong voting rights activist in Georgia, she does not support boycotts because they do hurt working people, who are disproportionately black and brown Americans.

BASH: Exactly. Good point.

TAPPER: Dana and Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

We have more COVID headlines for you now.

California dreaming. The state is about to do something that it has not done in over a year. What is it?

That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:43:49]

TAPPER: New today in our health lead: California, the very first state in the United States to lock down, just set a date to open back up again, after over a year of restrictions.

But, as CNN's Nick Watt reports, Governor Gavin Newsom says the mask mandate will remain in place.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): We can confidently say, by June 15, that we can start to open up as business as usual, subject to ongoing mask- wearing and ongoing vigilance.

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): How, why is this new dawn possible?

NEWSOM: We're seeing death rates, mortality rates go down. We're seeing case rates stabilize. We have the lowest case rates in the United States of America.

WATT: It's a lot higher in Texas, but:

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We welcome you to opening day.

WATT: Lone Star State-style.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Biggio's first home run of the year.

WATT: In the only MLB stadium allowing fans at full capacity. DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, CHIEF MEDICAL ADVISER TO PRESIDENT BIDEN: That's concerning. They're taking a chance it's risky. I hope we don't see any deleterious consequences of that.

WATT: Nationwide, average daily case counts and hospitalizations are on the rise, the more contagious variant first found in the U.K. now confirmed in all 50 U.S. states.

Down in Miami-Dade?

DR. DAVID ANDREWS, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF MILLER SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: We're seeing upwards of 50 to 60 percent of samples testing positive for the B117 variant, the U.K. variant.

[16:45:00]

WATT (voice-over): (INAUDIBLE) news, Moderna reports its vaccine appears to protect against COVID-19 for at least six months. Pfizer said something similar last week and it's almost certainly longer.

Just over half of parents now say they'll likely vaccinate their kids when they can according to a new poll, and more than half the people report seeing family or friends in the past week, a pandemic high.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I spent $15,000 to come here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Start walking, sir.

WATT: This guy escorted out of Disney World Florida for allegedly refusing a temperature check. Meanwhile, a couple of months after lifting his state's mask mandate --

GOV. GREG GIANFORTE (R-MT): Providing incentives and promoting personal responsibility are more effective than imposing impractical government mandates.

WATT: Montana's governor just tested positive himself.

DR. ABDUL EL-SAYED, FORMER DETROIT HEALTH COMMISSIONER: We've got early reopening, aggressive reopening, more eat-in dining, more athletics, more gyms reopening, and all of those things together are sending the message to folks, that, well, COVID is over, but it's clearly not.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATT (on camera): So California plans to reopen but the mask mandate will stay. The governor made it very clear, he said this is not mission accomplished -- Jake.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: All right. Nick Watt in California, thank you so much.

Republican-backed laws targeting transgender kids, why they may be left on the sidelines, those laws. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Back with our politics lead. The Republican controlled legislature in Arkansas just overrode the Republican governor's veto. So there will be a new law in Arkansas banning doctors from treating any children going through any transitioning procedures or treatments.

Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson said the bill targeting transgender kids was way too broad and blames, quote, vast government overreach but he had just signed two other bills aimed at transgender children, including barring trans girls from playing sports on girl's school teams, elementary through college. As CNN's Sunlen Serfaty reports, a bill such as this are actually a trend among Republicans among the country.

[16:50:05]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It as become a new front in the culture war. Republicans across the country are pushing to ban transgender students and often specifically trans girls and women, many of whom were assigned male at birth from competing in school sports.

In South Dakota, Republican Governor Kristi Noem vetoed a bill that would have barred transgender athletes from sports. But under pressure from social conservatives, later issued two executive orders that effectively ban trans girls from competing.

GOV. KRISTI NOEM (R-SD): It's clear that each and every one of us as men and women have exceptional gifts and differences. They should be celebrated, but those differences are very real, and the physical differences are very real.

SERFATY: One ordering all girls who want to play in girls sports to present a birth certificate showing they were assigned female at birth. This is playing out in Republican-led states across the country, more than 25 now considering anti-trans policies in school sports in K-12 and college, according to the Human Rights Campaign. Three of those states have already signed them into law.

High-profile activists are pushing back.

MEGAN RAPINOE, U.S. WOMEN'S SOCCER: As someone who has played sports with someone who is trans I can assure you all is well. Nothing is spontaneously combusting.

SERFATY: Soccer star Megan Rapinoe penning this op-ed in "The Washington Post" saying the bills are attempting to solve a problem that doesn't exist.

That point has been underscored and debates at very high levels.

ELENA PARENT (D), GEORGIA STATE SENATE: How many girls in Georgia have been denied opportunity because of transgender athletes participating in sports? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah. So, obviously there's not a lot of

statistics on that.

PARENT: So there are none in Georgia.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Again, I don't have any hard data on that.

PARENT: Thank you.

SERFATY: As Republicans in difference to socially conservative organization pushing for the ban have been unable to point to any evidence of a problem.

DANIEL HERNANDEZ JR. (D), ARIZONA STATE HOUSE: Will you cite any examples where a young woman was denied a scholarship opportunity or a title here in Arizona, not outside of Arizona, not anecdotally in another state but here specifically in Arizona because they were competing against a trans athlete who outperformed them?

NANCY BARTO (R), ARIZONA STATE HOUSE: I can't at this point, Mr. Chairman.

SERFATY: And as the parents of transgender kids make impassioned pleas against the bans.

BRANDON BOULWARE, MISSOURI FATHER OF TRANSGENDER GIRL: I need you to understand that this language if it becomes law will have real effects on real people. It will affect my daughter. It will mean she cannot play on the girl's volleyball team or dance squad or tennis team.

SERFATY: Sunlen Serfaty, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: And our thanks to CNN's Sunlen Serfaty for that report.

Coming up next, saving one of the sources of fresh water with a game. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:57:49]

TAPPER: This stunning frozen lake is the largest fresh water reservoir in the world. It's Russia's Lake Baikal, and it's even bigger than the entire country of Belgium. But unregulated tourism, development and shorter winters do you to climate change are melting this natural wonder.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen has our latest in "Earth Matters."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): A power play to help save our planet. Russian hockey legends playing a match on the majestic Lake Baikal, the largest freshwater reservoir in the world. Organized by all-time NHL great Vyacheslav Fetisov who is now the patron for polar regions.

VYACHESLAV FETISOV, UN PATRON OF THE POLAR REGIONS: We play on the ice and ice is melting everywhere. Not only in the North and the South Pole. It doesn't need to be a rocket scientist to see what's going on.

PLEITGEN: I had the privilege of being allowed to play on the match in a rink made of ice blocks at this stunning venue. The initiative is called the Last Game which plays hockey in places endangered by global warming around the world, endorsed by the U.N. and even blessed by Pope Francis.

Of course the reason for this game is very serious. The warmer our Earth gets, the less space there is for games like ice hockey and other winter sports as well. This lake is gigantic holding more fresh water than all of America's great lakes combined, a fifth of the world's unfrozen reserves.

But there are a lot of unresolved problems here, from unregulated tourism, to harmful industries. The Russian government also recently relaxed regulations protecting the lake. And Russia is one of the countries hardest hit by global warming. Record temperatures for the past several years have led to a massive melt to the permafrost, leading to giant sinkholes and releasing even more greenhouse gases, as well as massive wildfires that further increase the world's temperatures.

FETISOV: This is a catastrophe no vaccine could be found (for).

PLEITGEN: And highly hockey won't save the world's climate, at least the organizers hope that will cause some to take action to try and preserve the natural playing fields of the game that so many love so much.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, on Lake Baikal.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: Our thanks to Fred Pleitgen.

Our coverage on CNN continues right now.

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