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Preventing a Fall COVID Surge; Trump to Meet with McCarthy; Jobless Claims Fall to Pandemic-Era Low; Spears Demands Dad be Charged. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired July 15, 2021 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:31:22]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: CDC Director Rochelle Walensky says that a fall surge in new COVID infections is preventable if more people get vaccinated as soon as possible.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: The call to action comes as the delta variant fuels a surge this summer. New cases are up in almost every state, 47 states. Dr. Walensky says the key to keeping your family safe is for everyone old enough to get vaccinated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: How do we do that? We vaccinate our families so that our younger kids are not at risk because by vaccinating your teenagers and adults in the household, you protect your young children from being at risk. And then when they go back to school, to have them wear masks, to practice the mitigation measures that we have been talking about. And by doing so, we believe our kids can be safely back at school.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Joining us now is Dr. Leana Wen, CNN medical analyst. She's also an emergency physician and formally the Baltimore city health commissioner.

Good morning, Doctor.

DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Good morning.

HARLOW: You wrote a few days ago about the CDC's guidance -- that was just the director of the CDC -- in terms of schools saying their guidelines are not perfect but they are better than expected.

What do -- what do parents need to know this morning as they remember these are just CDC guidelines, right? States can choose, and they are, by the way, what they mandate and what they don't.

WEN: Well, I'm glad that the CDC came out with very strong guidance saying two things can happen at once. One is that schools should be opened full time for in-person instruction, and, two, that this could be done safely if mitigation measures are put into place. And I think that if is really important because we keep talking about these two COVID nations, the people who are getting vaccinated and those who are getting infected.

But I don't want to put all of our young children into the category of those infected. Right now I think there is this narrative again that vaccination is just about you. But I don't understand this personal choice that some people are making. I mean what kind of choice is it to infect other people, including other people's children.

And so I think parents should know that they need to do their best to protect their children by getting vaccinated themselves, as Dr. Walensky very well said. And I think we also have to keep in mind that indoor masking remains important for our young children. If they're not yet able to be vaccinated, they should still be wearing masks indoors, including in the classroom.

SCIUTTO: In terms of risk from the delta variant, Dr. Walensky there, Sanjay Gupta said the same on our air yesterday, that if you are vaccinated, that you are safe from the delta variant just because you and I we can't control what other people do, whether they get vaccinated themselves. But for us who are vaccinated, should we have a reasonable sense of comfort as to our own personal risk from the delta variant?

WEN: Those people who are vaccinated should feel very safe that we are protected from severe illness due to the delta variant. It's extremely unlikely that we're going to end up in the hospital or die. And, in fact, we're seeing that more than 99 percent of people dying from coronavirus now are people who are not vaccinated. So that illustrates how well the vaccine protects against the delta variant.

However, we don't know. And I think the CDC really needs to step up and do a better job of tracking breakthrough infections with the delta variant. It's believed that with the delta variant you carry more virus in your nose. You're able to potentially infect more people if you're unvaccinated. Vaccination reduces the level of virus that you carry but how much less? Are you able to infect others? We don't know.

HARLOW: A lot of debate over mandating in schools, like what's going on in Ohio right now, for example, is because the FDA has not fully authorized these vaccines.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HARLOW: And they haven't even given emergency authorization for 12 and under.

[09:35:03]

When is that going to happen? And please explain to our viewers the difference here because, I mean, this EUA still means it's very -- it's safe.

WEN: That's right. So there is the Emergency Use Authorization that the FDA has granted for the use of the vaccines, for those 12 and older. In this age group, I mean we now have hundreds of millions of people around the world who have received these mRNA vaccines, for example, and people have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine that's also authorized. It's really safe. And, at this point, it's a matter of paperwork. I mean we're going through the regulatory process to get formal approval, but there's -- I mean no one expects that this is not going to go through for some reason. So it's just as good as being fully approved.

That said, I do think that formal approval is going to be reasonably important for workplaces, for schools that currently are not yet going the full step of mandating vaccines. I think the full approval will allow them to do that.

As far as when younger children will be able to be vaccinated, those under 12, I hope this fall for elementary age children. But it may be a bit later. It depends on these studies because the studies are going to be harder. A two-year-old is very different from a 12-year-old in terms of what dose needs to be given. And, again, the best thing that we can do right now is for adults to step up and see it as our responsibility to protect our children.

SCIUTTO: Yes, and everyone else. Yes.

HARLOW: Yes. Exactly.

Dr. Wen, thank you.

SCIUTTO: Still ahead this hour, this just in, President Trump says he will meet with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy today as McCarthy considers which Republicans to put on the January 6th committee. We'll have the details of that meeting next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:41:22]

SCIUTTO: This just in to CNN. President Trump says he will meet with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy later today. The minority leader still weighing which Republicans to assign, if any, to the January 6th special committee to investigate the insurrection.

HARLOW: Lauren Fox is on Capitol Hill.

Lauren, what do we know about this meeting?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, Poppy, this meeting, of course, is coming, or at least the announcement of this meeting is coming as we know McCarthy is still considering who he wants to put on the select committee. We also learned yesterday after it was announced that the first committee hearing would be held July 27th, that McCarthy does plan to appoint his members before that first hearing. That's because they don't want to go into this without some kind of representation on the dais. That's going to be a key and important factor when it comes to defending the former president and defending Republicans' positions.

Now, look, McCarthy meeting with Trump is obviously significant because Democrats have made clear that McCarthy may be one of the members they want to hear from in this probe in front of their select committee. So I think that that is another key question here, what are they going to talk about at this meeting. Are they going to discuss potentially what they talked about on January 6th because, if you remember, that phone call that the two men shared was contentious.

And we reported it at the time that this had been a moment in which McCarthy was asking Trump to do something to stop the mob at the Capitol. And Trump was arguing that these people at the Capitol cared more about the election than McCarthy did.

Now, that's going to be something Democrats want to hear from McCarthy on. So are they going to discuss that today? Are they going to discuss who to appoint to this select committee? I think those are the key questions going into this meeting. And we, of course, just don't have the answers a couple minutes after this announcement.

I will tell you, I thought it was interesting that Trump announced that this meeting was occurring instead of McCarthy. Perhaps that's because Trump's office wants to make it clear this meeting's happening. I'm not sure that McCarthy would necessarily want this to be out there.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HARLOW: I was thinking the same thing.

SCIUTTO: That's --

HARLOW: Jim, were you?

SCIUTTO: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And you have to -- I'm just curious, is that relationship repaired given that phone call on January 6th when McCarthy, and, afterwards, by the way, said Trump bears responsibility. Of course he's changed his tune since then.

FOX: Well, I think that that's one of the key questions here. I also think that you have to remember there's an election looming. 2022 is something that McCarthy knows he needs Trump for and he needs his support for if he's going to try to take back the House in just a couple of years. So I think that's another big question mark here, is that the subject of this meeting. At this point, we just don't know.

HARLOW: Yes. And, by the way, McCarthy could be called to testify before this committee.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HARLOW: So I suppose this meeting will also be of relevance or interest.

Thank you, Lauren.

Still ahead, the cost of nearly everything, you're noticing it, we're noticing it, is getting more expensive. The Fed Reserve chairman, yesterday, saying it's likely to stay that way for at least the coming months. We'll talk about what this inflation means for you ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:48:42]

HARLOW: New weekly jobless claims just came in this morning. They showed new unemployment filings fell to a pandemic era low last week.

SCIUTTO: CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans has been following.

And, Christine, there had been some concern about the pace of job growth a couple months ago.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

SCIUTTO: But the latest numbers, this, and other ones we've seen in the last couple of months --

ROMANS: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Does that seem to show the pace picking up?

ROMANS: It seems to show that layoffs are slowing and hiring is picking up. And it's exactly what you want to see. A new pandemic low of 360,000 first time jobless claims.

You know, before the pandemic, we were running 225,000, 250,000. So this is still elevated but going in the right direction. There's a lot of hope, you guys, that as we get into the fall, hiring is really going to start to pick up when schools open, right, and people can kind of get on the other side of this school and the childcare part of this.

You know, it all fits into this inflation picture we've been seeing too. We've been talking about kind of, you know, rising prices for just about everything. That's really the big debate, the big story in business right now at the kitchen table. And, honestly, you want to see these improving job numbers and especially since so many, you know, families here, especially families who don't make the median income, families who make, say, you know, $15,000 to $30,000 a year, they spent half of their money, half of the dollar just on the basics. So we still have kind of an issue in the country at the moment where people are kind of just getting by and inflation is something we're carefully watching here.

[09:50:10]

SCIUTTO: In a couple of hours, President Biden, Vice President Harris, they're going to deliver remarks on the administration's expanded child tax credit.

ROMANS: Right.

SCIUTTO: I mean, which is a big thing. Who exactly will be getting these checks as they're sent out and how much should they expect? ROMANS: You know, people are watching right now and they've probably

seen it hit their bank account today. It's $250 or $300 depending if your kid is six and under or older than that. It's going to hit on the 15th of every month to the end of the year if you make, as a couple, $150,000 or less or an individual $112,000 or less a year, you're going to get this expanded child tax credit. And the second half of it come next year in your tax return.

If you didn't file a tax return, I would encourage people really to go to the IRS website. There's a portal there to make sure you're all signed up and you can choose how you want to receive this money. You can opt for a lump sum. So, really, everyone take a hard look at that.

But this is millions of families that will be receiving this money. And I just talked about inflation. In could not come at a better time, especially for low income families who already spend all of their money and then some on the basis.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

ROMANS: This will be a guaranteed income for the rest of the year. Democrats would like to make this permanent. We already have a child tax credit, of course. This is a bigger one, a beefed up one that was passed in COVID relief. This will be -- you guys, this is a very big deal. This will be a game-changer especially for low income families.

SCIUTTO: Yes, they say it's going to child poverty in half, right? I mean, that's what some of the estimates are.

ROMANS: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Christine Romans, thanks very much.

ROMANS: Your welcome.

SCIUTTO: Well Britney Spears, she is one step closer to regaining control of her life and her finances. Why she says she thought her conservators were, according to her, trying to kill her.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:56:15]

SCIUTTO: This morning, what could be a major victory for Britney Spears in the battle to end the 13-year long conservatorship overseen by her father. An L.A. judge approved Spears' request to hire her own new attorney.

HARLOW: She spoke to the court by phone on Wednesday, in tears at times, describing her situation as cruelty. She also told the judge she wanted to charge her father with conservatorship abuse. Her newly retained lawyer called on Jamie Spears, that's her father, to voluntarily step down.

Zoe Brennan-Krohn joins us to discuss. She is an attorney with the ACLU Disability Rights Project. And I should note, the ACLU filed a brief on behalf of Spears before this hearing, along with Spears' mother, saying, yes, she should have the right to retain her own council. What difference will that make for her to have this new representation?

ZOE BRENNAN-KROHN, ATTORNEY, ACLU DISABILITY RIGHTS PROJECT: Well, our hope is that having a lawyer of Miss Spears' choice will insure that the lawyer has agreed to represent Britney Spears' stated interested, what she wants, and that that person will zealously represent those interests to the court. And we are hopeful that -- and trust that Mr. Rosengart will do that. And the right to choose an attorney and to have an attorney that you trust, an attorney that will zealously advocate for you is a really core part of the right to counsel and really critical in conservatorship and guardianship proceedings across the country.

SCIUTTO: You have noted that conservatorships are common and for people, frankly, without Spears' fame or money or platform. Why is that -- how common and, you know, how do people get out of those things? Can they?

BRENNAN-KROHN: It's very difficult to get out of them. We don't even know exactly how many people are in them because there's such limited data. The best estimates are that around 1.3 million people are in conservatorships and guardianships around the country and it's much, much easier to get into a conservatorship than to get out of a conservatorship. And that's really problematic because being in a conservatorship or a guardianship is a really huge loss of civil rights and civil liberties, a huge loss of your autonomy and your right to make choices. So it's a really big deal to be in one and it's a real problem that it's so hard to get out of them.

HARLOW: And to Jim's point, you know, a lot of people, almost anyone else in a conservatorship, doesn't have the fame and the platform of Britney Spears. And the ACLU has found that oftentimes it is those that are most disadvantaged that are stuck in them.

BRENNAN-KROHN: Right. Exactly. We think it's really important to highlight that this case is unusual because of the fame, because of the attention to it. But in terms of the process, of a person who gets into a conservatorship at a moment of apparent crisis and then finds that they are apparently trapped in it for years and years and years and caught in a sort of a catch 22 where they can't get out and where, if they're doing well they can't get out. If they're doing poorly they can't get out. That pattern we see all across the country. And disproportionately happening to poor people, disproportionately happening to women.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

BRENNAN-KROHN: And it's very -- it's very common what Miss Spears is experiencing.

SCIUTTO: Just quickly, what happens now with her? She gets her own lawyer. Does that mean this is probably coming to an end?

BRENNAN-KROHN: Well, her lawyer has to -- has to work with her to decide what happens next, whether he's going to petition to lift the conservatorship or whether he's going to petition for something else.

[10:00:00]

But hopefully he will work with her and proceed with exactly what she says that she wants, because that's what her lawyer should do.

SCIUTTO: Got it.

HARLOW: And just a note here.