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Sweden Knocks U.S. Out of World Cup; Migrant Crisis in New York City; "Barbie" Makes History; Red Cross Implements Blood Donation Rules Change. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired August 07, 2023 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

JULIE FOUDY, TNT SOCCER ANALYST: This is a situation where I think people expect the United States, because of all our past dominance, to continue to dominate. And I just think that's unrealistic because the world is getting so much better, which is a great thing because people are finally investing on the women's side for soccer.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Let's listen to Megan Rapinoe, what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MEGAN RAPINO, MIDFIELDER, U.S. WOMEN'S NATIONAL SOCCER TEAM: Yes, I thought we played really well. I thought we played really well. I'm so happy for us that we went out like that, playing the way that we did and, you know, having a ton of joy on the ball. I mean this is like a sick joke for me personally. I'm just like, this is dark comedy, I missed a penalty.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Yes, but, can you just talk to what they've stood for. I mean I'll never forget watching Megan Rapinoe get the Presidential Medal of Freedom. You know, all the visits of this team to the White House.

FOUDY: Yes.

HARLOW: What this team - a new iteration this year, but has meant and what she's meant.

FOUDY: Yes. And that's the thing, I mean, people say, oh, Megan Rapinoe missed that penalty kick and the team didn't perform that well. But when you look at the entirety of just Megan Rapinoe's career and some of these players, Kelley O'Hara was another one who clanged it off the post when she had a chance to win it as well. That was her fourth World Cup. I mean these players have been fighting for equal pay -

HARLOW: Yes.

FOUDY: For equity issues, and for so many people who don't have the platform or the microphone to do so. And so to judge them by this one moment, which is what you see often in social media and in a very divisive country, sadly is unfair because they have brought so many good things to this game, to this sport and to so many women and young girls. Just giving them the opportunity to say, hey, I can - I can make what, you know, a guy next to me is making and all these different silos, it's really been an inspiration on so many different levels.

And so I think you need to judge them for the entirety of their career. And they're two-time reigning World Cup champion. They've done a lot of fantastic things, as we know.

HARLOW: Totally agree.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.

HARLOW: Julie, thank you.

BLACKWELL: Thanks, Julie.

HARLOW: There's always - there's always the next Olympics.

BLACKWELL: Yes, they're a year out from Paris.

HARLOW: There you go.

BLACKWELL: All right. Got an opportunity to make some changes.

New York City officials have relocated migrants camped out sleeping on the street outside the Roosevelt Hotel. But what's the long-term plan? New details next.

Plus --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh. There it goes. There it goes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Wow. That is video showing a home in Juno, Alaska, collapsing into a river. A glacial break has caused flooding in the area. Several structures and homes along the river have been destroyed. City officials in Juneau have issued an emergency declaration there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:36:59]

HARLOW: Well, this morning, a fire at a plastics manufacturing facility in New Mexico is under control. Thick, black smoke -- look at that -- could be seen for miles Sunday in Albuquerque. Officials advise people in the area to stay indoors, keep their windows closed. Fire officials say flames also consumed a vehicle and expanded past the facility to outside vegetation. The crews were on the scene throughout the night trying to keep an eye on the situation. BLACKWELL: New York City officials have until Wednesday to submit a

list of what they need from the state to help deal with the city's dire migrant housing crisis. According to the Legal Aid Society, a judge set the deadline in an emergency court conference on Friday. And she also demanded the state must do more to help with the crisis.

And this comes after last week migrants slept on the street outside a temporary shelter, the Roosevelt Hotel in midtown Manhattan.

And that's where we find CNN's Polo Sandoval this morning.

Polo, a rainy day out there. What's the situation?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So, Victor, I just looked over my shoulder a few moments outside the Roosevelt Hotel and no sign of that being the case yet again. However, we should mention that it was late last week that New York City Mayor Eric Adams closed out the week by warning that those scenes that we witnessed play out just last week at this very location could very much become quite common as the city's migrant shelter system continues to buckle under the pressure of rising numbers.

We should mention, the city was eventually able to find shelter space for the individuals that were kept outside of the Roosevelt Hotel here, that's now serving as the primary intake center. And also we know that at least two recreation centers in Brooklyn are now being added to the growing list of shelters that are being used by New York City. And there's still the question of whether or not the city will turn to Central Park and temporary facilities there to serve as shelter space as the Adams administration maintains that all options remain on the table.

And, finally, Victor, we should note, that this weekend marked one year since the arrival of the first migrant bus chartered by the administration of Texas Governor Greg Abbott. Since then we've seen about 10,500 asylum seekers arrive by those means. That is - sure, it's a fairly large number, but it's still just a fraction of the over 95,000 asylum seekers that have turned to the city for help. That's a number that continues to grow this morning, Victor, and which is precisely why the city continues to call from not just state but also federal assistance amid this migrant crisis.

Victor.

BLACKWELL: All right, Polo Sandoval for us there in midtown Manhattan. Thank you.

HARLOW: All right, let's talk about this. Back with us, CNN legal analyst Elie Honig, also CNN's senior analyst and anchor John Avlon.

Good morning again to you guys.

John, can you just - I mean as someone who worked intimately with a mayor's office for Rudy Giuliani -

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST AND ANCHOR: Yes. HARLOW: Can you just speak to how you view this challenge, how the Adams administration is handling it, and the role and responsibility of the Biden White House here in federal government?

AVLON: This is fundamentally a federal problem. It is a federal failure. And it has been pushed on the city of New York, in part because of a right to shelter law we have, which says everyone deserves a place to stay.

HARLOW: That's when you hear people say sanctuary cities?

AVLON: It's related to that, which is also a public health statute in its intention.

[06:40:04]

Now this new decision says the state's got to step up to help the city. But really the federal government needs to do much more to step up for the state.

And, ultimately, it is a global problem. You've got a lot of dislocation, particularly in Latin America, but not only causing this flow of asylum seekers into the United States. So, putting this all on the back of New York City and its taxpayers is an undue burden and it's really a call to arms to actually deal with our border. However trollish the initial impulse was to ship migrants up here, I think it adds to the urgency this is not a sustainable situation.

BLACKWELL: The city is asking the White House to push along these work permits to allow people to work. What more legally can the city do, can the administration do, considering all of the realities that we're aware of?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: So, John's exactly right. I mean this is a federal responsibility and a federal problem first and foremost. And the city has every right to request federal aid and really even -- it's not even really the state level issue. I mean, credit to Mayor Adams and Governor Hochul for trying to do what they can, but ultimately they don't have the resources, they don't have the expertise. They need to rely on the federal government. And the federal government needs to do a better job of coordinating here. They can't just say, well, these people are out there, you deal with them when they arrive. The federal government needs to take responsibility.

And we also need to look at this sort of grand standing where, you know, this ridiculous stunt of putting people on buses and shipping them from state to state. There's responsibility there, too.

I will say the Biden administration has tried to enact tougher asylum rules and make it more difficult to come here and apply for asylum once you're here. The laws basically that they've proposed say you have to propose when you're on your way, if you pass through another country, but that's been put on hold by the federal courts, further complicating all this.

AVLON: This is clearly an issue where they need to get tougher. And also, I think President Biden needs to give a Latin America speech. We need more of a Latin American policy and understand that stabilizing that region is in all our interests as well.

HARLOW: This is what critics point to, especially a lot of folks (INAUDIBLE) over the weekend to the vice president, Kamala Harris, who was put in charge.

AVLON: Yes.

HARLOW: Not of fixing the border crisis but dealing with the root causes of what's happening there. Do you expect we'll hear her more out front on this now?

AVLON: I think - look, we -- the White House is pushing Kamala Harris a lot more out right now. And this is an area that was put on her plate.

HARLOW: But this was like her signature thing.

AVLON: This was a signature thing, which, by the way, is the single worst gift a vice president can get because it's such a difficult, intractable problem, but it does increase the urgency, I think, for Democrats in general, for the White House in particular, and Kamala Harris probably most of all, to take a clearer, tougher, more comprehensive line.

BLACKWELL: Yes, she traveled down to the northern triangle countries, said, do not come.

HARLOW: Yes.

AVLON: Yes. That's right.

BLACKWELL: Of course, that did not work, of course.

But if the - and you talked about the Greg Abbott stunts of setting the buses up. If the goal was to not just practically alleviate some of the pressure from the border communities but political, as we know, to exhaust the cities like New York, did it work? I mean you've now got the mayor of New York saying there's no more room for you.

HONIG: I hate to say it worked. I mean only in the crassest, political sort of bottom line sense did it work in that they managed to take this burden and literally just ship it out, send it to the next state. I mean that's contrary to every sort of ethical, humanitarian instinct and responsibility that any leader would have. But in the crass political sense of, did we take our problem from our state and send it to some other state, I guess.

BLACKWELL: All right.

HARLOW: Guys, thank you. John, Elie, appreciate it.

HONIG: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: "Barbie" has a billion. The "Barbie" movie has just made box office history. The numbers, next.

HARLOW: And it's almost been a month since the actor's union went on strike. Where do those talks stand? We'll be joined by Fran Drescher, actress and president of SAG-AFTRA. She'll join us live in studio in our 8:00 a.m. Eastern hour.

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[06:48:36]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Basically, everything that men do in your world, women do in ours.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The president's here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am. You're welcome.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Barbie is a doctor and a lawyer and is so much more than that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are Kens, too?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are many Kens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: "Barbie" hits a billion. Greta Gerwig has become the first female to direct a movie that raked in more than a billion dollars at the box office. That is according to the film studio Warner Brothers, of course, it's owned by CNN's parent company Warner Brothers Discovery. And it is a beautiful thing to see.

CNN business correspondent Rahel Solomon is here.

My favorite part of the movie -

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

HARLOW: Is when they show the Supreme Court, and it's all women, because -

SOLOMON: Love to see it.

HARLOW: Why not.

SOLOMON: Yes, we're - we're far away from that, but great to see it in the movie.

Lots of records for "Barbie." She is a billion-dollar Barbie. So, let's start with the fact that Greta Gerwig becomes the first woman to solo direct a movie to cross a billion dollars. A really significant moment for the industry. I spoke to a senior media analyst in the 5:00 a.m. hour, guys, who told me this is a watershed moment because it signals to the industry that not only is creative film making good for the -- or diverse film making good for the creative process, it's also good for the bottom line. So that's certainly something, too.

Also breaking other records. And we can show you just sort of how "Barbie" compares with some of the highest grossing films of all time. Of course you have "Avatar" up there. You have "Avengers." That said, you can see, that's closer to 2.9. But "Barbie" has reached some of these records in record time. So, Warner Brothers saying that it is the fastest movie to reach $400 million domestically. Fastest movie to reach $500 million internationally. So not only is "Barbie" bringing in the big bucks, she is doing it in record time.

[06:50:05]

And I should say, guys, that this comes at a time when we are really spending a lot more on services, activities, that sort of thing. Not on fiscal goods as much but physical activities, live events. I mean everybody has been to Beyonce this summer. Some of us -

HARLOW: Ah -

SOLOMON: Some of us -

BLACKWELL: Next weekend. Next weekend.

HARLOW: Ah -

SOLOMON: Some -- or Taylor Swift. I mean there's a lot happening.

HARLOW: No Beyonce. No Taylor Swift.

BLACKWELL: What?

HARLOW: I need to change my life.

SOLOMON: Have you - but you've been to the movies because you've seen "Barbie."

HARLOW: I saw "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer."

SOLOMON: Yes.

HARLOW: In the same day.

SOLOMON: So people are going to the movies. People are seeing Beyonce. People will soon be seeing Beyonce or Taylor Swift.

BLACKWELL: Saturday.

SOLOMON: Yes. So people are spending a lot to have experiences. And "Barbie" has really tapped into that.

HARLOW: That's a good point.

BLACKWELL: Because it's been a while since we could have this summer of big blockbusters and, you know, 60,000 people and stadiums together.

SOLOMON: Totally.

BLACKWELL: So, we're happy to be together.

I have not seen "Barbie" yet. I will. But even from some of the "Barbie" cynics who I've -- I know who have seen it, they like it.

HARLOW: Yes.

BLACKWELL: They like how they treated, you know, the potential issue of Barbie's body image concerns.

SOLOMON: Yes.

BLACKWELL: They love how it was dealt with.

SOLOMON: You know, it's a great point, Victor, because what industry analysts will say that "Barbie" did really well is they tapped into strategically those who loved Barbie but those who hated Barbie, right?

HARLOW: Absolutely.

SOLOMON: Because there are - and I haven't seen it yet, I do want to see "Barbie," but there are people who were not fans of some of Barbie's more problematic past, the lack of inclusion and on and on and on. But the writers did a really good job of sort of poking fun at its more problematic past.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

SOLOMON: And so there's something here for everyone. Whether you grew up loving Barbie or you felt like it wasn't inclusive, this seems to meet that.

HARLOW: Totally.

BLACKWELL: All right.

HARLOW: They call the - Robbie -- Margot Robbie's character stereotypical Barbie. That's what she calls herself to get right to that point.

SOLOMON: Yes. Yes.

BLACKWELL: We need to get you a seat on this Renaissance Tour.

SOLOMON: Oh, yes. Oh, yes.

HARLOW: I need that. I need Taylor Swift. I need all these things in my life.

SOLOMON: And, guys, I - I dressed for the occasion.

BLACKWELL: Yes, you did.

SOLOMON: (INAUDIBLE). HARLOW: Very good. Very good.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Yes.

SOLOMON: Good to be with you.

BLACKWELL: This is correspondent Barbie.

All right -

SOLOMON: Ooh.

BLACKWELL: You like that?

SOLOMON: I like that.

BLACKWELL: See.

SOLOMON: Sharp.

BLACKWELL: You're welcome.

HARLOW: Well, this morning, the Red Cross dropping its restriction on blood donation based on a person's sexual orientation. It's a really significant change. The new guidelines, ahead.

BLACKWELL: And deadline day for Donald Trump's lawyers. Later today they will have to respond to the Justice Department's proposal on how evidence in the 2020 election interference case is handled.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:56:15]

HARLOW: Starting today, the Red Cross has updated its guidance on who can donate blood. The new rules will allow more gay and bisexual people to donate. It comes three months after the FDA relaxed decades old restrictions that officials said were aimed at protecting against the spread of HIV.

CNN medical correspondent Meg Tirrell is here.

Such a big change. So important. A lot of people will say way too late. Long time coming. Other countries have been way ahead of us.

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDIAL CORRESPONDENT: They have been. And this has been an extremely long process. But the Red Cross starting this today is extremely significant because they account for 40 percent of the U.S. blood supply. And the Red Cross itself calls this one of the most significant changes to the blood banking history. The most significant changes in blood banking history.

But as you mentioned, this has been a long time coming. I mean it was 1985 when the lifetime ban on gay male donors went into effect. And that was in the, you know, the height of fear around HIV and AIDS. It wasn't until 2015 that they even dialed that back to still a one-year period of required abstinence for donating. During Covid, they shortened that to three months. And then finally this year they unified these rules for everybody.

And so really what this does is it makes the questions based on individual risk rather than sexual orientation. This brings the U.S. into step with other countries, like the U.K. and Canada. And, of course, this is risk-based questions, not based on who somebody is.

BLACKWELL: And there are still some exceptions, though, right?

TIRRELL: There are. And, you know, the LGBTQ plus community is still calling this, you know, stigmatizing. So, some of the exceptions are based on sexual history. There are also exceptions based on use of anti-viral drugs to prevent HIV infection because the FDA says that that could lead to false negatives in terms of screening out HIV.

But, you know, GMHC, which is an HIV/AIDS service organization, say that this still perpetuates stigma that we've been seeing with these guidelines for, you know, 30 years.

HARLOW: Yes. How much will it help in terms of supply? A few of my friends have gone, you know, to donate recently. And the -- a big question is, they need more supply. Is this expected to boost that a lot?

TIRRELL: They definitely do. Only 3 percent of age-eligible people actually donate every year. It surprised me it was so small. And so there is a really big hope that this could, you know, encourage more people and enable more people who want to be able to contribute to be able to.

BLACKWELL: All right, Meg Tirrell, thank you.

TIRRELL: Thank you, guys.

BLACKWELL: CNN THIS MORNING continues right now.

HARLOW: Good morning, everyone. Victor Blackwell here with us. It is the top of the hour. Good morning to you.

BLACKWELL: Good morning to you.

HARLOW: We've got a lot of news to get to on this Monday, August 7th. Ten hours to go. Trump's lawyers have until 5:00 p.m. this afternoon to respond to the special counsel's legal filing. At the heart of it, what Trump and his legal team can and cannot do with evidence shared throughout the case and throughout the January 6th case as a whole.

BLACKWELL: Some Republicans' new line, quote, "President Harris" in emails, speeches and interviews. Republican presidential candidates are increasingly suggesting that a vote for 80-year-old Biden would really actually be a vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.

Happening overnight, at least three people have been killed after two helicopters collided while responding to a fire in Riverside County, California. One helicopter landed safely. All three people inside the other helicopter died. That included a Cal Fire division chief and a fire captain, also a contract pilot.

HARLOW: Also this, a 25-year-old in Florida has been found alive after being lost for two days at sea. The boater left St. Augustine Thursday night, was found around 12 miles offshore Saturday morning. The Coast Guard rescued him. They say no medical concerns were reported.

[07:00:01]

BLACKWELL: And Biles is back. Simone Biles has won her first competitive event in two years.