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German Man Received 217 Covid Shots; Haley to Suspend Campaign; Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA) and Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R- OR) are Interviewed about a National Security Deal. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired March 06, 2024 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS WRITER: Harm and confusion ahead of not just the U.S. election in 2024, but elections around the world. Already just this week we've seen separate reports that internet users were creating AI generated images of black people supporting former President Donald Trump in an effort to sway voters. So, very real concerns here.

And what these researchers say needs to happen is that these AI companies need to get better at proactively detecting when users are trying to create these misleading images, especially when users are using these so-called jailbreak tactics that are specifically designed to get around the company's rules, Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Clare Duffy, it's a really important story as we march toward November especially. Thank you so much for your reporting there.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, one man deliberately got 217 Covid vaccine shots over 29 months. That averages one shot every four days. In the process, he basically became a walking experiment of Covid shots and the impact on the human immune system.

Let's bring in CNN's Meg Tirrell. She's got more on this and what this one man became, this study he became the center of. What happened to him?

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, he is OK. That's the first thing to say. The second thing to say is, absolutely nobody should do this. This was, of course, not with any medical guidance that he was doing this. He was actually being investigated by the authorities in Germany where he was when he got these 217 shots. That's how medical researchers found out about him and they started to study him.

It's a 62-year-old man. He got these 217 shots over 29 months. As you said, that averages four a day. But there was one month in January of 2022, he was actually getting two shots per day on most days of that month, one in each arm. Now, they started to look at him when he was toward the end of this,

around 214 shots in. And what they found is that he did have more immune cells in terms of antibodies and t-cells then a comparator group who just got three vaccine doses. But his immune response wasn't any better or worse necessarily than that control group. Importantly, also, he didn't report any vaccine-related side effects, which is kind of hard to believe, but that is what they say in this paper, and he never got Covid, although they say they don't know if that's because of all these vaccinations are because of his behavior or something else, guys.

But this guy considered a walking experiment. Never any charges pressed against him in Germany. But he is OK. And this tells us that at least these shots appear to be safe at this quantity, if not recommended at that level, guys.

BOLDUAN: Yes, not recommended at that level, that's for sure.

It's good to see you, Meg. Thank you so much.

The breaking news, it is the end of the road for Nikki Haley. Next hour she will announce that she's dropping out of the race. A huge moment as this race effectively becomes a general election matchup today.

SIDNER: And what are the candidates saying? Wounded, dangerous, and unpopular. That is how President Biden is describing Donald Trump this morning as a rematch between the two is almost certain.

BOLDUAN: Happening right now, Georgia state senators are about to hear testimony in their own investigation into Fulton County DA Fani Willis.

I'm Kate Baldwin, with Sara Sidner here in New York, John Berman is in Colorado. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And the breaking news, welcome to the first day of the rest of this presidential campaign. An historic presidential campaign. AN historic rematch between a current president and a former president with the breaking news this morning that Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, is about to officially announce she is dropping out of the presidential campaign. This following the disappointing showing on Super Tuesday. She will make that announcement shortly in Charleston, South Carolina. We've got live pictures of this event where she will make that announcement again, shortly.

We also have learned she will not endorse anyone, at least in this speech, and she will say Donald Trump has to earn the support of Nikki Haley voters. Nikki Haley's support very quickly being -- becoming the terrain with which this campaign will be fought over in the coming days, if not the weeks and months. It could be crucial to victory for both Donald Trump and President Biden. The Biden campaign put out a campaign memo even before the

announcement from Nikki Haley that she was dropping out that seemed to specifically target those Nikki Haley voters. So we've got a lot to cover this morning as we see this unfold before our very eyes.

I'm joined by Kylie Atwood, who is at the Nikki Haley event, Alayna Treene is in Washington also.

Kylie, first let's go to you. What are we going to hear?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Nikki Haley is going to end her presidential campaign today after running for president for more than a year. She's going to speak here at her campaign headquarters in Charleston, South Carolina, to folks on her staff, to people that she is close with here in her home state of South Carolina, to explain to them that the -- she has reached the end of her campaign now.

[09:05:15]

She is not going to come out and endorsed former President Trump immediately. Sources familiar with her plans tell me that she's going to make the case that he needs to earn the support of her voters. That's not altogether surprising. She has been making the case over the course of the last few months that Trump cannot win a general election unless he expands the party. And while she did not get enough support to keep her campaign alive, she did beat former President Trump in two states, and she had a significant portion of the electorate that voted for her in a number of states. So, she believes that her voters want a different pathway forward. And former President Trump is going to have to speak with them, make the case to them that they should be supporting him.

Now, one thing that I do want to point out is that she initially said that she would endorse whomever became the eventual nominee of the Republican Party. That was last summer. But recently she has been giving a number of reasons for why she no longer felt bound to that pledge.

And I also think it's important to note that former President Trump's team knows that they are going to need Nikki Haley supporters, but we haven't seen them actively reach out to those supporters. And it's worth noting that just last month Donald Trump said that those who are donating to Nikki Haley's campaign are permanently barred from MAGA. Nikki Haley told some reporters last week that those comments really stuck out to her. That that was really concerning for her to hear the former president say that.

Now we'll have to watch and see what the dialogue between the two of them looks like as she is attempting to put herself in a position of power, even though she is ending her presidential campaign.

John.

BERMAN: All right, Kylie Atwood, in Charleston. Standby. That's the opposite of outreach to Nikki Haley and Nikki Haley supporters. So, let's go to Alayna Treene now. Any sign over the last few minutes,

few hours since the news came out the Nikki Haley was suspending her campaign that Donald Trump, the Trump campaign, will change the tenor of their approach to that Haley support?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Well, there's a couple things I want to note here, John. One is that this was their goal with Super Tuesday. Donald Trump wanted to have a decisive enough when across the board in all the Super Tuesday states to ultimately force her out of the race. And so they're very happy seeing that that is exactly what's going to be playing out in the next hour or so.

But to get to your question and to address some of what Kylie brought up is, Donald Trump's campaign understands that they need to do work with moderate voters, with independent voters, with the people who went for Nikki Haley. And they saw yesterday on Super Tuesday that Nikki Haley did very well with suburban voters, a key voting group that his campaign knows they need to pursue and to try to win over.

Now, I know that they had been eager to have him become the presumptive Republican nominee as soon as possible so that they could start really working on those plans and setting up their general election campaign in earnest. That means really fanning out their ground game strategies in a number of the battleground states, like Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, all places where they recognize they have work to do.

Now, the other thing I want to note that colleague -- Kylie brought up is about the endorsement and that she's not going to be endorsing immediately. That is going to frustrate Donald Trump. We know that he has long been very annoyed and angered by Nikki Haley refusing to drop out. And even now he wants to see people like Nikki Haley, and others, all of the Republican holdouts who have been looking for an alternative, to rally around him. And so I think that will not go a long way with the Trump campaign. And I don't think it will do much to really have them potentially look to embrace her at all. I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon, John.

BERMAN: Well, we will all be watching carefully to see what Nikki Haley says, not just what she says though, also how she says it. That will be very interesting and perhaps something that Donald Trump will want to see as well.

All right, let's go back to Sara.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, thank you, John.

Joining us now to continue the conversation, CNN's senior political commentators David Axelrod and Scott Jennings.

All right, Haley going to announce she's out.

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. SIDNER: We are expecting that in less than an hour now. And the big question is, what happens? What does she say? And does she actually endorse Donald Trump, or does she take a moment?

AXELROD: Yes.

SIDNER: We're hearing from S.E. Cupp, by the way, just last hour she said she is learning from her campaign that Haley plans to make Trump work for her voters. What does that mean?

AXELROD: It means she's going to piss Trump off. I think that's one thing it's going to mean.

But, listen, I'm not surprised. You know, it - you know, I've actually lived through some of these where a campaign ends that's been pretty competitive or in tone at least and it's - it's not natural for candidates to immediately reconcile.

[09:10:12]

But, you know, look, my observation of her is that she's been a very skillful, a very determined, a very relentless candidate, but she's also been pretty cautious about not crossing certain lines. And that says to me she wants to preserve her optionality in the future in the Republican Party. And so at some point it wouldn't shock me if she endorsed Trump, but it would be a little startling if she did it today.

SIDNER: Scott.

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think she's miss -- I think she's misunderstanding who the people are that voted for her. If you look at the weekend polling that came out, if you look at some of the exit polling we did on the Super Tuesday states, these people were not really Trump voters to begin with in 2020. A lot of them didn't vote Republican ever. I mean she attracted some Democrats. She attracted some independents who behave like Democrats. Her -- she became an avatar for the people who dislike Trump the most. So, the idea that Donald Trump is going to go out on some reconciliation tour and convince all the never Trumpers that were in her campaign, that's not going to happen. And so I - I -

AXELROD: There may be -- there may be, though, some impetus for him to - to try and reconcile because of her donors.

SIDNER: Right.

AXELROD: Because one thing we know is that he is desperate for money and he wants some of those people on board. So, that may, you know, curb his instinct, which is never to be reconciled, but to be on the -- on the attack.

But this point you make about who these people were, actually, yes, a lot of people who voted for her yesterday and through this period have been Democrats who were free because there was no Democratic contest, independence who are leaning in -- in Biden's direction wanted to engage in mischief, but there were a body of Republicans there who -- more college-educated Republicans, suburban Republicans, and Trump does need to be concerned about that because that's a place where Biden can - can do some business.

SIDNER: You talk - you talked about donors. And I want to put up this Truth Social that Donald Trump did many moons ago, but as the campaign was going. And he talks about those who donated to Haley's campaign. He calls her a birdbrain, if we could bring that up, and -- there it is.

AXELROD: He meant that in the nicest way, I'm sure.

SIDNER: In the nicest way possible he calls her a birdbrain. And then he goes on to basically attack donations, people donating.

JENNINGS: Yes.

SIDNER: People donating to Haley campaign isn't just large scale donors. These - that's attacking the very voters, potentially, that he may need in the general. What do you do about that?

JENNINGS: Well, I think they -- they assumed that the people who were donating to her after it was long past the point of the possibility that she could win are never going to be with him anyway, so they didn't feel like they had anything to lose.

To Axe's point about needing to reconcile with some of these college educated, moderate, some of the donor class. This is part of the algebra of this campaign. If you're Donald Trump and you see this outflow of college-educated voters, can you replace them with an inflow of this working class, multiracial working-class, non-college- educated coalition? You're starting to see it show up in the polling, getting almost a quarter of African Americans in "The New York Times" poll, winning Hispanics. So, really, you're seeing this huge amount of shifting sand.

AXELROD: Yes. (INAUDIBLE).

JENNINGS: And for Biden, can you convert these college-educated voters who have probably behave as Republicans for some chunk of their life more than you did in 2020? It - it - you're going to see significant flow. The question is, is one enough to replace the other?

AXELROD: Yes, I mean - yes, I -

SIDNER: David, I -- what you tell -- what would you tell Joe Biden? He's got a speech.

AXELROD: Yes.

SIDNER: State of the - of the Union speech on Thursday.

AXELROD: Yes.

SIDNER: What does he need to say? Or is there something he can say to try and bring in, not only some of Haley's voters, but some of the Democrats who have gone out and decided, I'm going to vote uncommitted?

AXELROD: Yes. Look, I think more than anything what he needs is an identifiable and motivational narrative for the campaign. Campaigns - you know, we always talk about issues. And issues are very, very important. But narratives are important as well. What is the story he's telling about what his presidency is about, why he's worked on the issues he's worked, who he's working for, and what -- how he sees the future and set up a contrast with Trump, who's a guy who was consumed by his past. That's the story that he needs to tell tomorrow night. And I think it has to be heavy on the things that people are concerned about.

You know, if you're privileged, you sit around and you talk about democracy. I do.

SIDNER: Right. Right.

AXELROD: But if you're - if you - if you're sitting around the kitchen table and you're - you - you're worried about your grocery bills, you're probably not talking about that.

SIDNER: Right.

AXELROD: So, he needs to bear down on the things that - that the American people are concerned about and talk about how the things he is doing are meant to help their lives and improve their lives.

SIDNER: David Axelrod, Scott Jennings, thank you. Always a good conversation.

JENNINGS: Thank you.

SIDNER: Appreciate it.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: We have new details on the Biden campaign's plan and strategy to take on Donald Trump now as this rematch between the two is all but certain at this point.

[09:15:07]

And right now Georgia state senators are hearing testimony as they launch their own investigation into Fulton County DA Fani Willis. You're looking at live pictures there.

And a bipartisan group of lawmakers is speaking out this morning as they push forward on a national security package, a bipartisan bill that includes border security measures and much needed aid to Ukraine and Israel. We'll be back.

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BOLDUAN: So, Congress has been effectively frozen on any and all efforts to pass border security measures and to respond -- to respond to the crisis at the southern border. And also frozen on efforts to send any further and much needed aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.

[09:20:07]

This morning, a bipartisan group of House lawmakers are pushing forward on a $66 billion national security package that they say is the answer to all of this. This bipartisan group spoke out just a few minutes ago.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. BRIAN FITZPATRICK (R-PA): It's no secret that we're in a period of gridlock, generally speaking, with divided chambers, with tight margins in both chambers. And that's a problem with any issue, but it's especially a problem when you have time-sensitive existential matters.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: And joining me now are two co-sponsors of this new House bill, Democratic Congresswoman Marie Gluesenkamp Perez from Washington State, and Republican Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer from Oregon.

Thank you both for joining me this morning.

Congresswoman Gluesenkamp Perez, why is this bill the right solution when House Republican efforts, they weren't -- like Republican only efforts weren't and by the bipartisan Senate deal it also wasn't?

REP. MARIE GLUESENKAMP PEREZ (D-WA): Well, in a system where you, you know, require both parties, this is the only piece of legislation that has support from Republican leadership, Republican leaders like Fitzpatrick and Chavez-DeRemer. And, you know, if you want to build a durable deal, that's what it takes. And that's what were committed to.

BOLDUAN: Congresswoman Chavez-DeRemer, do you think allowing a House vote on this bill, if it came down to it, because this is how politically sensitive some of these issues have become in an election year, do you think allowing a House vote on this bill is worth Speaker Johnson putting his speakership at risk?

REP. LORI CHAVEZ-DEREMER (R-OR): Absolutely. I think Speaker Johnson has opened the door to this. We've spoken to this speaker. He recognizes how important these issues are. I think it's a simple message, we want to make sure that we're securing our border. Why should I care? Why would Marie care? Why would our colleagues care? Because it's affecting our states, its affecting the country. Fentanyl overdose deaths have risen dramatically. We have to secure our borders. This the bill allows for that conversation, as well as give the aid to our allies so they can secure their borders.

So, the message is simple. We work together. We should care about what's happening in our respective states. We should care about what's happening with our colleagues across the aisle. And we should care what's happening as a national security basis for this country. America is watching and we want to make sure that we're doing the

right thing. And that's why we stepped up. And we let the speaker know. And we are hoping that we will have a good bill to bring across that the president will sign. And so we're going to work hard in doing that.

BOLDUAN: The message may be simple and clear and you guys present it quite well. The politics of it, unfortunately, seems to be quite the opposite in this moment rather -- in terms of simple, quite difficult actually.

Congressman Gluesenkamp Perez, who do you believe is going to be harder to convince to support this effort, the hard right of the Republican conference or the hard left of the Democratic caucus?

GLUESENKAMP PEREZ: I think the thing that we need to remind everyone is that this is not a bill that just, you know, burns money paying people with clipboards to study something. This is good American jobs, family wage jobs, building munitions, that support our values of democracy. And, you know, I think it's easy to think about something as, you know, what happens over there and this is just about Europe and Russia. No. When you have a unprovoked attack on a democratic nation and you allow that to go unchallenged, you invite more chaos across the world.

So, it's not just about Ukraine, it's about, do we support our -- these values of democracy and how do we do that? And so I think the way that we talked about it really matters and keeping it focused and narrow is going to be key to this legislation moving forward.

BOLDUAN: And key to getting -- getting more -- getting the votes needed to come along with you, that's for sure.

BOLDUAN: For both of you, I do want to (inaudible) because there's a lot going on with elections today.

Congressman Chavez-DeRemer, you told "Politico" at the end of January you didn't have any plans to endorse anyone anytime soon in the Republican presidential primary. We are standing by in just a little more than 30 minutes now to hear from Nikki Haley, who is going to be ending her campaign this morning. Are you happy to have Donald Trump at the top of the ticket for your re-election because that's - you know, he is now going to very quickly be looking at being the party's nominee?

CHAVEZ-DEREMER: Yes, it seems like we're going to hear from -- that she will suspend her campaign and the Republican nominee will be Donald Trump. And we will move forward with that.

As far as my race goes, again, similar to two years ago, keeping it local is what matters. I'm a former mayor. I'm a mom. I'm a business owner.

[09:25:00]

I work hard with my colleagues across the aisle. That is how a lot of these swing seats are going to be. And it is important to me to make sure that we stay focused on that. And so, as we move through my campaign, I will stay focused on those issues of what matters. This, right now, is priority. And I would imagine in the next 30 minutes to an hour other things will come a priority and we'll take those on as they come forward.

BOLDUAN: You guys -- I'm very sure you guys are capable of handling at all. There's no question in my mind about that.

Finally, Congresswoman Gluesenkamp Perez, in 2022 you - you won what had been a Republican-held seat. Looking at your re-election race, do you have concerns having Joe Biden at the top of your ticket?

GLUESENKAMP PEREZ: You know, I did not come here to be a cheerleader for either party. I am going to fight for the values I believe in. But I think that we have to turn things back towards values and not like celebrity or personalities because then power accrues to, you know, an individual and not to our cultural values. And I think we all lose when we make it about celebrity and not our compass, our moral compass.

BOLDUAN: Well, let's highlight here right now, a Democrat, Republican, coming together, standing shoulder to shoulder to talk policy and to push forward on policy where we can find shared values. It's good to see you both. Thank you both for coming on today.

GLUESENKAMP PEREZ: Thank you, Kate.

CHAVEZ-DEREMER: Thanks, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Sara.

SIDNER: That was nice to see, Kate. I agree with you.

All right, Nikki Haley, live pictures behind me. We are waiting for her big announcement. The announcement that she will suspend her 2024 bid for the White House. We have new reporting on how she made that decision.

Also, right now, key testimony happening live in Georgia as the state senate investigates Fulton County DA Fani Willis.

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