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U.S. Health Experts Express Concern Over Delta Variant; U.K. Prime Minister Johnson Delays Lockdown Lifting in England; FBI: QAnon "Digital Soldiers" May Become More Violent; Partisan Hand Recount of Ballots Nearly Finished; U.S. Airlines Seeing Sharp Rise in Unruly Passengers. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired June 15, 2021 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00]
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: President Joe Biden is urging more Americans to get vaccinated against COVID-19 as health officials express concerns over a more contagious variant that's now spreading across the U.S. CNN's Nick Watt has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Looks like today, we will pass 600,000 people killed by this virus in this country. Yes, average new case counts are now a tiny fraction of the peak but the so-called Delta variant could cause more pain.
DR. SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER: Right now, the United States it's about 10 percent of infections. It's doubling every two weeks.
WATT (voice-over): Today in England --
BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I think it is sensible to wait just a little longer.
WATT (voice-over): They delayed reopening due to a Delta driven surge.
GOTTLIEB: This could spike a new epidemic heading into the fall. The vaccine seemed to be effective.
DR. ASHISH JHA, DEAN, BROWN UNIVERSITY MEDICAL SCHOOL: The real risk is the unvaccinated people who are very, very vulnerable to this variant.
WATT (voice-over): In part, why President Joe Biden wants 70 percent of American adults to have had one shot by July 4th.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I need you. I need every American to do their part.
WATT (voice-over): Current projection will fall short in large part because of a stark partisan divide, 14 states already reached 70 percent and every single one went for Biden in the last election. Not a single state that went for Trump has even reached 65 percent.
DR. MEGAN RANNEY, EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN, BROWN UNIVERSITY: It's exactly where I expect to see it start spreading. It makes me so sad that this virus has become politicized.
WATT (voice-over): Another potential issue come the fall, schools.
MIGUEL CARDONA, EDUCATION SECRETARY: We have to do better. We have to maintain a level of urgency.
[04:35:00]
WATT (voice-over): In April, 90 percent of K through 8 schools were open. Doesn't mean 90 percent of kids. Take the fourth grade, only about 50 percent attended fully in person in large part because --
CARDONA: Families couldn't handle the hybrid option. They either need them in every day or home remote. So, we need all students to have in person learning every single day in the fall. Hybrid should not be an option as a primary option. It can be done.
WATT: Now another issue for the fall, are there going to be things that only vaccinated people are allowed to do? Well, New York Presbyterian one of the largest hospital systems in the country have just said that all of its staff must be vaccinated to work. And here in California Disneyland if you have not been vaccinated you will still need to wear a mask. If you have been fully vaccinated starting Tuesday June 15th you will no longer need to wear a mask in the happiest place on earth.
Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.
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CHURCH: And as you heard Nick just mention there, the spread of the Delta variant is forcing England to delay lifting further restrictions. Almost all social restrictions were set to end this coming Monday, but they are now pushed back another four weeks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATT HANCOCK, BRITISH HEALTH MINISTER: I know that people have been planning and arranging important moments and that businesses have been gearing up to reopen. So it is with a heavy heart and faced with this reality we've made the difficult decision not to move ahead with step four next week. Instead we'll pause for up to four weeks until the 19th of July with a review of the data after two weeks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: For more on this let's bring in CNN's Scott McLean who's joining us live from London. Good to see you Scott. So what has been the response to this extended lockdown and increased vaccinations?
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well first off, Rosemary, the Prime Minister insists that it will be worth it, that a little bit of caution now could save potentially thousands of lives. But it's also abundantly clear that his government has been caught off guard by this Delta variant first spotted in India. It is 64 percent more transmissible than the U.K. or Alpha variant. It is also about twice as likely to land you in the hospital according to a new study and vaccines don't work quite as well against it. Though the government went to great lengths yesterday to make clear that it is still highly effective. The vaccines are still highly effective in preventing hospitalization, which is obviously good news.
In explaining this need for delay government scientists yesterday showed this bar chart which seems to really say it all. The orange bars there, that's the Alpha variant, the blue ones that's the Delta variant. And you can see just how quickly it goes from almost zero cases of the Delta variant in April, to now 96 percent of all new cases that are showing up today.
So four more weeks gives the government more time to get everybody over 50 with two shots in their arms and everybody over the age of 18 the chance to have at least their first one. The Prime Minister is confident that four weeks is all he will need here. But he also made no promises saying that if, for example, a new scarier more deadly variant were to come around that, well, things could be extended once again.
There were protesters outside of Downing Street yesterday calling for all of these restrictions to go away on schedule. There was also a backlash, Rosemary, from even within Parliament because MPs were not consulted on this before it was actually announced. The House Speaker actually saying that he found it unacceptable that Downing Street was running roughshod over members of Parliament.
CHURCH: All right, Scott McLean joining us live from London. Many thanks for that.
Well after more than a year the lights are returning on Broadway. On Monday host Stephen Colbert welcomed back a live audience for his late night show on CBS. Hundreds of fully vaccinate audience members packed into the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York's famed theater district. As the cameras role, Colbert celebrated his return to the stage.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN COLBERT, CBS HOST, THE LATE SHOW: I have not been on this stage in front of a live audience for 460 days. I don't know if I even remember how to pander to the most beautiful crowd in the world. Hey, look at that man right there. Look at that man right there. It feels like -- it feels a little bit like the first day back at school.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Well, he seemed very comfortable.
CHURCH: Well he seemed very comfortable.
Still could come, why the FBI thinks QAnon conspiracy theorists may become more violent in the future. Plus a rare statement from Republican fire brand Marjorie Taylor
Greene and what prompted it.
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[04:40:00]
REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): I have made a mistake and it's really bothered me for a couple of weeks now and so I definitely want to own it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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CHURCH: The FBI has a stark warning for U.S. lawmakers. QAnon conspiracy theorists may become more violent in the future. Here is CNN's Whitney Wild with more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: The FBI has warned lawmakers that online QAnon conspiracy theorists may carry out more acts of violence as they move from serving as, quote, digital soldiers to taking action in the real world. This after becoming emboldened by the January 6th U.S. Capitol attack.
The shift is fueled by a belief among some of the conspiracies more militant followers that they can no longer trust the plan -- that's a quote -- set forth by its mysterious standard bearer known simply as Q, according to this new FBI report. Alarmingly the report suggests the fact that some QAnon predictions haven't happened hasn't turned some followers off, instead there is a belief individuals need to take greater control of the direction of the movement than ever before. However, some QAnon adherence will likely disengage from the movement or reduce their involvement in the wake of the administration change the report says. In Washington I'm Whitney Wild.
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CHURCH: Republican lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene is finally apologizing for comparing COVID-19 mask rules on Capitol Hill to the Holocaust. It comes weeks after she made the remarks and after a colleague in the House announced plans to introduce a censure resolution. Greene is usually defiant when facing criticism of her controversial remarks, but this time voters in her district began to express dismay.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GREENE: And I have made a mistake and it's really bothered me for a couple of weeks now.
[04:45:00]
And so I definitely want to own it. The horrors of the Holocaust are something that some people don't even believe happened and some people deny, but there is no comparison to the Holocaust. And there are words that I have said and remarks that I've made that I know are offensive and for that I want to apologize.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Well, the partisan hand recount of Arizona's ballots in Maricopa County is nearly finished after six weeks. The effort continues despite two legitimate orders that confirm Joe Biden won that state. But Republicans are looking to this discredited audit as a model to push the lie that the election was stolen from Donald Trump. Sara Murray has our report.
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SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Republican proponent of Arizona's so-called ballot audit on the cusp for wrapping up the hand count.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's the to-be counted coral and that's empty.
MURRAY (voice-over): Of course, there is more to come. The auditors are launching into the murky process of analyzing the Maricopa County ballots for anomalies whatever that means.
JEFF ELLINGTON, CEO, RUNBECK: We've never seen an audit conducted this way.
MURRAY (voice-over): Even the head of Runbeck, the company that produced the ballots for Maricopa County, doesn't know what to make of auditors that previously used UV light and microscopes to pore over ballots.
ELLINGTON: We're like, what could they possibly be looking for? So, he went in a dark room and got a UV light and a black light and started looking at the ballots. So, you know, you want to be open to it, right, if there's something you could see under black light, or UV light it could be fascinating to find out. But, yeah, we didn't -- we couldn't see anything so we're not sure what they're looking for.
MURRAY (voice-over): The Arizona spectacle coming after two previous reviews that showed no evidence of widespread fraud. Spearheading the effort, Arizona Senate President Karen Fann who says she's been cheered on by former President Trump.
KAREN FANN, ARIZONA SENATE REPUBLICAN: I don't know what's legit, what isn't legit, but why would we want to answer those questions.
MURRAY (voice-over): While the audit has come under widespread criticism from election officials both properties, Republicans are still trekking in and from states like Pennsylvania, Georgia, Alaska and Virginia, eager to bring audits to their states, and to try to prove Trump's lie that he actually won the 2020 election.
Josh Mandel who is running for Senate in Ohio and often pats himself in the back for being a loyal Trump supporter, making his pilgrimage to the audit site Monday.
JOSH MANDEL (R), OHIO SENATE CANDIDATE: Hey, we're here in Maricopa in Phoenix where they're auditing the vote.
MURRAY (voice-over): Following in the footsteps of others like we're Burt Jones, the Georgia state senator who supported Trump's efforts to overturn the results in his state.
BURT JONES (R), GEORGIA STATE SENATOR: It was very orderly. It's very organized and it was very just businesslike on the floor and there, and I was impressed.
MURRAY (voice-over): That's Jones heaping praise on the audit while talking to a right-wing OAN personality who's raising money to help pay for the audit.
All of this as the Arizona secretary of state's office's keeps a running log of the problems popping up in the ballot review. I don't know anything so if you want me to do anything, you'll have to show me, a seemingly untrained audit worker says, according to observers.
Another documented concern, ballots that have been flagged for additional review are being mixed in with other ballots and after a software problem, a few dozen ballots remain mislabeled.
Sara Murray, CNN, Phoenix.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Police in Texas have arrested a second suspect in connection to this weekend's mass shooting in Austin. The violence unfolded early Saturday in Austin's 6th Street bar district. Police say one person was killed and another 13 were injured. Officers took one suspect into custody on Saturday. They say the second suspect a 17-year-old was arrested on Monday while attending summer school.
A security guard is in critical condition after a shooting at a popular Atlanta mall. Police arrested two 15-year-olds, a male and a female, in connection with the shooting on Sunday. They are facing multiple charges. Witnesses say the two suspects approached the guard with a gun, but it's not clear what led up to that incident.
Turbulence ahead for U.S. airlines as America's air travel industry picks back up. Reports of problem passengers are skyrocketing. We will explain after this.
[04:50:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: Two football powerhouses are getting ready to clash later today and the coronavirus remains a big concern at the Copa America. Here is Patrick Snell with our minute in sports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) PATRICK SNELL, CNN WORLD SPORT: Yes, hi there, thanks, Rosemary. We start with in news from Copa America. This is a tournament controversially being held in Brazil where over 40 COVID-19 cases now been confirmed among teams and service providers.
Meantime, Monday seeing Argentina taking on Chile. Ahead of kickoff the life of the great Diego Maradona honored in a 3D light show in Rio de Janeiro. The football icon passed away late last year at the age of 60.
To the action, Lionel Messi free kick put in the (INAUDIBLE) in spectacular fashion in this group A opener. His 73rd goal for his company. It would end one apiece, though.
At the European Football Championships a huge match later on today as world champions France take on three-time European champions Germany. While Monday at Euro 2020, look at this, a goal for the ages in the Czech Republic's victory over Scotland, amazing strike from some Patrick Schick from some 50 yards out there.
And in the NBA playoffs Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks have leveled their second round best of seven series with the Philadelphia 76ers, a thrilling 103 points to 100 victory, series now level at two apiece. And on that note, Rosemary, it's back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Thanks so much, Patrick.
Well a scary trend is taking off in the skies, the Federal Aviation Administration says it has received 3,000 reports of disruptive passengers so far this year. CNN's Dan Simon reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Help me!
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The struggle and screams coming from the most unlikely of passengers.
[04:55:00]
An off duty Delta Airlines flight attendant aboard a flight Friday night from Los Angeles to Atlanta.
The pilot asking for, quote, all strong males to come to the front of the aircraft to handle a problem passenger.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am very thankful that it did not end badly.
SIMON (voice-over): Passengers saying the man who police identified as a 34-year- old Stephon Jamar Duncan of Atlanta made an announcement over the plane's P.A. system telling everyone to take their seats and prepare to put on oxygen masks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That created quite a stir amongst everyone around us became tense.
SIMON (voice-over): The plane safely diverting to Oklahoma City. According to the police report, the off duty attendant making statement about being seated next to a terrorist and stashing his personal items like tennis balls in various places throughout the plane. Ignoring orders from the flight crew, the report says he allegedly assaulted a crew member and when another off duty crew member tried to intervene, he pushed her against the wall and put both hands around her neck and began choking her. CNN has reached out to Duncan, it's not clear if he has legal representation.
On Thursday, another Delta flight this one from L.A. to New York was forced to land in Detroit after another passenger became disruptive. And earlier this month, a third Delta flight from L.A. to Nashville forced to make another emergency landing with a passenger trying to breach the cockpit.
These incidents just the latest in a string of unruly behavior in the nation's skies. The FAA reporting it's received 3,000 reports of unruly passengers since the beginning of the year. The majority related to people not wanting to mask up.
SARA NELSON, PRESIDENT, ASSOCIATION OF FLIGHT ATTENDANTS: What we're seeing on board really is an outcome of the stress of this pandemic. People have been stretched to their limits.
SIMON (voice-over): For now, the question is whether things could get even uglier with summer travel season picking up, and passenger numbers starting to approach pre- pandemic levels.
Dan Simon, CNN, San Francisco.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: And thanks for your company. I'm Rosemary Church. "EARLY START" is next. Have yourselves a wonderful day.
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