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EU Members Set to Finalize Travel Restrictions; Italy and U.S. Going in Opposite Directions; More Major Companies Join Facebook Ad Boycott; U.S. Supreme Court Blocks Controversial Abortion Law; Roberts Breaks with Conservatives, Side with Liberals; Inside Look at How Jail Hotspot is Now Protecting Inmates. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired June 30, 2020 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: In just the next couple of hours the EU is set to agree on the new list of who exactly will be allowed to travel to Europe, and Americans are not expected to be on it. That is according to two EU diplomats speaking to CNN. So who will be allowed to get in? Well here is a proposed list of 15 countries right now. Some you might expect to see like New Zealand but others might surprise you like China where the virus originated.

So let's go to Frederik Pleitgen in Brussels at EU's headquarters. Good to see you, Fred. So what's the latest on this and what's the justification for including China on the list?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Rosemary. Well first of all, the list is going to be okayed most probably and then announced in probably one and a half hours from now. So we do expect that to happen fairly soon. And you're absolutely right, China is an interesting case on that list. First of all, it does seem as though European Union officials and European officials do believe that the situation with the coronavirus is by and large under control in China. Despite the fact that, of course, that is where the virus most probably originated. So they do believe that the authorities right now have that outbreak -- have those secondary outbreaks that happened there, for instance, in the Beijing area under control.

But if you look at the sort of draft list that we've seen, the interesting thing about China on that list is that the European Union speaks of reciprocity being one of the preliminary things that they want to see from China in order to include China on that list. That means China needs to allow travelers from the European Union to travel to China if the EU is going to allow Chinese to travel here to Europe. It's one of the cases on the list that is a bit of an outlier and certainly quite interesting, China being on that list.

The other part of that list, actually, is also interesting because it doesn't have nations like China on it but it kind of shows that nations don't necessarily have to be extremely wealthy and have well- funded medical systems in order to be successful at beating back the coronavirus pandemic. You have, for instance, Algeria on the draft list, you have Georgia on the draft list, Morocco, Tunisia, Serbia. Countries that have been extremely successful at beating back the pandemic despite the fact that of course, they don't necessarily have the most well-funded healthcare systems in the world.

Now the U.S., as you mentioned, is not on that list. And that's certainly is something that could be quite an embarrassment for the United States. But the EU continues to say that all of this is medical parameters that are there for this and they believe that right now the situation with the coronavirus in the United States simply is not under control -- Rosemary.

CHURCH: It is a wake-up call for this country. Hopefully, someone is listening. Frederik Pleitgen bringing us the very latest there from Brussels. Many thanks.

Well remember early in the coronavirus pandemic when the U.S. was still relatively unscathed and no one wanted to wind up like Italy where things were out of control and life was shut down? Well, fast forward a couple of months. Now Italy has a handle on things and is getting back to normal.

The U.S., however, has a bigger problem now than it did in May. Ben Wedeman reports on two countries going in opposite directions.

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BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Italy was the canary in the coronavirus coal mine. Proof that the virus would not stay in China, I saw it firsthand.

(on camera): You just need to look at the death notices here. This woman died on the 7th of March. This man died on the 8th of March. This woman died on the 7th of March.

(voice-over): Americans looked on in horror. The U.S. surgeon general warned them to take heed.

JEROME ADAMS, U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: We have the same number of cases now that Italy had two weeks ago and we have a choice to make. Do we want to really lean into social distancing and mitigation strategies and flatten the curve or do we just want to keep going on with business as usual and end up being Italy?

WEDEMAN: Comparing the two countries from the start of their respective outbreaks, it's clear American cases spread much faster. Today Italy has flattened its curve, the United States has not. And while the death rate in Italy was slightly higher, American health experts say it's just a lagging indicator.

DR. ASHISH JHA DIRECTOR, HARVARD GLOBAL HEALTH INSTITUTE: It is turning out that America took it less seriously than Italy. And while we did lock down maybe a little earlier, we just -- we didn't sustain the lockdown. We didn't really ramp up our testing as much as we needed and then we opened up way too early and way too aggressively.

WEDEMAN: Just like Italy before them, some American hospitals are now running out of beds reliving Italy's mistakes. But the government in Rome took on a centralized response.

We managed, the Prime Minister says, to get through the lockdown because we developed a national plan.

JHA: What we have right now in the United States is a President that -- federal government that has decided to throw in the towel and let every state figure this out on their own.

WEDEMAN: Life in Rome is slowly returning to normal. The cafe is crowded with patrons sipping aperitivo.

(on camera): Why didn't the United States see what was happening here and learn those lessons?

DR. WALTER RICCIARDI, ITALIAN REP. TO W.H.O. EXECUTIVE BOARD: Very difficult to understand.

WEDEMAN (voice-over): Dr. Ricciardi advised the Italian government throughout the crisis. He has confidence in American scientists, America's leaders maybe not so much.

RICCIARDI: Some of the best researchers and professionals are in the United States. I think some decision makers underestimating the severity of this disease.

WEDEMAN: Ben Wedeman, CNN, Rome.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: The U.S. Supreme Court has blocked a controversial abortion law from going into effect. Rights groups are cheering the ruling but the decision could open the door to future cases. We will have details next.

[04:40:00]

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CHURCH: Well, tense scenes in St. Louis, Missouri, over the weekend as an armed couple brandishing weapons and yelling profanities confronted protesters walking outside of their home. The couple who live on a private street told a CNN affiliate that a mob forcefully broke a gate and that they feared for their lives. It's not clear how protesters entered the private street but we do know they were making their way to demonstrate outside of the mayor's house. The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department is investigating the incident.

Well, the trial date for the former police officer charged with killing George Floyd has been tentatively set for March 8th of next year. Three of the four former officers charged with aiding and abetting Floyd's death appeared at a pre-trial hearing on Monday, while Derek Chauvin who is charged with second degree murder appeared via video.

And we're watching more and more companies pull the plug on advertising on Facebook. In just the last few hours huge spenders like Pfizer, Puma, Adidas, H.P. and Ford have all announced they plan to pause their spending on the site. And they are joining the already long list of major players boycotting the site over what they see as its failure to stop hate speech, including Coca-Cola, Starbucks and Hershey's.

And to break this all down, we want to go to CNN's John Defterios. Good to see you, John. So we are seeing this increasing momentum in the stop the hate campaign. Is it fair to say it may seem odd if companies don't sign on now?

JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN BUSINESS EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: Yes, it's almost that we're at the point, Rosemary, it's a must do for companies, particularly the larger ones. So there's been a parade over the last five days of the Fortune 500 companies coming out and saying I'll make the minimum commitment. That may be brought into questions as well. Why are you doing it the month of July. So those latest wave that you talked about, wave of companies, like, for example you know, Pfizer, Ford, Adidas, Puma, Denny's the dining chain, all suggested they're going to stop their advertising on Facebook and the affiliated company Instagram for one month.

And then we have another category of companies, large ones, that have taken a different strategy. Microsoft back timed theirs and they started back in May kind of frustrated by the platform itself and what was percolating on Facebook. Then we had Clorox come out, and it's a household product maker that's done very well, by the way, during the pandemic saying we're not just stopping for July, we're going to carry it on to the end of 2020.

So then it brings into question Facebook and the perception that Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive officer is behind the curve here. They admitted over the weekend there's 3 million postings a day for hate and they're trying to eliminate them all here. But is it too big to manage is the question I think it's worth raising at this stage, 2.6 billion users a month. It's a third of the world population that's on Facebook and now, Rosemary, we talked about it yesterday, is it time for regulation?

Well, Common Sense Media, which is one of the players behind this movement, is saying yes. And they want to go to Brussels to the European Union which they think is more sympathetic and say, look, TV, radio, print, it's all regulated. Why are we not doing this in social media and have we waited too long? I looked at the numbers. Facebook had $700 million of revenue back in 2009 and it's a $70 billion company today and extremely dependent on advertising. It's not the tipping point yet, but we're getting there pretty rapidly -- Rosemary.

CHURCH: And we'll see what impact it ultimately has. John Defterios joining us from Abu Dhabi. Many thanks.

Well now to a major victory for abortion rights advocates in the United States. The Supreme Court has struck down a Louisiana law meant be to make obtaining abortions more difficult if not impossible.

[04:45:00]

The law barred doctors from performing the procedure unless they had admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. Critics say that would have closed nearly every clinic in the state. But Chief Justice John Roberts broke with his fellow conservatives and sided with the court's liberal members and the Supreme Court declared the law unconstitutional in a 5-4 ruling.

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CHURCH: Joining me now is Jeffrey Rosen, President and CEO of the National Constitution Center. He also teaches at George Washington University Law School. Thank you so much for being with us.

JEFFREY ROSEN, PRESIDENT AND CEO, NATIONAL CONSTITUTION CENTER: Thank you.

CHURCH: So how significant was the move by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to side with liberal justices to block the Louisiana abortion law that would have closed most clinics in that state?

ROSEN: Chief justice Roberts' decision to side with the liberals in the abortion case is tremendously significant. It shows that he is willing to take precedent very seriously, even in a case that people believe was wrongly decided as an original matter. In that sense it provides a strong sense of how he could vote in future cases which asked Roe v. Wade to be overturned and, in that sense, it should give great comfort to those who want to votes in the spot.

CHURCH: Right, and I do want to get to that because Chief Justice Roberts also cited with liberal Justices recently into other significant cases. Upholding the immigration program that allowed DREAMERs to stay in this country. And he also sided with an opinion that extended antidiscrimination protections to LGBTQ workers. Is he becoming the new swing vote on the Supreme Court? Or is that being overly simplistic here?

ROSEN: Chief Justice Roberts is at the center of the court. He's the median justice and he's now shown that it's very much the Roberts court. He has taken the court into his own image and he's made clear that he cares deeply about the institutional legitimacy of the court. In all of these cases he believed that siding with the progressives was the right thing to do legally but also that it was important for the court institutionally.

He has not become a liberal by any means. He voted with the conservatives to strike down the consumer protection financial board that Elizabeth Warren created. He may well vote with the conservatives in the cases that are coming up involving Trump subpoenas and religious liberty. But he is an institutionalist. And when he thinks that the court will appear partisan by having a 5-4 vote on liberal versus conservative lines, he wants to avoid that at all costs. That's why this series of votes with the liberals is so tremendously significant.

CHURCH: And since taking office, President Trump has named and appointed two conservative justices to the Supreme Court. So supporters of abortion rights were fearful that this would strengthen the conservative majority and put landmark opinions like Roe versus Wade in jeopardy as you mentioned. Justice Clarence Thomas said in his dissent Monday that Roe should be revisited. What will likely happen when it is?

ROSEN: We can't know for sure what will happen in Roe is revisited. Justice Gorsuch said Roe is not at stake in this case. But this case is a decent indication that the four other conservative justices are willing to consider overturning Roe. And Chief Justice Roberts seems less willing. He says that precedent is important that reliance interests are tremendously important. And by that he meant when people have structured and come to rely on that decision, then the court should be hesitant to overturn it even if they think it was wrong as an original matter. So too soon to either celebrate or lament either way if you're for or against the future of Roe. But this case definitely is a strong suggestion that Chief Justice Roberts would be less willing to overturn it then many people thought.

CHURCH: Jeffrey Rosen, we thank you for your analysis.

ROSEN: Thank you so much.

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CHURCH: And you are watching CNN NEWSROOM.

Still to come, a CNN team goes behind bars to see how one of America's largest jails is trying to stop coronavirus from spreading following a huge outbreak. Back with that in just a moment.

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CHURCH: The U.S. state of Illinois is now allowing people to dine indoors and workout in gyms despite having one of the highest number of coronavirus cases in the country. One of the state's early outbreaks inside Chicago's Cook County Jail. CNN's Omar Jimenez went behind bars to see how they're now keeping inmates and staff safe.

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OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Inside Chicago's Cook County Jail there's a delicate balance at play. Now more than ever weighing the usual demands of being one of the biggest jails in the country against the potent reality of the coronavirus pandemic.

(on camera): We're walking into a particular pod here at Cook County Jail where like all of them they had to cut down their population about 50 percent as a precaution for the coronavirus here. Because there are just some things you can't control in a jail but what you can do is try and spread people out.

(voice-over): Sheriff Tom Dart says if they see a spike of detainees in the summertime as they typically do, that delicate balance quickly gets thrown off.

THOMAS DART, COOK COUNTY SHERIFF: These are all these interlinking parts where there's not unlimited beds, there's not unlimited space, unlimited correctional staff to watch them.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Which means Dart says they may have to go back to putting two in a cell, specifically those who have recovered from coronavirus like Robert Cook.

ROBERT COOK, PRISON INMATE: I couldn't taste anything and it just had my head was hurting real bad.

JIMENEZ: He's being housed within a guaranteed camp created by the jail for the pandemic to separate out those who were symptomatic, confirm sick or recovering.

[04:55:00]

MICHAEL ALLEN, INMATE WHO RECENTLY RECOVERED FROM COVID-19: They make sure we keep everything clean. You know I would just like to say that I hope it comes to an end real soon.

JIMENEZ: The camp became crucial as the numbers began to explode.

DR. CONNIE MENNELLA, CHAIRPERSON, CORRECTIONAL HEALTH DEPARTMENT, CERMAK HEALTH SERVICES: We knew it wasn't going to be if coronavirus was going to come to the jail. If coronavirus is in the city of Chicago, it's going to come to the jail.

JIMENEZ (on camera): You expected it to hit but you couldn't anticipate how hard it would hit?

MENNELLA: When I look back, you know it feels like the fog of war. We were in war.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): The number of confirmed cases of the jail went from 38 detainees in late March to over 250 just a week and a half later. In total since the first confirmed cases in mid-March, more than 500 detainees ended up testing positive, seven of them died, along with over 400 employees testing positive with three of them dying. At one point the jail was labeled by one newspaper as the largest known source for coronavirus infections in the country, a label Dart said was unfair.

DART: No one else was testing. And were all sitting here saying, what did we do wrong? We literally did everything based on be science and logic. And the only thing we did wrong is that we were transparent.

JIMENEZ: Now the numbers have changed dramatically going from what was once a more than 90 percent positivity rate down to less than 1. Even in-person visitations have resumed for the first time in nearly three months. A lot of it stemming from here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just relax.

JIMENEZ (on camera): Did this test make you feel any better at all? HERMAN ALEXANDER, PRISON INMATE: The fact that we get results makes

me feel better.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Testing is now among the biggest weapons the jail is armed with.

VICTORIA FURLOW, SCREENER: A lot of them say I don't have it, I'm not sick. You may not be sick but you may have COVID-19.

MENNELLA: You don't have to be symptomatic. You don't have to have a risk factor. We are going to test you for COVID.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Omar Jimenez with that report.

And think you so much for your company. I'm Rosemary Church. "EARLY START" is up next. You're watching CNN. Have a great day.

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