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15K Minnesota Nurses Launch Strike Over Pay, Staffing; Biden to Announce "Cancer Moonshot" Details in Boston; Fan Favorites, Top Dramas Vie for TV's Top Prize at the Emmys. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired September 12, 2022 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Nurses in Minnesota launching a three-day strike.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Roughly 15,000 nurses are off the job today. They say they're fighting for better staffing and better care for their patients. And the strike is against 13 hospitals. It's one of the largest private nursing strikes in U.S. history. CNN's Adrienne Broaddus is covering this for us from St. Paul. So, what are you seeing and hearing there?

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Victor, good afternoon to you. Throughout the day we've seen ambulances enter and exit this hospital, Children's Minnesota, in St. Paul, while they were entering and exiting, hundreds of nurses were on the picket line here.

The nurses we spoke to say they have two major concerns. They want better staffing and increased security measures as well as increased wages.

There was one nurse who stood out, her name was Brandy Navarro. She wore a red tutu and a red cape. She said that was her reminder that nurse, many of the 15,000 who are striking, said -- we're told, excuse me, during the pandemic that they were super heroes.

[15:35:00]

I asked her, what is the biggest challenge she faced during the pandemic, and now inside of the hospital. Here's what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRANDY NAVARRO, NURSE: It just hasn't been good. To not feel valued isn't -- is not OK, and people just don't know how not OK things are. So, we just are standing up for our patients and standing up for each other.

PAUL OMODT, SPOKESMAN, TWIN CITIES HOSPITAL: We're starting with new people being trained in or have been trained in. We should expect some delays at our hospitals. We should expect some hiccups because it's just the nature of the business on any day.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BROADDUS: And the last person you heard from is a spokesperson with the Twin Cities Hospital Group. He said expect some hiccups. That's because temporary nurses are filling the gaps as these nurses behind us and across the state strike.

Keep in mind, these are licensed nurses, but they don't know the system here in Minnesota. It's almost like having a substitute teacher in the classroom. So, the hospital leaders are asking the patients to pack some patience -- Victor.

CAMEROTA: That was powerful to hear from that nurse. We need to value our nurses. They need to feel their worth. They're so important to all of our families. Adrienne Broaddus, thank you very much.

BLACKWELL: President Joe Biden is about to announce new objectives in his "Cancer Moonshot" program. We'll break it all down next.

[15:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: A short time from now President Biden will speak at the JFK library in Boston announcing new initiatives in his Moonshot challenge to cut cancer deaths in half over the next 25 years.

It was on this day 60 years ago that President John F. Kennedy issued his famous moonshot speech to put Americans on the moon and that goal was accomplished just seven years later.

Let's bring in CNN contributor and staff writer for the New Yorker Evan Osnos and CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein. And, Evan, I just start with you, because seven years later this, you know, incredibly ambitious moonshot was accomplished and, obviously, President Biden is giving it 25 years I think for this ambitious goal that he wants with cancer, but everybody is pulling for this.

I mean, he -- we all know has been touched in his own family by cancer. And so, was this always a priority for him and he's just now being able to get around to it because of everything else?

EVAN OSNOS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, this is something as you know, as you mentioned that's been very personal for him. In fact, when he didn't run in the 2016 presidential election, he once said to President Obama in private, he said, you know, the thing that really galls me is I'm not going to be able to be a president who can bring about the end of cancer as we know it. You know, history moves in surprising ways for Joe Biden. Here he is now actually in the presidency having an opportunity to make a big dent in this.

I think there's also a degree to which this is, you know, it is consistent with the political message he's thinking about these days. He often says that curing cancer may be the last bipartisan issue in America.

I think this is sort of a chance for him to give the flip side of the speech he gave a couple weeks ago about the threats to American democracy. What he wants to emphasize is about the sense of possibility if people can put aside their differences and work on big projects.

BLACKWELL: That's an interesting point, Ron, because curing cancer is not something that rates high when you take a poll of the most important issues but there's obviously a constituency for it. This, as Evan said, might be something that survives the bitter partisanship.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, he talked in the state of the union about a unity agenda and this was one of the elements of it. I was struck that in addition to, obviously, the personal element of this, in the materials the White House put out they emphasized the importance of restoring our ability to make the biomedical materials needed for a moonshot on cancer.

Which really fits in with a broader message from the president which I'm not sure is going to be right by 2022 but by 2024, the idea of restoring America's ability to make things.

When he was in Ohio last week at the Intel plant that was opening, there are going to be EV plants, battery plants opening every year on a regular -- multiple coming in North Carolina and Ohio and other states. And this idea of restoring America's ability to make things.

I see as a central line of argument from him going forward. Again, may not be fully right by 2022, but if he runs in 2024, you're going to see him in Ohio in front of plants that have opened in these last few years in parts as incentives from the Infrastructure Act, the climate change bill and that chips legislation and potentially this initiative as well.

CAMEROTA: And, Evan, very quickly, is this a speech that he could only give now? Did he have to wait for the breathing room in terms of sort of being on the upside of polls to be able to have this, as you said, unity moment?

OSNOS: Yes, in some ways this is something he's wanted to do from the beginning. You know, they flicked at it very early on. But I think as Ron identified, you know, there is a degree to which he needed political space. You needed some things behind him, some tailwind to be able to do it.

And there's also an international element to it. You know, he can say this is making us more competitive in the face of China which has been making big investments on these issues. So, it fits the moment in a way that it might not have six or eight months ago.

BLACKWELL: Let's talk about this new book that's coming, it's from Gabe Debenedetti, "The Long Alliance" in which he talks about the president's relationship with former President Barack Obama.

[15:45:00]

And he writes here, that if we truly want to understand -- what's called the "Bromance" -- the men or their moment, uncritically subscribing to the neat narrative -- which ignores real unease and outright tension -- benefits neither the public nor the president.

I mean clearly, they don't ride a bicycle built for two, but how much will President Biden in 2024 need former President Barack Obama?

BROWNSTEIN: You know, Evan of course has looked at the personal relations of Biden I think more closely than I have. But having covered Biden a very long time -- all the way back to his first presidential campaign in '88 -- he is a different person than Barack Obama. I mean they are very different. Biden is someone who is much more shaped by the four corners of Washington and the idea of what is possible within the boundaries of the Senate.

Whereas Obama I think always saw himself as someone who is more of an outside in political leader whose job it was to change the boundaries of the impossible. And I think, you know, that difference in the way they approached the job was evident in the kind of agenda that they put forward in their first years.

But I think it has become a genuinely close alliance. And certainly, Obama shares Biden's view that Trump and Trumpism is an existential threat to American democracy, and I think that he largely -- however reluctantly he was in 2016 -- Obama has come around to the view that Biden actually is the best chance for Democrats at least in the near term to hold off that threat. And so, I think circumstance have brought them together around very much shared interests.

CAMEROTA: Evan, very quickly, your thoughts on it?

OSNOS: Yes, well put. Circumstances is right. Look, they had to figure each other out in 2016. Biden thought that Obama was too green -- sorry in 2008 and Obama thought that Biden perhaps didn't have the political instincts that he thought he did.

They once then had lunch a couple years later after they sort of figured each other out. They were having lunch and an aide reminded me that Obama said to Biden, he said, you know, I'm surprised Joe, we've actually become friends.

And Biden replied, you're surprised. There is a degree to which they had to figure each other out than and they tried to do it now that they're both presidents. I think they've reached a new equilibrium in that regard.

BLACKWELL: All right, Evan Osnos, Ron Brownstein, thank you.

CAMEROTA: OK, glitz, glamour and awards. The Emmys are just hours away. We have a live preview from Los Angeles next.

[15:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: TVs biggest night is tonight. The 74th Prime Time Emmy awards will be hosted this year by NBC star and national treasure, Kenan Thompson.

BLACKWELL: You do love some Kenan Thompson.

CAMEROTA: I love him so much. "Secession" HBO's drama about TVs most dysfunctional family is the odds on favorite to clean up. It has 25 nominations.

BLACKWELL: HBO shares the same parent company as CNN. And CNN's Stephanie Elam is with us now.

CAMEROTA: Looking good.

BLACKWELL: So, what are we looking forward tonight?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So much, I mean think about, Alisyn and Victor, how much we relied on television to get us through the pandemic, right. To watch all these shows and our favorites are nominated. And there's some stiff competition out here. As you can see people are getting ready, the carpets in place. The heat wave is over but it doesn't mean it's not hot out down here in downtown Los Angeles.

All the drama side, obviously so many people love "Succession," how that family loves to hate on each other, that is one show to watch to see, "Euphoria," Zendaya has won in category before, so will this be another battle that we'll be watching.

On the comedy side you've got some older favorites -- older favorites and you've also some new kids on the block. So, will we see Jason Sudeikis' Ted Lasso come back and win again as we've seen before? Stiff competition from "Barry" though. "Barry" is back in the running.

And also, "Abbott Elementary," which is the quiet favorite from what I'm gathering. Best show on ABC, on regular old broadcast TV has such a following, and three nods alone for the show's creator, Quinta Brunson, who's also the lead actor and she also wrote the pilot for the show as well. Overall, that show has seven nominations.

So, you can see there are a lot of shows here, some feel good ones, some scary ones like "Squid Game." But also, keep in mind "Squid Game" did well at the Sag Awards earlier this year. So, couldn't win again? People also love that show. There seems to be a theme, you guys, about people liking shows where folks are really mean to each other. I don't know what we can take away from that but they have captivated people here.

But yes, we're getting ready for the carpet to see how they're going to come down, how they're looking. All of that here as we get ready for the Emmys this Monday night.

CAMEROTA: That's my favorite part, obviously the red carpet. But I will now start watching "Abbott Elementary" because you say it's so fantastic. So, that's on my list.

BLACKWELL: Very good, very good.

CAMEROTA: Yes, so you like that.

ELAM: No, we need to. I love it, it's fantastic.

CAMEROTA: OK, Victor needs to watching "Ted Lasso".

ELAM: And I realize I can't say red carpet, but it's gold carpet.

BLACKWELL: It's a go carpet. We get it. We get it.

ELAM: Victor, yes.

CAMEROTA: Victor has never seen "Ted Lasso."

BLACKWELL: I've never watched an episode of "Ted Lasso" I hear it's great.

ELAM: You need to watch it.

I will pull for "Hacks." If it's up against "Hacks" that's my support. I'm going behind them. I want Sheryl Lee Ralph to win for best supporting for "Abbott Elementary."

ELAM: Yes because she has not won before. So, that is possible here. She is nominated. That could happen for you. And you should watch "Hacks," which is also a fantastic show and Jean Smart won last year. So, let's see what happens this year.

[15:55:00]

CAMEROTA: Stephanie Elam, thank you. There's a lot of good TV right now. TV has come up in the world.

BLACKWELL: There are some good TV shows.

CAMEROTA: Stephanie, thank you. Have a blast. We'll be watching.

ELAM: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: And Scotland is saying farewell to Queen Elizabeth. Members of the public are now paying their respects to Queen Elizabeth at St. John's cathedral. What to expect in the days to come.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: We're just getting this in. A Texas woman has been charged with threatening a Trump-appointed judge in the Mar-a-Lago special matters case.

[16:00:00]

Tiffany Gish of Houston is accused of leaving several threatening messages on the voice mail of the judge overseeing former President Trump's legal fight over all those classified and top-secret documents seized from his Florida home. Court filings say the woman threatened to assassinate the judge in front of her family for helping the former president.

Let's take a live look now at some of the pictures. This is inside St. Giles cathedral as Queen Elizabeth II is lying there and members of the public are paying their tributes strolling by.

CAMEROTA: And "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.