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Biden to Announce Vaccine Eligibility for All Adults by April 19th; Passenger in George Floyd's Car to Invoke 5th Amendment; Full Capacity Crowd in Texas Rangers Home Opener. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired April 06, 2021 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:16]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: A good Tuesday morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Poppy Harlow.

Thirteen days from now every American adult in every U.S. state will be eligible to be vaccinated. President Biden will soon announce April 19th as the new deadline for this. A critical move especially as variants spread. So far, more than 167 million vaccine doses have been administered in the United States. And this is big. That includes 75 percent of people over the age of 65.

SCIUTTO: They were the folks most in danger of losing their lives to this. It's a big development.

Our other breaking news this morning, just minutes from now, the judge in the Derek Chauvin murder trial will decide if George Floyd's friend, the man sitting next to him when police pulled him out of his car in that video there, will be ordered to testify. That friend, however, is expected to take the Fifth. His Fifth Amendment rights not to testify.

Next hour, testimony resumes after just a damning day for the defense. The police chief who fired Chauvin telling the jury that Chauvin's restraint, quote, "absolutely violated policy."

But we begin this hour with the president's big vaccine announcement. Our White House correspondent Jeremy Diamond and CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen standing by.

Jeremy, let's begin with you. I mean, this expands it, in less than two weeks, every American adult. Does the country have the supply to meet that goal?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, that is the thing, right? So access and eligibility are two very different things in the world of getting vaccinated against the coronavirus. But what President Biden is expected to announce today is that he is going to be moving up that target date for every American adult and that is actually Americans 16 and older to be eligible to be vaccinated to April 19th after previously setting a target date of May 1st. Now it is important to acknowledge that already a majority of U.S.

states have already expanded eligibility to that category of Americans and only two states are set to expand eligibility on May 1st. Every other state is already expected to do so beforehand, including a couple of states that announced yesterday that they were moving up that eligibility date to April 19th.

So perhaps not having a ton of actual effect on the ground but what it is doing, it is sending a signal that as a majority of Americans age 65 and older, in fact, 75 percent of those have now already received one dose or more, the U.S. is shifting to a new phase of this vaccination campaign. And the White House wants Americans to know that it is their time to be able to get a coronavirus vaccine and beginning April 19th, all people 16 and older will be able to begin to look for a vaccine appointment.

HARLOW: So, Elizabeth, if you could address the beginning of what Jeremy just said, which is, you know, this goal and the ability to let everyone get vaccinated also really depends on the vaccine supply. Can you tell us where things stand on the vaccination push?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. So let's talk a little bit about why this is so important. In the United States, there are 263 million Americans who are age 16 and older. Only -- I'm sorry, 156 million of those have not received even a single COVID-19 vaccine. 156 million of those. That is more than half. And so that's why it's so important that this age eligibility is going to be changed nationwide.

Now let's take a look at a graphic that I think explains this even better. Right now, 18.8 percent, almost 20 percent of the U.S., is fully vaccinated. But that's just that red chunk. That doesn't really get us close to herd immunity, which is the yellow chunk further on. Even if you put in people who have achieved immunity by being sick before, obtained immunity because they had COVID, you're still not getting close to that yellow herd immunity area. We still have a lot of work to do.

Now supply, this is what my sources tell me is that the Biden administration has been very careful about saying, hey, let's open it up to everyone. They wanted to make sure that there was enough supply. Now is there enough supply? Only time will tell. But I will tell you that my sources have told me that they were very careful not to open it up until they felt like they could fulfill that promise. Until everybody who wanted a vaccine ages 16 and up could get one -- Jim, Poppy.

SCIUTTO: Well, I'll tell you, the momentum appears to be growing. It's in the data as these shots accelerate. That's good news. And we should feel good about that. We need it.

Jeremy Diamond, Elizabeth Cohen, thanks very much.

Now to the other story we've been following very closely, the Derek Chauvin murder trial. Just minutes from now, and we will bring it to you live the moment it starts, the man who was in George Floyd's car, you can see him there in that still frame there, when the officers approached, one having drawn his weapon, you'll remember, that was caught on video, will appear in court via Zoom.

[09:05:06]

HARLOW: Josh Campbell joins us outside the courtroom.

Josh, you know, this is a critical and interesting witness for a number of reasons. His name, Morries Hall, someone who in previous interviews said I know that I'm going to be his voice, right? His good friend, George Floyd's voice. Someone who was a mentor to him. Someone who was the reason he was in Minneapolis and meant so much to him. With all that said, Hall is also expected to plead the Fifth. Can you explain why?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so we're waiting to hear from him. He will be testifying by video. This will not be in front of the jury. The judge wants to question him, and we expect that he will refuse to testify, which is obviously a right that Americans have under the Constitution. But the judge wants to probe a little bit to determine why. Of course, Morries Hall is facing his own legal challenges on separate domestic assault charges but what we expect is that, you know, this would be someone potentially a beneficial witness for both the prosecution and the defense.

The prosecution always wants to hear from people who can explain what was going on around the time of an alleged crime but the defense also is, obviously, trying to focus on George Floyd and this idea that perhaps he was under the influence and that contributed to his death rather than the actions of the officers. So the defense would like to ask this witness, you know, were you two using drugs? But again, we expect that he will invoke the Fifth. And we're waiting for that testimony to begin here very shortly.

SCIUTTO: We're also, Josh, expecting another senior officer to testify on the department's Crisis Intervention Program. Give us the significance of that because what's been notable these last couple of days is multiple fellow police officers, right, of Chauvin, including commanders saying this was not what we were trained to do. So what do we expect this witness to testify to?

CAMPBELL: Yes, this will be a sergeant, one of the coordinators of the department's Crisis Intervention Program, and the focus for the prosecution is laying the groundwork to show that, look, Derek Chauvin and all Minneapolis police officers receive robust training annually in how to use force. How to handle people who are in crisis. We heard yesterday senior officers testifying about how officers are required to render assistance to people who are in distress, even if they are in police custody.

Again, trying to show that Derek Chauvin was not acting based on the way that he was trained. Of course one of the key witnesses yesterday was also the chief of police, the person who was part of writing some of these policies. He testified about what was going through his mind, his thoughts on that now infamous video of George Floyd on the ground underneath Derek Chauvin's neck. Take a listen to what he said. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF MEDARIA ARRADONDO, MINNEAPOLIS POLICE DEPARTMENT: To continue to apply that level of force to a person proned out, handcuffed behind their back, that in no way, shape or form is anything that is by policy.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

CAMPBELL: So just devastating testimony there saying that when Derek Chauvin had his knee on George Floyd's neck, that was not anything that department trained to and obviously violated the department's policy. Again, we'll expect to hear from that other senior officer to talk about that program.

I will note one thing, though, for the defense, the judge lightly admonished the prosecution yesterday saying that he's not going to allow prosecutors to call every single officer in the Minneapolis Police Department to come in and talk about their reflections on seeing that video and Derek Chauvin's actions. So he's basically telling the prosecution here, let's move this thing along. But we're expecting that at least one additional senior police officer to testify for the prosecution later today -- Jim and Poppy.

SCIUTTO: One thing we haven't seen is the defense call a police officer who's defended this use of force.

HARLOW: Yes.

SCIUTTO: It is of course notable. Josh Campbell, there in Minneapolis, thanks very much.

Joining us now to discuss all this, Laura Coates, former federal prosecutor and senior CNN legal analyst, and Charles Ramsey, former police commissioner in Philadelphia, police chief of Washington, D.C.

Thanks to both of you. Good to have you on again this morning.

Laura, explain to us so we can understand why the prosecution might still call -- they are still calling Morries Hall, even though he has indicated he will plead the Fifth. Why do you do that? I mean, is there still some hope that he might change his mind or is this procedural?

LAURA COATES, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, it's procedural in part but it's also to try to preempt the defense from using it to say the prosecution doesn't want you to hear from this person. It essentially moves the blame, if he does not testify away from the prosecution and onto the person that they would like to testify. Hey, if you're a prosecutor, I want this person. I tried to get the person to be there. The person has had this right to plead the Fifth.

If there are some aspects of their testimony that might inculpate them in some way or expose them, some sort of legal liability or prosecution. So they want to essentially shift that blame away from themselves, but there's also the idea of scene setting here. Remember, one thing that was raised yesterday by the defense on cross was of the E.R. doctor, was the idea of, hey, what about fentanyl use?

[09:10:08]

They mentioned rectal use of drugs, they mentioned what he may have been on before the police encounter. And so who is going to get you inside of that car? It's not the Cup Foods employee that we've heard from before about the $20 bill approaching the vehicle. The officers did not do an exam of some kind or talk to him about drug use as far as we know. The bystanders could not. The paramedics were at a loss. So who would be able to answer those questions in the car? The person who was also a passenger in that vehicle.

It closes up essentially that scene setting background aspect of the trial. But remember, Jim, it still has to be focused on the encounter between Derek Chauvin and George Floyd because that is who is currently on trial. Derek Chauvin and that police encounter.

HARLOW: Yes. Absolutely. Commissioner Ramsey, to you, this moment yesterday in the questioning of Chief Arradondo was so striking and important. I want you to first listen to this exchange with the defense attorney questioning him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC NELSON, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Would you agree that from the perspective of Officer King's body camera, it appears that Officer Chauvin's knee was more on Mr. Floyd's shoulder blade?

ARRADONDO: Yes.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: But then this in the redirect examination by the prosecution.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE SCHLEICHER, PROSECUTOR: And so the knee of the defendant was on Mr. Floyd's neck up until the time you just pointed out.

ARRADONDO: Yes. When I view that video portion, that is the first time that I've seen the knee of the defendant on the shoulder blade area.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: How critical is that, and how does it make the defense look that -- I mean, you can cherry pick a moment but that needs critical context that then the prosecution got to in redirect.

CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, that's exactly what he did. He did cherry pick a moment. I mean, he showed about a 10- second clip toward the end after the paramedics arrived. What about the other nine minutes and 19 seconds? I mean, you know, and the jury is not stupid. They know that. I mean, and so I, quite frankly, you know, think it could have hurt him as opposed to help him. But I do think, and I agree with Laura, what this is going to come down to is going to be the science of the -- that you find in the medical examiner's report.

It's going to be what contributed to his death. What was the substantial cause of death? Was it that knee on the neck? Or was it the drugs or what have you? And that's what the defense is going to really go after. And they're already trying to set it up that it was not just the actions of Chauvin. It was these other factors that actually contributed to his death. And I think that's what it's going to come down to in terms of, you know, what the jury really has to go away with and decide on.

SCIUTTO: So to that point, Dr. Brandon Lagenfeld who was involved in this treatment, he gets to the cause of death and mentions hypoxia, lack of blood to the brain. I want to play his answer for you, Laura, to understand the significance of this. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NELSON: Hypoxia is the lack of oxygen to the brain, correct?

DR. BRADFORD LANGENFELD, PROSECUTION WITNESS: Correct.

NELSON: And there are many things that cause hypoxia that would still be considered asphyxiation, agreed?

LANGENFELD: Correct.

NELSON: Drug use. Certain drugs can cause hypoxia, agreed?

LANGENFELD: Yes.

NELSON: Specifically fentanyl?

LANGENFELD: That's correct.

NELSON: How about methamphetamine?

LANGENFELD: It can.

NELSON: Combination of the two?

LANGENFELD: Yes.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: You have mentioned repeatedly, Laura, about the debate over the ultimate cause of death here, substantial cause because that's what the law requires, will be the deciding factor. What was the significance of that testimony? Who did it help or hurt more?

COATES: Well, first of all, if I trust the credibility of this medical officer -- excuse me, this medical doctor who was saying very plainly that there are different aspects of his treatment, course of action toward George Floyd. He had to try to eliminate possibilities. What he didn't hear from the paramedics was any kind of a drug overdose, but he had to concede the point that, yes, fentanyl could be a cause of hypoxia. However, you can't look at that moment and think, if you are the

defense, I've done my job. My seed of doubt is there. Because remember in Minnesota, it has a substantial causal factor. It need not be the sole cause factor. Causal factor in this case. And so you have to reconcile that if you're the prosecution which they did, to go back on redirect to talk about what did you believe was the most likely possibility for why this person's heart had stopped?

[09:15:03]

We have not gotten to the meat of the matter in terms of that causal factor whether it's toxicology report, whether it's anything else, whether it's the kneeling on the neck or the back and the pressure. But ultimately, remember, we're talking about the moment in time that the officers encounter George Floyd. What did they know? What did they do? Even if there was another factor contributing to his death, we heard testimony from the chief and others that when you're in the custody of the police, they are required to perform a duty of care towards you.

So if they -- if he was in physical duress, they were required to render some form of aid. They failed to do so. As the E.R. doctor clearly stated, time is of the essence with every single moment. The survival rate of the person in custody who was in cardiac arrest, who was in physical duress, goes down exponentially. Their failure to render aid could also be now a substantial causal factor.

And so what you're seeing here is the defense opening a bit of pandora's box in an attempt to say hey, let's muddy the waters. Maybe it was this. Maybe it was that. Well, no matter what it is, if there's a duty of care owed while you're in the custody of the police, and they withheld aid for nine and a half minutes, you still have the makings of substantial causal factor and the makings of another element satisfied for conviction.

HARLOW: And why, as the E.R. doctor testified yesterday, did no one inform him as the doctor about what they believed were drugs in his system, right? That's a huge question building on to yours, Laura.

Thank you so much, and Commissioner Ramsey, thank you as well.

Well, ahead for us, we have not seen a scene like this in a very long time. A full capacity crowd at the Texas Rangers Home Opener. No attendance restrictions despite fears of another COVID surge. We're going to take you to Texas live.

And the MLB All-Star Game has a new venue after it was pulled out of Atlanta, Georgia, over the new restrictive voting laws there. We'll tell you where it's going to be.

SCIUTTO: And the U.S. kicking off new indirect nuclear talks with Iran, three years after the U.S. abandoned the deal. What's at stake? What are the possibilities of agreement? We'll have an update.

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[09:21:45]

HARLOW: We do have breaking news out of Maryland in the town of Frederick, Maryland, about an hour west of Baltimore. An active shooter was reported there. Police telling us one suspect is down.

SCIUTTO: Police are also saying at this point there are two victims. This is an aerial from the scene there. You can see police and medics have arrived. We're following all the breaking details on this. We're going to bring them to you as we learn more.

Of course, the other story we're following this morning, the pandemic. It's not over yet. But you would not have known it if you saw the crowds, full capacity crowds, at the Texas Rangers game on Monday.

HARLOW: Yes, at least 38,000. Look at that. Packed into this ballpark for the team's home opener. The Rangers are the only MLB team to allow full capacity at games since the pandemic started.

Let's bring in Dr. Bicette, Richina Bicette. She joins us now. She's medical director of Emergency Medicine at Baylor St. Luke's McNair Campus in Houston.

It's very good to have you. Congratulations to Baylor, by the way. And to Jim, who I think won our bracket. I think I was last.

SCIUTTO: For the record, Dr. Bicette, I picked you guys to win. So I had your backs.

HARLOW: Sorry, I didn't. I should have. But on this very serious note, I mean, look, you're in Houston. You look at these images. I just wonder what you think. Some people wearing masks. Most folks, it doesn't look like they were.

DR. RICHINA BICETTE, MEDICAL DIRECTOR, ST. LUKE'S MCNAIR CAMPUS EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT: Well, you know, Texas has lifted their mask mandate so it's now up to facilities and private businesses to decide how they want to enforce those things. You know, we've been living through this pandemic for almost a year and a half now. If you open the doors, people will come. Everyone is ready to get out, they're ready to get back to life as usual, so we can't expect attendees of a game to social distance and to not gather in crowds if the arenas are not enforcing those restrictions.

SCIUTTO: Dr. Bicette, new studies have focused attention not just on new variants but a particular mutation in both the South African and the Brazil variant. It's the e-484k mutation, it's been nicknamed the eke mutation. The concern is that those studies seem to show that this weakens, not just the vaccine response but the response of other treatments that have been used for people who have been infected, including monoclonal antibodies. That's what the president was put on after he tested positive.

Based on what we know at this point, is this new mutation, is it a major concern? Does it counteract or show signs of counteracting all the defenses that we put up against COVID-19? BICETTE: It's definitely a concern, but it's not a surprising concern.

We have to remember the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is the latest vaccine to receive authorization in the United States, was actually tested in these real-world circumstances. They tested Johnson & Johnson in the United States. They tested it in South America and they tested it in South Africa. And they noticed a significant decrease in effectiveness, especially against the South African variant which seems to be the most virulent and the most problematic.

That being said, although the antibody effectiveness is reduced, it's not reduced to a point where we're going to see an increase in hospitalizations and an increase in deaths.

[09:25:07]

The vaccines will still protect against those two end points, although if you catch COVID you may still have more symptoms if you're infected with one of the variants.

HARLOW: OK. These variants are, obviously, one of the drivers of what's happening in Michigan right now. I was stunned reading these numbers this morning that yesterday in Michigan, Doctor, there were 11,000 new COVID cases whereas just eight weeks ago, there were 563 new cases in Michigan.

Do you expect that to come in the near term to other states as well? I mean, you've got to think it can't just be Michigan.

BICETTE: Absolutely. Michigan isn't an island in silo by itself. It's connected to the rest of the United States. And we need to use this as a warning and heed what's going on there in order to prevent that surge from happening in other parts of the country. More worrisome than just the number of cases increasing in Michigan is that the number of hospitalizations is also sharply increasing. It's about three times what it was one month ago. And the number of deaths are slowly starting to rise. So not only are people contracting COVID, but they're getting sick with covid and they're dying from it.

HARLOW: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Lord, folks, don't give up your guard yet. We are so close.

Dr. Richina Bicette, so good to have you on again today.

BICETTE: Thank you for having me. Have a good day.

SCIUTTO: Well, as Poppy knows, I don't get a lot right when it comes to sports. I'm a New York Mets fan.

HARLOW: That's not true.

SCIUTTO: I'm a New York Mets fan after all. Life-long of suffering. But I did one thing right in March Madness. I picked Baylor to win and that somehow put us over the top. Baylor beat Gonzaga, everybody's favorite, to win their first ever Men's NCAA Basketball title. The Bears just dominated the game last night. Final score was 86-70. It was a lot wider a lead at some times. So CNN has got a little challenge. We get to pick our brackets. Somehow I won.

HARLOW: Aw, you're such a winner, Sciutto.

SCIUTTO: Now, this is the thing, as John Berman said on the air this morning, I'm a Mets fan. I'm used to losing so every once in a while, you know, Poppy, the sports gods throw me a bone. This was that bone.

HARLOW: Look, if anyone is going to win, and it clearly was not going to be me, I blame my husband and Illinois for that. Sorry, hon. I wanted it to be you. Congratulations, Sciutto. Good one.

SCIUTTO: Tell Sinisa I'm coming for him. OK?

(LAUGHTER)

HARLOW: Last time I hand my bracket over to someone else. Like I need to have the confidence to fill this thing out myself. So thanks for nothing, babe.

SCIUTTO: Next time, Poppy and I will do it together.

HARLOW: There you go.

SCIUTTO: Major League Baseball has reportedly found its next site for the All-Star Game. This after it moved the mid-summer classic out of Atlanta to protest that state's controversial new voter law. We're going to have new details ahead.

HARLOW: We are also moments away from the Opening Bell on Wall Street. U.S. futures edging lower this morning. The Dow and the S&P 500, though, did set new all-time closing record highs yesterday. Investors optimistic about the country's economic recovery, especially as the International Monetary Fund says that the U.S. economy is growing at the fastest pace since 1984.

We'll keep an eye on all of it.

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