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WAPO: Trump's DOJ Secretly Obtained Reporters' Phone Records; Child Among Two People Hurt In Times Square Shooting; Rocket Set To Crash To Earth Tonight Within Huge "Risk Zone"; Stefanik Enters GOP Top Tier By Embracing Trump's Election Lie; CDC: Fewer Than Two Million Vaccine Doses Administered Over Past Week; U.S. Economy Adds 226,000 Jobs In April; FDA To Authorize Pfizer Vaccine For Kids 12 To 15 By Next Week; Sweeping Florida Law Adds Voting Restrictions. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired May 08, 2021 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:00]

MARSHALL COHEN, CNN REPORTER: And he constantly attacked "The Washington Post" and other news outlets, including CNN, after they exposed dozens of contacts between his campaign and Russians which is what the story was about that the government is investigating right now. Pamela?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: All right, thanks to Marshall Cohen. Your next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.

Tonight, on CNN NEWSROOM a 22-ton Chinese rocket spinning out of control in orbit, it's set to crash at any moment now. So where on earth and what on earth will it hit?

And the Republican Party submits Trumpism by exiling non-believers and embracing the ex-President's lies.

Also tonight, as health officials look to start vaccinating kids 12 and up, a mother and her two teenagers tell us why they can't wait to get their shots.

I'm Pamela Brown in Washington. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM on this Saturday. And it's the breaking news on CNN. Gunshots ringing out this afternoon in one of the busiest, most bustling places in the world, the center of Times Square in New York City.

Police telling CNN right now that people are hurt from this. CNN's Evan McMorris-Santoro is there. Evan that is the crossroads of the world. It is now a crime scene. What happened?

Pam, you absolutely right. I'm standing here in really the heart of the heart of Times Square. And over the past couple of weeks this place has become full of people again, and as you can see tonight, it isn't. It's been closed off by police as behind me they investigate what is a pretty horrific shooting.

Here's what we know so far. Two females were shot, one adult and one three-year-old. Police tell us both are still alive and now currently in stable condition at the hospital. We're waiting for more information on this. A press conference coming this hour. We've been out here since this began around 5:00 o'clock is when this all sort of went down.

And we are seeing statements starting to come in. Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted earlier today - well, just earlier this hour that, "Thankfully these innocent bystanders are in stable condition. The perpetrators of this senseless violence are being tracked down and the NYPD will bring them justice. The flood of illegal guns in our city must stop."

What the mayor is referring to really is a big storyline here in New York, which is a rise in gun violence that we're seeing. 300 shootings - nearly 300 shootings in this city since the ball dropped here in Times Square and March 30th. That's not a very long period of time for that many shootings and it's something that people are very, very worried about as New York plans to reopen.

Broadway tickets just went back on sale. We're hoping to see that these theaters open up again, right - later in this summer. This is a big deal for New York, big tourist draw. And to see a shooting happen down here can really put a damper on something like that.

Which is why, not only a tragic story, obviously, one that maybe has a good ending for the two people involved. But also a story that can be very, very damaging to New York as it gets closer and closer to that reopening. Pam.

BROWN: Like you said we're going to find out more information around 7:30 when officials will be holding that press conference. Thanks so much for bringing us the latest, Evan.

Well, for decades, Hollywood has crashed all kinds of things into Earth. Maybe it was Godzilla on the losing end of an epic battle or hapless dairy cows getting spun up in Twister or even apex predators in Sharknado.

Yes, but today this is no film fantasy. It is an actual 22-ton rocket, remnant on a collision course with, well, no one knows yet. And that's got the whole world watching and waiting. CNN's Will Ripley is standing by in Hong Kong.

So well, this is part of a rocket that put part of China's new space station into orbit last month. Are we getting a better idea right now of where it might end up?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We're hoping, Pamela, for some clarity within the next hour. That's when the United States is expected to release a new update about the possible trajectory of this massive Chinese rocket. It's the size of a 10 storey building, 22 tons. That's about a fifth as heavy as the Statue of Liberty and it is right now hurtling around the Earth, but it's coming closer to reentry.

The latest estimate 10:04 pm Eastern Time plus or minus 60 minutes. So you have a two hour window from 9:00 o'clock tonight to at 11:00 o'clock tonight Eastern, according to the U.S. The Europeans have a wider time frame.

But during those two hours, this rocket will orbit the Earth more than once. 1.3 times to be exact. Which means according to the U.S., impact could happen in whole swath of countries from Portugal to Spain to Israel, Jordan to Saudi Arabia, even Australia and New Zealand here in the Indo Pacific region. It is just still too soon to know exactly where the debris will come down.

The European still have part of the U.S. in the window, Pamela, but as far as the United States estimates they do not believe that the Mainland U.S. is going to be impacted.

BROWN: Still unnerving to say the least. All right, Will Ripley, things I bet you never thought you'd become a space correspondent. But here you are.

RIPLEY: I will say one thing, Pamela. Just this, the odds are it's going to go down over the water, because as you can see, most of the Earth is covered with ocean. So the Chinese and the Americans, most people believe that the chances are it will go down over the ocean. So we don't want to make it sound like an impact over land is likely, but it's certainly possible and that's what has a lot of people uncomfortable.

[19:05:00]

BROWN: Yes, just that possibility. All right. Thanks for that context, Will, we appreciate it. And joining me now from Paris, CNN Aviation Analyst Miles O'Brien. Great to see you Miles.

So most of us don't realize that essentially, we are constantly being bombarded from space. I mean, one recent study estimates that 5, 200 metric tons of micro meteorites fall to Earth every year. But this 22 ton rocket remnant is far from micro. Do you concur with the experts here who say the chance of any harm on the ground is low?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, relatively speaking, yes. But it's not zero, is it, Pamela?

O'BRIEN: Yes.

BROWN: What I'm talking about here is playing the numbers. 70 percent of the Earth's surface is ocean. That's good news for all of us, since we dwell on terra firma, and then there's an awful lot of unoccupied land.

If you look at some of the previous big objects in the world of space exploration that have landed in an uncontrolled fashion - Skylab in 1979, there was a Russian satellite in 1978. Those landed in very remote areas in parts of Australia for Skylab, Northern Territory is for the Russian satellite.

If you think of tragically, the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia, which came down in February of 2003, as I know, you will recall, huge pieces of debris rained down on Texas, and yet nobody got hurt. In fact, in the history of space exploration, there is only one documented case of a person being struck by a piece from a rocket. It happened in 1997 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the woman, Lottie Williams felt like she was being tapped on the shoulder and the piece that hitter was about this weight of a soda pop can.

So in the history of all those - all those pieces that have come down all those years, that's the one and only victim we know of.

BROWN: Right. But for worriers like me, you know, I think oh, my gosh, it could hit anywhere.

O'BRIEN: Yes.

BROWN: And so help us understand how this came to be? And how - do you expect to see more of this kind of thing in the future where a rocket from another country is just going to come crashing down to Earth and we don't know where or when?

O'BRIEN: Well, the Chinese have some further explaining to do about what happened. And this is obviously extremely embarrassing, not to mention dangerous, what has happened here. It's bad form to launch a big piece of rocket that will get away from you.

The idea on the first stage of a rocket is to, get it as far up as close to orbit as possible. And then that first stage itself its either controlled back down to the surface. Think about what Elon Musk does routinely, right? His first stages are rocketed back down and land on a dime, and he recovers them.

So this is obviously practical and possible, if you can relight some of those rockets. Or you just ensure that that first stage doesn't get high enough to attain an orbit that you can't control. China is pushing in space very aggressively right now.

They want to go to the Moon, they want to go to Mars. They're building a space station. They have 11 more launches planned over the next year to build this space station. And I think they owe the world some design changes on this Long March 5B rocket to ensure this doesn't happen again.

BROWN: Right. I don't know about you, and of course, you're the space expert here. But when I found out that a Chinese rocket was just going to - debris from it was going to come hurling down, I thought, "What?" I mean, how is this even a thing? But it is. And I wonder, and the more I learn about this and how much space junk there is, do you think that it's just a matter of time until someone actually is injured from space junk?

O'BRIEN: I suppose, yes. Probably over, statistically over time, we just don't know time, but I do think that it's time, especially now, because the launch tempo globally - and we're not just talking about China, we're talking about a lot of the commercial space enterprises that are busy in the United States right now - it's really increasing.

Space debris is a big problem. Space Command now tracks in excess of 20,000 pieces of space debris, the size of a fist are larger in orbit. And there are like millions of pieces that are smaller than that, that we don't even track. So there's a lot of debris up there.

And it's high time we came up with some protocols, including saying your first stage rocket shouldn't be going to orbit in an uncontrolled fashion for all to abide by. We need some guardrails on the highway. Suddenly this highway is getting very active after all these years.

[19:10:00]

BROWN: Yes, that seems reasonable to me. Miles O'Brien, thanks so much for your expertise. We appreciate it.

O'BRIEN: You're welcome, Pamela.

BROWN: Well, let's help officials who look to start vaccinating children 12 and older. I'm going to speak to a mother and her teens who can't wait to celebrate getting their shots.

And then a crippling cyber-attack on America's vulnerable energy infrastructure as a critical fuel pipeline is shut down. CNN's National Security Analyst David Sanger will join us live. And we're going to be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: A major shakeup rocking the Republican Party as the Trump wing looks to consolidate power. On Wednesday, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik is expected to overtake Trump critic Liz Cheney as the number three House Republican.

Earlier today, Stefanik said this about the power grab.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ELISE STEFANIK (R-NY): The role of the conference chair who is elected by all the Republican members of Congress, you speak with a unified voice for the majority of Republican members. And there has been significant frustration among the members of the Republican conference, that she is no longer doing that. And we hear that frustration at home among voters. When you no longer have the confidence of your colleagues. It's time for a new direction.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[19:15:00]

BROWN: Well, CNN Political Commentator Ana Navarro; and CNN Political Commentator and Former Communications Director for Ted Cruz, Alice Stewart join me now. Ladies, great to have you along with us on this Saturday night.

ALICE STEWART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Great to see you Pam. Thanks.

ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Thank you, Pamela. BROWN: OK, so first for you, Ana, what is your reaction is to Stefanik's comments?

NAVARRO: Honestly, they make me cringe and they've made me so uncomfortable. Look, I think everything Stefanik is doing is a violation of girl code or woman code in our case. She - when she - first she's - let's just be clear about something. Elise Stefanik is an imposter who goes with whatever hymnal and whatever tune is most convenient and most politically advantageous for her.

You don't go from being a Bush compassionate conservative - she worked in the Bush White House - to being a Paul Ryan moderate conservative. That's what she called herself when she got elected and came to the House, to them being the person who shills for Donald Trump. That just does not happen in a natural way. That happens strategically for political advantage.

And also, look, she came to Congress and she set her mission, one of our missions, was to boost other Republican women. If her definition of boosting other women is to push Liz Cheney off a cliff so she can get on the ledge, that's a very different definition than mine.

BROWN: What do you say to that, Alice? Go ahead.

STEWART: I can say - I'm glad she brought up the girl power, because Elise Stefanik, as head of the E-PAC has worked tirelessly to recruit Republican women to run for office and to engage and elevate and empower women to run. And in 2018, she had more than 100 women - Republican women run for office. So she is about supporting women in the party.

And her statement that we just played is exactly spot on. The role of the conference chair is to unite the party and fire Nancy Pelosi and show a contrast with the Biden Administration. It is not about re litigating hatred for Donald Trump. It is not about undermining your colleagues, it is uniting the party so we can take back the House in 2020.

And, look, I think it's really important. I agree with everything Liz Cheney says. I agree that we had free and fair elections. I agree that Biden won and Trump lost. I agree that the Insurrection was wrong and it was it was a front to our Constitution. She is completely right about all of that.

The problem is, as conference chair, she needs to put that aside and she needs to focus on putting a spotlight on the Biden Administration and a disappointing April jobs report, on the unemployment at 6.1 percent, crisis at the border, the trillions of dollars in tax that the Biden Administration is pushing forward, and the failure to work across the aisle. That needs to be the focus. And Liz Cheney did not do that and Elise Stefanik plans to do so.

BROWN: So, you said it's not about relitigating hatred over Trump and so forth. But the Republican Party is very much keeping the big election lie front and center. I mean, that is the reality. Elise Stefanik just talked about it. You see Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene in their rally talking about it. There's the audit in Arizona. I mean, that is the bottom line. That is what Liz Cheney was speaking out against. And that is why she's basically losing her position. Can you see it that way to Alice?

STEWART: Look, I agree, 100 percent the big lie is a big distraction, and it is inaccurate. Donald Trump lost this election, period, end of sentence and there's no question about that. But if we want to set up a commission to investigate that, and we want to investigate January 6th, let's do that.

Let's look at that. But the role of conference chair is to unite the party and focus on policies and not the past. It does not need to focus on Donald Trump, it needs to focus on Nancy Pelosi and getting her out of office. And that needs to be where the - clearly, as we're seeing, the colleagues of Liz Cheney do not support her. Clearly, they want to see a change in direction. It's up to them to do so. And it looks like they're going to do that this week.

BROWN: Ana, is this fight over? I mean, is the Trump takeover of the GOP complete? Or are Trump and Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene now the faces the GOP?

NAVARRO: Look, I think, you can argue that they certainly are winning this battle. And I think it's far from the - the focus is far from defeating Nancy Pelosi. Their focus right now as defeating Liz Cheney, even finding somebody to run against during the primary in Wyoming and defeating her from her congressional seat.

[19:20:00]

Everything I hear to me sounds like abject hypocrisy. Can you understand that they are mad at Liz Cheney for fist bumping Joe Biden, the President of the United States while they shill for a liar, who incited an Insurrection against the Capitol, and who had Hillary and Bill Clinton on his wedding - the third one?

So, I mean, just it's the hypocrisy that is going on in the Republican Party. And I don't think Elise Stefanik speaks in a unified voice. She is far more moderate than the Republican caucus. She's far more moderate than Alice. She is a squish Republican, like I am, OK.

I was so happy when she got elected. I thought, oh, there comes another moderate Republican, like me. And suddenly, she decided that the way to advance her career was to kiss Donald Trump's ring. And her lips are now so attached to that ring. They have to be surgically removed in order for her to be able to speak.

BROWN: I mean, is that the reality? If you survive in Republican politics, Alice, if you want to survive, you have to kiss Donald Trump's ring and show complete fealty to him?

STEWART: It's not about that as much Pamela as the fact that Donald Trump still has tremendous support amongst Republicans across the country. And if you talk to many members of the GOP conference, I talked to them often, they are listening to what their constituents want, and their constituents support Donald Trump. But more so they support the policies that Donald Trump stood for.

A lot of people don't like his tone, or his tactics, but they do support the policies. And most common sense conservatives realize that the only way it is going to move forward is if we keep Donald Trump's supporters and his base on board. But we also do what we can to bring upon those that were disaffected, sat at home and didn't come out and vote.

So it's a matter of keeping, keeping together what we have and bringing those that we lost in this last election. That's the only way that we're going to win back the House.

BROWN: All right, ladies, thank you so much. I wish we could carry on in this conversation. We'll have you back soon. We really appreciate it.

STEWART: Thanks Pamela.

NAVARRO: Happy early Mother's Day, Pamela.

BROWN: Oh, thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Same to you guys.

All right, coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, as COVID cases, deaths and hospitalizations drop to their lowest levels in months, there's a new hurdle in the path back to normal, finding enough workers to fill jobs as the economy roars back. Paul Vercammen joins us next. He is live in Los Angeles where restaurants are struggling to find staff.

And April's shocking jobs report really highlighted the problem behind all of this, I'm going to talk to economist Diane Swonk about that. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:25:00]

BROWN: Well, the CDC today is reporting the number of Americans receiving a Coronavirus Vaccine dipped below 2 million per day over the past week. It's the first time since early March that so few people in a week received a vaccine shot. The U.S. is still far below immunization levels needed to reach herd immunity. The CDC says about a third of the American population is now fully vaccinated.

And we went to go live in Los Angeles now with CNN's Paul Vercammen. Paul, the plan is still on for California to possibly open up completely in about five weeks from now if certain conditions are met. But Los Angeles is a different place than it was a year ago. How are people they're handling the changes?

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's a far different place. And Pam, you pointed out that California hopes to completely open up well Los Angeles County has reached the lowest restrictive tier for COVID-19. It's in the yellow tier. And an interesting side effect of all this is, as restaurants now have the permission to have more capacity, many restaurant owners are telling us they need more workers.

Behind me A.O.C., it's a landmark here in Los Angeles, they can't reopen one of their dining rooms because they don't have enough employees. And the owners here also plan to reopen and open newly some other restaurants. So how many employees do they need? We'll let the owner tell you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAROLINE STYNE, LOS ANGELES RESTAURATEUR: I think in total, we need to hire about 250 people. And I know that we're not alone in this. Other restaurateurs are having this issue. A lot of job sectors are seeing this. But ours is being hit particularly bad.

VERCAMMEN: And this restaurant, A.O.C. LA icon, pretty good paying jobs. I know you had a manager that was getting paid $75,000 a year, but the Pandemic hit and tell us what happened to that manager as a consequence of not having a job.

STYNE: Oh, yes, you know it's so expensive to live here in LA that she and her husband and their one-year-old son they decided to move to Bend, Oregon where they could afford to live with this uncertainty about their financial future and they had family there. And this is a story that we have across the board with so many employees who have left. They've just left the state. It's too expensive. And with without a job and without prospects they just had to take off.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[19:30:00]

VERCAMMEN: In all, about 180,000 Californians left the state in 2020. Also Caroline Stein, restaurant owner, unlike some Californians, she does not blame the Governor for all of these problems and woes. She said making people mask up and socially distance and locking down was the right thing to do.

Reporting in Los Angeles, I'm Paul Vercammen. Back to you now -- Pam.

BROWN: All right. Thanks so much, Paul, for bringing us a really interesting interview from that restaurant owner. And she, too, she is one of many struggling to find new hires.

It's not just her. You hear it anecdotally. It was on full display in the April jobs report, only 266,000 jobs were added when more than a million were expected.

So let's ask Diane Swonk, she is the Chief Economist for Grant Thornton. Thanks for coming on the show. Help us understand why the sudden drop off in new jobs between March where there were nearly a million and April? Why aren't the numbers going up alongside the vaccinations?

DIANE SWONK, CHIEF ECONOMIST, GRANT THORNTON: Well, it's a great question. First of all, the week that the actual survey was taken, we actually saw a spike in infections and there really is a huge fear factor still out there and workers are afraid to return to indoor venues where the risk of contagion are highest and they haven't gotten vaccines yet.

Now, there is also vaccine hesitancy and there is a real issue with childcare with women coming back. And as your story noted, many young people have actually moved out of expensive areas or not moved into those expensive areas. So the pool of labor that you usually see inside these major cities, just isn't there and that's something that has really been a very big issue.

We've also seen a huge increase in the number of people applying for college now and applying for graduate school. So people try to hit the reset button, trying to get more education, trying to get out of these jobs because they were such high risk and they also suffered so many losses.

Remember the same people that were hardest hit by COVID layoffs, also were the hardest hit by the reality of COVID in their homes and the fatalities in their families. They also have long haul COVID now as well, which makes it harder for them to work.

BROWN: So you know, you laid out a number of reasons why this may be the case, but what I'm still having trouble understanding is why the numbers would be so high in March, right? I mean, those fears were still there in March, the numbers were close to a million though, and then they just plummeted. I'm still having a hard time understanding why that is.

SWONK: Well, you know, first of all, one month is one month of data, it could be a blip and that we know, we've already seen their road to recovery and the pandemic is littered with potholes. So I think the important thing to look at is the biggest job gains actually was more than 300,000 were in the leisure and hospitality sector.

And we know the seasonal adjustment, that expected 300,000, so it was over 600,000 in leisure and hospitality during the month before seasonal adjustments. So we did see job gains there.

But then we also saw things like in manufacturing where there's no computer chips; vehicle manufacturing fell for the second consecutive month. So there were some headwinds. And we saw some of that pivoting going on, so much noise in this data.

Grocery stores fired workers where restaurants were hiring up. So, as people decided not to cook at home as much because they got tired of it, they started to move into that. So there are a lot of issues going on and we have paid people to stay home and they're afraid. So all of those things together made this a very unique situation.

But I think as we get into summer and the fall, you're going to see a lot more supply of workers and you're going to see people have hit the reset button and they're upskilling themselves, which is actually what we need them to do.

BROWN: As you know, Diane, President Biden denied that his rescue bill diminished the workers' desire or need to get back to work. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I know some employers are having trouble filling jobs. But what this report shows is that there's a much bigger problem, notwithstanding the commentary you might have heard this morning. It is that our economy still has eight million fewer jobs than when this pandemic started.

The data shows that more workers, more workers are looking for jobs, and many can't find them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So what do you think about what we heard from him? How much do you think the unemployment benefits encourage people to stay home rather than look for work? Or you know, how much does that factor in compared to the other reasons that you had laid out?

SWONK: Well, we know when the supplements were twice as much, $600.00 a week, the research on it actually showed those lowest wage workers valued the opportunity of a job over the temporary cash payouts and they opted to get a job.

[19:35:07]

SWONK: That said, we're a year into this and fear is a real factor and fear of contagion and these people have suffered a lot and we are paying them. So, it is one of many components that are interacting together to make it harder for us to clear the labor market.

As we move forward, the demand for workers will pick up along with the supply with more people coming back into the labor market. What I'm more worried about is how many jobs have we permanently eliminated by the adoption of all the technologies that we've seen and that something I'm worried about as well is how many workers are displaced?

So this month was a bump in the road. We know there's a lot of momentum out there and we also know, these are the same workers that went hungry and couldn't pay the basics of food and shelter last summer as their benefits lapsed.

They've seen the cliff, and there is another cliff out there by September and so they're not going to wait around. There is a high incentive for them to get back to work.

BROWN: And you brought up such a good point about technology advances, how companies have streamlined automation. We don't have time to get into that, but that also is something weighing on people's minds. How much is that factoring in?

Thank you so much, Diane Swonk. We appreciate you coming on to the show to help us better understand what we're seeing with these numbers in the economy.

Well, Pfizer is seeking F.D.A. emergency use approval to administer its COVID-19 vaccine in children as young as 12 years old, but a new study suggests the majority of American parents are reluctant to get their kids vaccinated.

I'm going to talk to one mother and her children who completely disagree.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:40:47]

BROWN: Well, this week, Pfizer and BioNTech will ask for full F.D.A. approval for its COVID-19 vaccine for those 16 and older. Meanwhile, the F.D.A. is poised to give emergency authorization for the vaccine to be administered to children and teens ages 12 to 15 by next week.

But amid this news, a new study from the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that only 29 percent of parents of children under 18 would get their child vaccinated right away. And while 15 percent of parents said they would only vaccinate their kids if schools required it and another 19 percent said they would definitely not get their kids vaccinated.

Experts say that vaccinating children will be key to ending the pandemic, but how can they convince parents who are unsure about that?

Joining me now is one family who is eager to be vaccinated. Heather Ousley is the mother of a 13 and 15-year-old Samuel and Elliannah, and she is also the President of the School Board of the Shawnee Mission School District in Kansas. Her 13-year-old son Samuel suffers from a rare liver disease.

Thank you so much for coming on to share your family's story and how you're looking at this opportunity that we expect to come next week for your kids in this age range to be vaccinated. You say you can't wait to get your kids vaccinated. What convinced you to do it, Heather?

HEATHER OUSLEY, EAGER TO GET HER CHILDREN VACCINATED: Well, I would be team get them vaccinated from the very beginning. There's been so much stress and concern about making sure that Sam, for any of the kids started -- but specifically to make sure that we were taking care of his liver and that nothing could inflame it or irritate it further, and so I've been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to do so.

And when the news broke last week, it was just this overwhelming sense of relief that this is, you know, we're not to the end of the marathon yet, but we can see the finish line and it's really close.

BROWN: And did you talk to your kids about it?

H. OUSLEY: Yes. I mean, first thing, I was very loud, it was like 6:00 a.m. So, I was very loud, I woke up people.

BROWN: So Samuel and Elliannah, I want to get your view on this. Samuel, so you first, given your underlying condition. How did you feel about -- how do you feel about getting vaccinated and how about your friends?

SAMUEL OUSLEY, 13 YEARS OLD, EAGER TO GET VACCINATED: Well, I'm quite excited. I haven't talked to my friends too much about it. But I think we're all in agreement, and it's going to be a huge weight off our shoulders.

BROWN: What's it been like for you having that underlying condition and getting through this pandemic, knowing you're at higher risk?

S. OUSLEY: Well, caution is always top priority no matter where I'm going. And I think that's probably going to stick with me for quite some time.

BROWN: Yes.

S. OUSLEY: Well, it's a global pandemic.

BROWN: It is a global pandemic. That is right. And doctor say getting vaccinated, you'll get some of those freedoms back and you can let your guard down a little more. Elliannah, what about you? What goes through your mind as you look ahead to getting vaccinated? Are you excited about it? Do you have any concerns? Tell us about it.

ELLIANNAH OUSLEY, 15 YEARS OLD, EAGER TO GET VACCINATED: I am very excited to know that we can be getting vaccinated. I was told that Sam was high risk from the very beginning and I worry about him because he is a bit of an idiot and I am worried about the idiot.

BROWN: Oh my gosh. I love this. If you would expand on that.

H. OUSLEY: They love each other very much.

BROWN: I have a brother and we give each other a hard time, too and I love that you just did it live on national television. That's amazing. But it's also like so -- I love it because it's so real because I think you know you're concerned about your brother, right?

And you know, he has an underlying condition and for me, I have concern about people in my family and they certainly -- they've done things before they were vaccinated and I'm like, what are you doing? I worry about you, you know, so it's so natural that you felt that way.

[19:45:07]

E. OUSLEY: Yes. I mean, knowing that we will be vaccinated keeps that -- I guess, the anxiety up because having a vaccine helps. It just helps on.

BROWN: You can just rest a little more easy now. Heather, you just heard the numbers from a study conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, less than a third of parents say they will get their kids vaccinated right away.

How do you think their minds could be changed? And what are you hearing from other parents in the district? H. OUSLEY: You know, I hear from folks kind of all across the

spectrum, and you know, one of the things I like to talk to people about when they bring it up is that when Sam was very ill, our community just came together to help. You know, people brought meals and if I needed something, people were like, what do you need?

What do you need? What do you need? And there's so many kids in our community, maybe it's not liver disease, maybe it's something like cancer or cerebral palsy or Down syndrome, or there's vulnerable people in our community and this is an active thing that people can do to help families who have a family member that they are worried about.

So the lower we can get the number of unvaccinated people, the more security all of those of us who have a family member that we worry about, the more security we'll have. And, and I try to remind folks too, that there are teachers that we have in our district, we had an online cadre and an in-person cadre, and so next year, everyone will be coming back.

And so we have some educators in our online cadre that maybe they have medical reasons that they're more vulnerable, even if they're vaccinated, if they're immunocompromised, or something to that effect.

So, you know, we want to make sure all of our educators and all of our students have a safe transition back into the building next year. And so it's really -- I think, if people can look and see that their friends are getting the vaccine and that there's families really counting on them to do so that hopefully that will help them see the connection about how it is something that they can do to keep our whole communities strong and safe.

BROWN: And you are clearly leading the way on that as a family. Heather, Samuel, Elliannah, it is so great to have you on the show. Thank you so much and we wish you guys the best.

H. OUSLEY: Thank you so much for having us.

BROWN: Bye, guys.

Well, the signing ceremony where FOX News got the only media invite, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a voting law designed to fix problems that don't exist. For the record is next.

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BROWN: Well, Florida Republicans are the latest to use the big lie about the 2020 election as justification for a harsh new voting law. G.O.P. Governor Ron DeSantis signed the law on Thursday, and he did it live during an exclusive FOX News interview banning other media outlets from covering it.

Why is that?

The bill limits who can return mailing ballots. It is now a crime to drop off the ballots of say two elderly neighbors and a disabled cousin. It also restricts drop box locations and hours. No drop boxes can be used the day before the election or on Election Day. It requires drop boxes be staffed by election officials whenever they are open. And voters now must request mail ballots every election cycle, previously it was every other cycle.

And to be clear here, mail ballots are available to any Florida voter who requests one. No excuse needed. That is more access than most states offer including blue states like Delaware and New York.

In fact, for more than a decade, Republicans they've been bragging about Florida as the gold standard for this, Donald Trump included. He used the system in 2020 and in August, urged others to do the same tweeting, "Whether you call it vote by mail or absentee voting, in Florida, the election system is safe and secure, tried and true. So in Florida, I encourage all to request a ballot and vote by mail." And here it was during a news conference at that time.

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DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Florida has got a great Republican Governor, and it had a great Republican Governor, Ron DeSantis, Rick Scott, two great governors. And over a long period of time, they've been able to get the absentee ballots done extremely professionally. Florida is different from other states.

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BROWN: Months later, DeSantis boasted about how secure the 2020 election was in Florida and so did his Secretary of State.

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LAUREL LEE (R), FLORIDA SECRETARY OF STATE: All Florida voters, no matter how they chose to cast a ballot, or who they voted for, would be confident in the integrity of our election system and the security of their vote.

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BROWN: So all three of them are right, experts at all levels of Federal and State government have confirmed again and again that there was no widespread fraud, and for the record, there was one notable case of fraud in Florida, a Republican operative was charged for allegedly paying someone tens of thousands of dollars to mount a fake candidacy in a state Senate race with the aim of siphoning votes away from the Democrat.

Well, the scheme almost certainly affected the outcome. The legitimate Republican winning by just 32 votes in November, but instead of taking swift action to address that, Florida Republicans rushed to overhaul a mail voting system that was safe, secure and easily accessible and that had Trump's stamp of approval.

[19:55:14] BROWN: So of course, this begs the question, why is that? Maybe it is

a coincidence, but this law comes after more Democrats voted by mail than Republicans for the first time since Florida implemented this system by a margin of nearly 700,000 votes.

But here's a dead giveaway that this may not be about voter fraud at all. In March, "The Sun Sentinel" reported that state G.O.P. senators pushing these measures couldn't identify any problems and the 2020 election that this law would fix.

We'll be right back.

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