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Senate Democrats Reach Agreement on $3.5 Trillion Budget Resolution; Biden: Texas Republicans Want to Make It Harder to Vote; Unvaccinated Americans Driving Surge in Variant Cases; Huge Jump in Vaccination Booking in France After Macron Speech; Violence and Looting in South Africa; Activists: 100+ Arrested or Missing in Cuba After Protests; U.S. Citizens Accused of Orchestrating Attack on Haitian President; U.N.: Millions Displaced in Afghanistan, Humanitarian Crisis Looming. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired July 14, 2021 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:00]
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church.
Just ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM, Democrats strike a multitrillion dollar budget deal with other Democrats. But still not all of them are sold on the high cost.
Britney Spears' conservatorship case heads back to court, find out what is at stake in today's hearing.
And the U.S. wildfire season is off to its worst start in a decade with California already breaking records.
Good to have you with us. Well in just a matter of hours, U.S. President Biden will sit down with Senate Democrats. He is hoping to win over skeptical lawmakers when it comes to spending trillions of dollars on his policy ambitions. Late Tuesday Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee agreed on a $3.5 trillion budget resolution, but the plan would go beyond traditional infrastructure and tackle other key items such as Medicare.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): Every major program that President Biden has asked us for is funded in a robust way. And in addition we are making some additions to that. Most important something that Senator Sanders has led and convinced America is so important, which is the robust expansion of Medicare. We are very proud of this plan, we know we have a long road to go, but we'll get it done for the sake of making average Americans' lives a whole lot better.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Well it's unclear if the proposal will earn support from moderates. Schumer has promised the legislation eventually will have the 50 votes it needs to pass the Senate.
Well the infrastructure agreement followed a fiery speech from Joe Biden on the important of protecting voting rights. His speech in Philadelphia came amid pressure from progressives in his own party to speak out against restrictive new laws in Republican controlled states.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The assault on free and fair elections is just such a threat literally. I've said it before, we're facing the most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War. That's not hyperbole. Since the Civil War. The Confederates back then never breached the Capitol as insurrectionist did on January 6. I'm not saying this to alarm you. I'm saying this because you should be alarmed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: At least 17 Republican-controlled states have passed at least 30 laws to tighten voting restrictions since Biden won the 2020 election. Texas lawmakers are in the spot height right now. Most of the Democrats in the statehouse traveled to Washington this week. Their absence from the capital in Austin prevents a quorum in the legislature and a vote on the election bills. President Biden took aim at Republican efforts to make it harder to vote.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: In Texas for example, Republican-led state legislature wants to allow partisan poll watchers to intimidate voters and imperil -- and impartial poll workers. They want voters to dive further and be able to be in a position where they wonder who's watching them and intimidating them. To wait longer to vote, to drive a hell of a lot longer -- excuse me, a long way to get the vote. They want to make it so hard and inconvenient that they hope people don't vote at all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: The Texas lawmakers got a warm welcome from Vice President Kamala Harris who traveled to Capitol Hill to meet with them. She told the group defending the right of the American people to vote is as American as apple pie.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I know what you have done comes with great sacrifice both personal and political. And you are doing this in support and in defense of some of our nation's highest ideals.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: The Texas Democrats also met with Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.
[04:05:00]
One option under discussion is creating a special provision in filibuster rules to allow for a Senate vote on voting rights. More now from CNN's Ryan Nobles.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RYAN NOBLES, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The lawmakers here in Washington said that they came to D.C. with a very specific goal. Listen to how they lay that goal out.
CHRIS TURNER, TEXAS STATE HOUSE DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS CHAIR: We have a short window here as was previously mentioned, this session ends August 7. And we can't hold this tide back forever. We're buying some time. We need Congress and all of our federal leaders to use that time wisely.
NOBLES: There is just not the energy right here in the federal capital do something drastic like carving out a special provision in the filibuster rule to pass voting rights legislation. The Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer was specifically asked if he would push his fellow Senators to take that step. And his answer was that everything right now is on the table.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Well the Texas Democrats admit that they can only hold off Republican voting restrictions for just so long. The states Republican Governor Greg Abbott says when the lawmakers return to Texas, they will be arrested and held inside the capitol until they do their job.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. GREG ABBOT (R-TX): I can and I will continue to call special session after special session after special session all the way up until election next year.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Republicans in the Texas statehouse are furious with their Democratic colleagues. They say that their reforms will not make it harder to vote especially for minorities.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATT SHAHEEN, TEXAS STATE HOUSE REPUBLICAN: I want to be a little bit more clear on the election integrity bill. There is no suppression. That is a lie. They are lying to the citizens of Texas. I am a minority. My grandmother took weeks to get to the United States in the 1930s from the Middle East. And there were people on her ship that died, that perished coming to the United States. So the idea that I would support suppressing my own vote is ridiculous. So literally the Texas Democrats have no foundation. What they are doing is based on lies. So they need to come back to Texas, honor their oaths, respect their constituents and get to work.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: The delta variant now accounts for nearly 58 percent of all U.S. COVID infections, that is according to the CDC. New cases in the U.S. are on the rise, but vaccinations are not keeping up with the trend. Here is CNN's Erica Hill with more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ERICA HILL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Despite millions of shots in arms, the U.S. is moving in the wrong direction.
DR. CHRIS PERNELL, FELLOW, AMERICAN COLLEGE OF PREVENTIVE MEDICINE: This is primarily a pandemic of the unvaccinated. And we need to be very clear about that message.
HILL (voice-over): Daily vaccination rates are down nearly 50 percent since last week. Average new cases jumping 97 percent. And those are just the ones we know about.
DR. VIVEK MURTHY, U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: People are thinking, oh, COVID's over, why do I really need to get tested? And this is particularly happening in areas, unfortunately, where the vaccination rates are low, which is exactly where we want to be testing more.
HILL (voice-over): The data is clear. States that have fully vaccinated more than half their residents are reporting fewer cases. But even those bright spots are surrounded by a sea of red, at least 46 states now seeing a rise in new cases over the past week.
DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: We have a solution to this for this. And the solution is vaccination.
HILL (voice-over): As more states work to ban vaccine requirements or proof of vaccination, at least seven passing legislation aimed at public schools.
PERNELL: When states make that move, they get in the way of good and effective public health.
HILL (voice-over): In Tennessee, 14 to 17-year-olds don't need parental consent for medical care, including vaccines. A state medical director shared a memo laying out that policy and says it resulted in her being fired.
DR. MICHELLE FISCUS, FIRED TENNESSEE TOP VACCINATION OFFICIAL: I've not done anything wrong except inform our physicians of where the guidelines were around vaccinating minors. And the people of Tennessee have been sold out for politics.
HILL (voice-over): The Tennessee Department of Health told CNN it can't comment on personnel matters.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Our thanks to Erica Hill for that report. Well since firing the doctor, Michelle Fiscus, Tennessee has announced
the state will cease all adolescent vaccination outreach for any disease. The Tennessean reports that if the state health department has to issue any vaccine information, they are not even allowed to use their own logo. Fiscus says it all comes down to politics.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[04:10:00]
FISCUS: I was told by some folks within the department just this morning that that includes infant immunizations as well. So you know, it is any kind of outreach around the importance of vaccines for children, around the importance of COVID-19 vaccine for adolescents especially has been halted even going so far as to cancel events that are scheduled well into the fall for flu vaccination within schools. And you know, this is -- I think it can only be explained as our leadership's attempt to placate the legislators as she has made it clear that she has political aspirations for run for governor, Senator or get a White House cabinet appointment as she explained to the Tennessean newspaper a few weeks ago.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: So far the Tennessee Department of Health has not commented on the matter.
Well people in France are clamoring to get their COVID shots after the French president warned many popular pastimes will be tougher to enjoy without proof of vaccination. Some 1.7 million people have since signed up for their vaccines which is a record. And that crashed the website used for bookings. Emmanuel Macron also suggested that if the infection rate get worse, vaccinations could become mandatory.
So CNN's Melissa Bell joins us now live from Paris from a cafe there looking delightful. So tell us, Melissa, this seems to be the strategy that works, doesn't it? Just tell people get a shot and you can have access to cafes and a whole lot of other fun things.
MELISSA BELL, CNN PARIS CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Essentially anything that you might enjoy doing you're going to need to show that COVID pass. Now basically what it involves is it shows on an app on your phone whether you've been vaccinated or have had a PCR negative test. The trouble is PCR negative tests that until now have been free. You're going to start having to pay for in this autumn and I think that that has helped focus the minds.
I'm sitting here just a block away from the Champs-Elysees, the famous 14th of July military parade has just gotten underway with Emmanuel Macron on the Champs-Elysees there. And even as that parade gets underway, here they've been closing the gates for the people hoping to get in to be amongst the crowds.
Now because it was an event of more than 1,000 people, the COVID pass was being checked here by the policeman, not just the bags for any weapons that people might have been carried in, but the COVID pass is being checked. We saw a bunch of people being turned away because they hadn't had their second dose in time for it to count.
But what's going to change over the coming weeks that it is even access to things like terraces, restaurants, bars, cafes, you are now going to have to show that app. And really the idea in Emmanuel Macron's speech on Monday, Rosemary, was to help people -- convince people voluntarily for the time being that they really need to go and get vaccinated now.
What France and other European countries are coming up against, Rosemary, is more and more now that the problem of supply has been fixed, that wall of vaccine hesitancy here in France it is something like 40 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated. The French government wants to get it much, much higher than that. For the time being it is hoping that by encouraging people to get vaccinated -- that as he made clear on Monday night and as you said a moment ago, they might have to consider if all else fails mandatory vaccination for not just the health care workers as he announced on Monday night -- Rosemary.
CHURCH: All right, many thanks to our Melissa Bell there in a cafe in Paris, appreciate it.
Well not long ago Australians were free to move about the country with the COVID situation largely under control. But the greater Sydney area's lockdown has once again been extended and millions of people are now wondering when it will ever end. Stay-at-home orders were supposed to expire on Friday but will now remain in place until at least July 30th. That's after New South Wales recorded almost 100 new COVID cases on Wednesday. Less than 10 percent of the Australian population is fully vaccinated, and that is according to Johns Hopkins University.
Authorities say a deadly hospital fire in southeastern Iraq appears to have started when sparks from faulty wiring caused an oxygen tank to explode. The fire then spread to the ICU treating COVID patients killing at least 92 people. Here is how one witness described the scene.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KHAZAAL GHALEEM, WITNESSED THE FIRE (through translator): The front door was burning and the back door was closed so people couldn't get out. But before the fire broke out, some of them managed to get out and afterwards people were stuck inside and the ceiling fell on them. We managed to take out some people but they were suffering and the rest had been burnt and died. There are families who are still searching for their relatives.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: And some of the bodies were burned so badly, they will require DNA testing to identify them. According to Reuters, one medic at the hospital says the facility does not have a sprinkler system or fire alarm.
[04:15:00] Three days of mourning will be observed starting Friday.
Well still to come, new details about the American citizen accused of orchestrating the assassination of Haiti's president.
Plus police in South Africa are struggling to contain violent protests, some of the worst the country has seen in years. We will have a live report. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: At last 72 people are dead after days of violent protests and looting in South Africa. Police have arrested more than 1,200 people, but they've struggled to contain the chaos, some of the worst the country has seen in years. The wave of violence erupted after former South African President Jacob Zuma was jailed for refusing to appear before an anti-corruption commission. But authorities say the chaos has devolved into opportunistic lawlessness. CNN's David McKenzie joins us now from Soweto. So David, what is the latest on efforts to control the situation?
[04:20:00]
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Rosemary, what you're seeing behind me is pride of Soweto, it's Maponya Mall. And the people you see behind me are not police or military, they are private citizens that have banded together throughout the night, they say that they were protecting this mall. One of the very few here is Soweto, south of Johannesburg that wasn't targeted by looter in a very bad couple of days of looting and unrest in South Africa where more than 70 people were killed.
Today the police are still trying to deal with sporadic looting across Johannesburg. There's also incidents in Durban and other parts of that province.
But the leader of this group behind me described how they actually had to exchange fire several times with organized looters trying to get into this mall. You know, one of the first and most prominent malls of this kind that really showed that Soweto was growing and becoming something that people could be proud of. Today South Africans were waking up to the harsh reality of a huge amount of infrastructure being burnt and looted over the last few days -- Rosemary.
CHURCH: Yes, a lot of those business owners really struggling too. David McKenzie bringing us the latest on that, many thanks.
Well demonstrators in Miami shut down part of a major highway in a rally to show solidarity with the Cuban people. This follows Sunday's unprecedented protests in Cuba as the country battles a growing economic crisis and a food and medicine shortage. Antigovernment activists say more than 100 people have been arrested or are missing since those protests. And one person has reportedly died after clashes with police.
Cuba's government has cut internet access to discourage anymore demonstrations. Despite that, videos are still appearing on social media claiming to show the protests and police crackdown. CNN has not confirmed the authenticity of the videos. Cuba's government blames the country's economic troubles on U.S. sanctions with some of the toughest measures being put in place by the Trump administration. Here's what the current administration says it's doing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NED PRICE, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: Even before these protests started, we are looking for ways in the midst of COVID and midst of the other hardships that the Cuban people have endured because of again, the corruption and mismanagement of their own government. Perhaps the indifference of their own government. We are looking for ways that we might support the Cuban people in a way that's consistent with our interests, that's consistent with our values.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: According to state media, former Cuban President Raul Castro took part in a high level government meeting to discuss the protests.
Well the list of suspects linked to the brazen assassination of Haiti's president is growing longer. Haitian police are now looking for ten new individuals in connection to the attack. Officials have publicly identified three of the new suspects including a former Haitian Senator. So far 39 people have been tied to the murder of Jovenel Moise last Wednesday including at least three U.S. citizens.
That list of Americans includes Christian Emmanuel Sanon, the man accused of orchestrating the assassination and several other suspects reportedly have direct ties to U.S. law enforcement. CNN's Matt Rivers has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This site has been sealed by the Port-au-Prince magistrate, reads the note on the door of the medical NGO, the compound where authorities say Christian Emmanuel Sanon5, an American citizen helped orchestrate the assassination of Haiti's president, Jovenel Moise.
When police cars descended to arrest Sanon over the weekend they found him at the house just across the street from the NGO, along with lots of ammunition, holsters and shooting targets. Authorities say he helped recruit and organize the 26 Colombians and two Americans they believed carried out the killing.
RIVERS: We've spoke to several neighbors now who were too nervous to go on camera with us but tell us that the amount of activity at this compound over the last month or two really started to increase. And interestingly, they say they saw a man going from that compound to this one which is where Sanon was arrested. They said all of the men were foreigners that were, quote, muscular, like bodyguards, sometimes with camouflage pants.
RIVERS (on camera): There is no way to know for sure if those same men are among the suspects, suspects that Sanon is claiming to have never met. In police interviews he is arguing he is innocent -- according to a source directly involved in the investigation. CNN spoke to that source over the phone and agreed to conceal his identity.
Sanon said he doesn't know anything about the assassination, said our source. He says he is a pastor. His wife and children live abroad but he's been in the country for about a month. He says he didn't know the ammunition was in the house, this is what he said since the first day.
[04:25:00]
Sanon appears to split his time between south Florida and Haiti and has been involved for years in medical charity work. He's also been a longtime critic of the Haitian government saying this in a YouTube video from 2020.
CHRISTIAN EMMANUEL SANON, FLORIDA-BASED PASTOR: Where is the leadership of Haiti? Nowhere to be found. You know why? Because they're corrupt.
RIVERS (voice-over): Sanon is not the only American allegedly playing a key role in the assassination, two more Americans seen here, James Solages and Joseph Vincent have been detained in Haiti as suspects. And CNN is also reporting that several other suspects in the assassination have direct ties to U.S. law enforcement as informants. The DEA has confirmed at least one of them worked for them in the past as an informant.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: DEA operation. Everybody, back up! Stand down!
RIVERS (voice-over): The night of the assassination you can even hear a suspect shout, he was working for the DEA, though U.S. officials have repeatedly said that that was a lie. And the U.S. doesn't just have connections to the crime but to its aftermath. Haitians have been showing up at the U.S. embassy in Port-au-Prince asking for visas. Some are desperate to leave an island where poverty, violence and corruption are chronic, the assassination, just the final straw.
Matt Rivers, CNN, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Fighting between the Taliban and government forces is pushing Afghanistan to the brink of a humanitarian crisis. The U.N. Refugee Agency reports 3.5 million people are displaced inside the country forced from their homes during years of conflict. That pace is rapidly accelerating. More than 2 million have fled to Pakistan and Iran. Civilian casualties are up as well as reports of extortion by armed groups. CNN's Anna Coren has more now from the Afghan capital.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As the security situation continues to deteriorate across Afghanistan, the French embassy here in Kabul is calling on all its citizens to leave the country. The French government is organizing a special flight on Saturday to take the entire French community back to France. The embassy says anyone who is not on that flight, they will not be able to ensure the safety of their departure.
It comes as the Taliban is making sweeping gains across the country seizing more districts. There is intense fighting going on in Kandahar in the southern part of the country as militants try to claim that city. The ministry of defense says the Afghan national security forces are launching operations across Afghanistan and have killed more than 300 Taliban in the last 24 hours.
But it is the civilians who are paying the price. UNHCR says there is a looming humanitarian crisis on the way. More than 270,000 people have been displaced this year so far. And CNN has learned that a high level delegation from the Afghan government will be flying to Doha, Qatar to meet with the Taliban for peace talks. This is the first time since September last year.
Anna Coren, CNN, Kabul.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, the new books painting a clearer picture of Donald Trump's behavior in his final days in office.
Plus Britney Spears could soon have a new lawyer as her conservatorship case heads back to court. A look at what is expected in today's hearing.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
