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Ohio Senate Race Becomes Early Test Of Trump Endorsement Power; Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) Discusses Supreme Court Overturn Of Roe v. Wade Leak; Explosions Heard In Lviv, Ukraine; Rise In COVID Cases Sparks Fears Of Summer Surge. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired May 03, 2022 - 13:30   ET

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

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[13:33:37]

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: The fate of Roe v. Wade front and center, the already high-stakes midterm elections just kicked up a notch. Right now, voters in two states are heading to the polls in the first primary races of the midterms.

A key race today is Ohio's Republican primary for the U.S. Senate where former President Trump's endorsement power in on the line.

CNN's Kristen Holmes is with voters in Cleveland.

Kristen, Trump endorsed J.D. Vance there a few weeks ago. But he's not a shoo-in?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No, Ana, he's not. This is just the first in a series of primaries across the country that's really going to test the former president's power as a Republican kingmaker to see if it's real.

There are a lot of eyes across the country watching this. People who were endorsed and people who were not. Seeing what the power is that Donald Trump holds.

Now, we will note that after he endorsed J.D. Vance, Vance got a bump in the polls and came out as the head of the pack. But it's not a done deal.

Vance is the author of "Hillbilly Elegy." But more surprisingly, he's a former Never Trumper. In 2016, he had a lot to say against Trump and against the people who voted for Trump.

Now, while the former president says he's moved on from that, voters, they haven't. They haven't forgotten that.

Even yesterday, Vance was questioned about his loyalty on the trail.

[13:34:59:]

So one thing we're watching very carefully, the other two candidates we're looking at. One of them Josh Mandel, was campaigning with Senator Ted Cruz. He's someone who jockeyed for the former president's support and did not get it.

The other person is former state Senator Matt Doland. Donald is incredibly interesting because he's the only person -- while not a Never Trumper, he's very Trump friendly, he's the only person in the race who suggested that it's time for Republicans to move on from the lies that Trump was telling about the 2020 election.

So all things that we are watching very carefully here to see how exactly it plays out -- Ana?

CABRERA: Kristen Holmes, thanks. We know you'll keep us posted.

And President Biden today highlighted just how critical the midterms are, saying in a statement, "If the court does overturn Roe, it will fall on voters to elect pro-choice officials this November."

Joining us now is Democratic Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, of Illinois. She serves as a leader in the House's Pro-Choice Caucus.

Congresswoman, thank you for being here.

Justice Alito wrote in the draft opinion, "The Constitution makes no reference to abortion and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision."

Your reaction when you first read or heard those words?

REP. JAN SCHAKOWSKY (D-IL): Justice Alito has essentially said that women will be second-class citizens. That this right, this health care necessity will no longer be there.

I am furious. I had a hard time sleeping last night, thinking about, how are we going to mobilize for this election? Because this has to be, and it is on the ballot right now.

I also just want to say to all the listeners out there, today in the United States of America, abortion is legal. I want people to know that so that there are people who aren't afraid right now.

And everyone has to get ready to fight back with everything that we can.

CABRERA: This draft opinion we played earlier seems to contradict what we heard directly from the justices during their confirmation hearings in the process after they were nominated.

In addition, Roe v. Wade, if you go back and look at who made up the court when that decision came down, it was decided by a court in which six of nine justices were nominated by Republican presidents.

Planned Parenthood v. Casey was decided by a court in which eight of nine justices were nominated by Republican presidents.

And right now, the latest polling shows the vast majority of Americans don't want Roe v. Wade overturned. So it's not like the current court is reflecting the will of the people today. What does this tell you? Is the Supreme Court broken?

SCHAKOWSKY: The Supreme Court is absolutely broken.

And you're right. That the latest three justices went before the American people and before their confirmation hearings and said, yes, it is precedented. It is precedent. And we -- and implying that it should not be overturned.

And they lied, and now we have a situation where women will die.

You know, I have a button that I carry with me, and I wear from a long time ago that said Roe v. Wade, wasn't the beginning of women having abortions. It was the end of women dying from abortions.

And that's exactly what we're going to see. We're going to see that women will actually perish or -- I just met with an adult gentleman who became orphan at age seven because his mother who tried to get to New York, the only state that offered abortions, and it was too late. They said that the pregnancy had gone on too long.

She died and left two orphans behind her. That's the kind of tragedy we will see in our country.

And beyond that, this is not just a fundamental right. This is really the ultimate right of women to make a decision for themselves.

Because if you can't decide whether or not you can control your family, you can't control your life. You can't figure out your future.

Women will not go back. I don't know exactly what it's going to look like, but I'm telling you, it can happen at the polls in this upcoming election right now.

CABRERA: We are just getting a statement from Lisa Murkowski, Republican Senator, who says, if this SCOTUS draft is accurate, quote, "it has rocked my confidence in this court."

But Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, is focusing on the leak itself. He called that a toxic stunt. He's blaming the far left. And added this on the capitol floor earlier today.

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SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): The justices must be able to discuss and deliberate in an environment of total trust and privacy. Americans cannot receive a fair trial if politicians, pundits, bullies, and mobs get a say in court.

[13:40:11]

CABRERA: Congresswoman, your response?

SCHAKOWSKY: You know, I don't know who he's talking about. These marginal people who are trying to prevent the court from acting. There were thousands of people, regular people, at the court last

night. I mean, the phones have not stopped ringing. People everywhere are reacting to this terrible, terrible prelude for what seems to be a real decision.

And as you pointed out, the vast majority of Americans -- you know, practically all the Democrats, three-fourths of Independents, and the majority of Republicans do not think that Roe v. Wade should be overturned.

So, you know, Mitch McConnell can say what he wants, but he is not reflecting regular people, the vast majority. This isn't some sort of fringe group.

CABRERA: Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, thank you for joining us. I appreciate your time and your perspective.

SCHAKOWSKY: Thank you.

CABRERA: We have breaking news now. Several blasts heard in Lviv, Ukraine. We will take you there live, next.

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CABRERA: We're back with breaking news out of Ukraine. Large explosions have just been heard in Lviv. That is in western Ukraine, not far from Poland's border.

CNN's Scott McLean is in Lviv for us.

Scott, fill us in.

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Ana. Yes, it was about 15 minutes ago or so that we heard a series of explosions from here in central part of Lviv. I heard at least three explosions myself. It's possible that there were more.

The power briefly went out in our building. Other people in other parts of the city, our colleagues reported power out briefly there as well. And a few minutes later, you could see smoke rising in the distance from the central part of the city.

We know that the explosions were to the southwest and to the east of the city. We are being extremely cautious about showing you the pictures that we have, because we don't want to give away the location.

But remember, Ana, Lviv has been a place that has been a place of refuge for people taking shelter in other parts of the country, and bombings here have been very rare.

I think this is the fourth time that bombs have fallen in or around the city or at least even in the region. In the early weeks of the war, there was bombing near the airport that

we went out to. That was sort of the most obvious location that people thought at that time there were a few other places hit since then.

The most recent was in the Lviv region hitting some train junction, a train choke point, as well as several other places across the country as well.

It is not clear at this point what exactly was hit. We are waiting for guidance from government officials.

I can tell you the sirens went off here. The air raid sirens went off about an hour or so ago.

Usually, they go off once to mark the beginning of an air raid alert. And they go off a second time they signal the end of the air raid alert. We haven't heard the second siren. So it's possible there could be more bombings.

Lviv has gotten pretty use to those sirens. In fact, people oftentimes don't take note of the sirens.

There's a park nearby where people have their kids. And some stand nearby shelters. But nobody feels like there's a lot of danger because, again, there hasn't been that much danger in Lviv.

Again, people call this place a refuge within the country. And so you have to wonder whether this latest bombing, Ana, will make people think twice.

CABRERA: Right. It just goes to show or suggest that nowhere is safe right now in Ukraine.

Scott McLean, you're in Lviv. Thank you for that update. Do stay safe, my friend.

[13:48:43]

We are starting to see the beginning of a summer surge, perhaps, here in the U.S. Cases are rising again. The nation's biggest city bracing for impact. Details are next.

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[13:53:20]

CABRERA: We are following a rise in COVID cases right now. Look at this. More than half of the U.S. is experiencing a significant uptick in the number of new cases in both adults and children compared to the past week. Hospitalizations are also increasing, up 10 percent.

And New York City is seeing nearly 2,500 new cases a day. That's a huge jump since March where the average is about 600 new cases per day.

Senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, joins us now. Elizabeth, is this the beginning of a summer surge some doctors have

recently predicted?

DR. ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, Ana. Most notably, Dr. Deborah Birx, the former Trump COVID adviser. Here reasoning is, look, we see a surge every four to six months and that we are about due. Only time will tell if she is correct.

Let's take a look at the hospitalizations, sort of in context for this year. That hump you see on the left, that was hospitalizations back at the beginning of this year when it was really quite bad.

You can see when you look at the tail, all the way to the right, all the way to the current day, it's gone up a tiny bit. There's a not- very-dramatic increase in hospitalizations. Will that continue? We don't know. We certainly hope not.

All you can do at this point is make sure you're vaccinated, make sure you're boosted so that you're not one of those people who ends up in the hospital -- Ana?

CABRERA: And, Elizabeth, the FDA is expected to make some key decisions about vaccines by this summer, right? What are you learning?

COHEN: They do. So, the leaders of the FDA, including the commissioner of the FDA, Dr. Robert Califf, they wrote an article in the "Journal of the American Medical Association," "JAMA."

And they said, look, we need to make some important decisions this summer. We need to have a booster campaign in the fall. And this summer, we need to decide what variants are going to be in that vaccine.

[13:55:01]

What will the composition be? One variant, two? Which one? Three variants? Who knows? Who should get it? Should it be recommended for everyone or just certain age groups or other groups?

And here's a third thing they talked about in this. It is critical that patients and caregivers understand the profound benefit of a booster. Ana, I got to tell you, I think that's going to be the hardest part.

Only about half of eligible Americans have gotten a third shot. I think convincing them to get more shots in the fall is going to be a bit of an uphill battle -- Ana?

CABRERA: Elizabeth Cohen, thank you so much.

COHEN: Thanks.

CABRERA: That does it for us. I'll see you back here tomorrow, same time, same place. Until then, you can find me on Twitter, @AnaCabrera. Thank you so much for being here.

The news continues with Victor Blackwell after a quick break.

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