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Pence Campaign Meets Donor Threshold To Make First Debate; Alabama Boat Dock Brawl Under Investigation; Study: Air Pollution May be Causing A Rise In Antibiotic Resistance Around The World; Aired 7:30-8:00a ET

Aired August 08, 2023 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

MIKE LYONS, U.S. ARMY: U.S. defense contractors. And you can't crank that machine up quick enough to get some of that material there at the time. Look at the tanks. I mean, we're -- the only -- we only took us -- took us eight months to get 31 tanks to Ukraine, any 400 if they want to have any kind of offense.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: So we've heard overnight, a detail about new textbooks in Russia --

LYONS: Yes.

BLACKWELL: That will address the invasion of Ukraine as the addition of new regions to the Russian Federation, just kind of like brush ignoring, not even using the special military operation language that they've used on the global scale. What's your reaction to that?

LYONS: Yes. They're betting that this is going to end with a new border that Russia is going to take that land that they have. I mean, they had that land that they controlled since 2014, mostly in Crimea and the Donbas Region. And now they control that eastern portion of Dnipro River. It creates now a DMZ, a border situation of two hostile countries, if this thing stops tomorrow, if the Russians decide from a military perspective.

The other thing though, it does put a little bit of a problem with Ukraine joining NATO. We can't bring a country into NATO that has a border conflict. So this is one way that, you know, Putin will potentially keep NATO from Ukraine by saying, there's going to always be a border skirmish here and this is all part of their plan.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN HOST: Major Mike Lyons, thank you. Nice to have you at the table. We usually get you in Washington or at the wall. Thanks for being with us.

BLACKWELL: Former vice president and Republican presidential candidate, Mike Pence, will be on the debate stage. He's met the donor threshold. That's according to his campaign. Our next guest just got one step closer to joining him on that stage, Miami Mayor, Francis Suarez, will join us live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [07:35:07]

BLACKWELL: New this morning, Mike Pence will be on the debate stage two weeks from tomorrow. The former vice president's campaign says it hit the 40,000 unique donor threshold to qualify for the first Republican presidential debate.

Pence who had already met the polling criteria will join the seven other candidates who appeared to have qualified. For those who have not, the time is running out. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez also says that he just hit that donor threshold and puts him a step closer to making it on the stage.

Suarez, who announced his White House bid in June has gotten creative to attract donors offering $20 gift cards in exchange for donations of as little as $1, also raffling tickets to see Lionel Messi play for the Inter Miami and accepting donations in Bitcoin. Miami Mayor, Francis Suarez, joins us now.

Mr. Mayor, good to have you on this morning. Let's start with what it takes to get on the stage you at one percent in an Iowa poll. You've got to get either three national polls or two national and one additional state. Looks like you got that additional state poll. How do you get to at least one percent to be on that stage on the 23rd?

FRANCIS SUAREZ, MAYOR OF MIAMI: Well, it's moments like this and opportunities like this, that give me an opportunity to showcase my record in Miami and my vision for the country. In Miami, I followed three simple rules for prosperity, we kept taxes low, and we saw double digit growth we grew last year 14 percent.

We kept people safe. Last year, we had the lowest per capita homicide rate since 1964. This year, we're 37 percent below that number. That is very different from what's happening in other cities across America.

And then we leaned into innovation. We have the lowest unemployment in America, the highest wage growth, and the highest tech job growth. That is a recipe for American prosperity. And my vision for the future of this country is to get the deficit under control, fix immigration once and for all, and focus on the rising threat of China as an economic and national security threat. That is the challenge of our generation. And we need a president that's ready on day one that has the background, and has the ideas and how to chart a path forward into this uncertain future.

BLACKWELL: So if the message gets you on stage, why the gimmicks? And you're not the only candidate who's doing it, you're not the first to do it. But the purpose of the threshold from the RNC or the thresholds is to determine that there's some modicum of support for a candidate to be on that stage. The polling you get the 40,000 unique donors.

If a donor gives you $1 to get a $20 gift card, that doesn't say anything about their support for you. It's just that they're smart enough to take up 20 to one return on investment. SUAREZ: Yes. No, I understand. And I think, look, I was a late entrant into the race. I've only been in the race for about 60 days. I'm probably one of the least known of the top eight or nine candidates that are running. So certainly given this criteria, which is never been imposed before. And the understanding of how important it is, as you've indicated, to make it to the debate stage, because you're going to be one of nine with, you know, obviously not equal time.

But, you know, and a great opportunity to articulate the message that I just articulated on your show. It's incredibly critical to a campaign to have that opportunity, particularly to a candidate who is not as well-known as some of the other candidates.

So we've obviously had to do what we've had to do to get to that threshold. And we're going to continue to do what we need to do to get to that debate stage over the next couple of weeks.

BLACKWELL: Governor Ron DeSantis, has acknowledged now, in his words, of course, former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. Do you agree that he lost a -- and I'll add this, free and fair 2020 presidential election?

SUAREZ: Yes. I mean, I've been on the record on this issue before. I believe that the -- that the election was decided properly. I do -- I never saw enough evidence of any particular state to convince me, at least, that any of the challenges had merit.

But, you know, obviously, the former president has the right to challenge the elections, as others have challenged the elections. And the one thing is -- it's pretty clear to me is that he believes that the election was not validly contested --

BLACKWELL: So you don't believe that he knew that he lost the election?

SUAREZ: Oh, I think he's been very consistent about his beliefs. I've never heard him and sometimes I've actually wondered, you know, why he stuck to it so much, and -- but he's been clear to me that he's been consistent in his belief that the election was stolen despite whatever advice he may have been given from people that were close to him that were advising him otherwise.

He obviously had a cadre of people that were advising him one way. And I think part of the challenge and the indictment is going to be proving that he actually knew that the election was not legitimately decided.

[07:40:09]

BLACKWELL: Let me ask you about some of CNN's reporting, on Manu Raju reporting, the House Republicans say privately that it's a foregone conclusion that this fall, they will begin an impeachment inquiry against President Biden. Do you support that?

SUAREZ: Look, I think there's a tremendous amount of frustration on the part of Republicans where they've seen, you know, sort of the Justice Department in their minds of being weaponized as a political tool. And I think this is sort of a reaction to that.

You know, I wish we wouldn't be talking about impeachment of either the current president or the former president when he was president. I want to be focused on --

BLACKWELL: But we are, Mr. Mayor. We are talking about impeachment. I'm going to go back to the question because we're low on time.

SUAREZ: Yes.

BLACKWELL: Do you support an impeachment inquiry against the president?

SUAREZ: Listen, you're the moderator, you get to ask the questions. But I also get to answer the questions. And for me, as I travel the country, what people are talking about is not impeachments, people are talking about the fact that they're starting school and inflation is out of control. And it's making it harder for them to be able to make ends meet.

They're talking about the fact that, you know, 300 people die on average every day from fentanyl overdoses. They're talking about the fact that homelessness and crime is rampant in their cities. Those are the issues that people are talking about.

So obviously, you get to ask the questions that you want, but I get to also answer them in the way that I want it. Focusing on the things that I want to focus on with the limited time that I have so respectfully. That's what I like to focus on.

BLACKWELL: OK. Mayor Francis Suarez, I asked the question, I didn't get an answer. But I thank you for your time.

SUAREZ: Thank you as well.

HARLOW: That was really interesting. I thought one thing that struck me is he said, I'm one of the least known of the --

BLACKWELL: Sure, yes. Yes.

HARLOW: Which is what, you know, Mitt Romney has been arguing like some other Republicans who -- whose road doesn't look as strong are going to need to think about whether they say. And we'll see if he makes the debate stage and where it goes from there.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Chris Sununu says, everybody get in. The question is, when do you get out?

HARLOW: Yes, that's a great point.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

HARLOW: Good interview. I'll always answer your question.

BLACKWELL: Thank you, Poppy. HARLOW: You got it. A huge brawl at a riverside dock. This is in Montgomery, Alabama. Very much split between racial lines. You see all these white men attacking this black man who was working on the doc. What sparked this and where the investigation is now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:45:56]

HARLOW: Well, later today, officials in Montgomery, Alabama will hold a news conference following a brawl that broke out on a waterfront dock. This happened Saturday night when a black dock worker was trying to get a pontoon boat move so the city's riverboat could dock. This is the fight that ensued when one of those white voters assaulted the employee. Ryan Young has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): An altercation on a Montgomery, Alabama boat dock over the weekend between a group of white boaters and a black employee escalated into a massive brawl that resulted in multiple arrest warrants.

Montgomery mayor, Steven Reed, is calling for justice to be served for attacking a man who was doing his job.

STEVEN REED, MAYOR OF MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA: It's an unfortunate incident, and it's something that we're investigating right now. We'll continue to go through that process before we take any additional steps.

YOUNG: It all began when the black employee was trying to clear the dock space with a riverside cruise, the Harriott II, normally docks. The cruiser was about to return to shore and needed its space to dock.

LAUREN SPIVEY, WITNESS: You know, just doing his job. And for some reason, they didn't like it. They didn't want to move the boat and who decided to get physical with him.

YOUNG: You can see in the video the black employee on the dock arguing with one of the men from the pontoon boat, and then another shirtless white man charging at the employee and hitting him in the face. Soon after that, you can see several others join in on the attack of the dock employee.

In some of the video which has gone viral with millions of views. People on the vote can be heard yelling for someone to go help the employee.

And at one point, you can see a young man who has jumped off the boat swimming ashore to help the man who is being attacked.

SPIVEY: The boat back closer, the guys and the crew members and everybody caught off and that's when it happened. That's the reason why when they got off the boat, they came right to that smaller boat. YOUNG: And that's when more fighting ensues turning into an all-out brawl that included several people getting hit over the head with a folding chair. Soon after, officers started trying to take control, handcuffing people in the fight.

SPIVEY: You know they were the antagonists that a whole situation, arrest them, because unfortunately when things happened, people of color are the first to put -- be put in handcuffs.

YOUNG: Many questions remain about the melee that appear to be very much split across racial lines.

REED: We are fully engaged and we are doing all of our due diligence to find out exactly what took place.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

YOUNG (on camera): Yes. One thing we know, city officials are asking -- actually asking anybody who had video to give it over to the police department.

Look, the witness was very clear with us. They felt like this man was attacked while he was doing his job. They want to see something done. Of course, today, the two o'clock news conference. Hopefully, we learn more about what police have been able to investigate and find out.

But this has really sent a shockwave through the internet when it comes to this story. People want answers and they want them pretty quickly, especially because they do believe this was racially motivated.

HARLOW: Ryan Young, we -- everyone's talking about it, and we appreciate your reporting. Keep us posted on where this investigation goes.

BLACKWELL: So a new study links air pollution to the rise of resistance to antibiotics. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here with a live report.

HARLOW: Plus, thousands of public city workers striking in Los Angeles today. We'll tell you what they're calling for. We'll take you live there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:50:25]

BLACKWELL: A new study has found a potential link between two major health threats, air pollution and resistance to antibiotics, meaning, pollution could make infectious diseases more dangerous.

CNN chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, joins us now. Good morning, Good Doctor. So people might not necessarily -- and by people, I mean, me and --

HARLOW: And me. BLACKWELL: -- folks -- other folks. OK. Who may not understand the link between these two. So explain them.

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, so far, this is a correlation study. There's no direct cause and effect here, but it's a pretty strong correlation. As you see places in the world where you have more air pollution, you also find more antimicrobial resistance.

As the air pollution goes up, resistance goes up as well. As it goes down, resistance comes down. So it's a strong correlation. And they saw this in, you know, some 166 countries around the world.

So now, you know, the deeper investigation begins what exactly is going on here? A couple of theories. First of all, when we talk about these particles, these are tiny, right? Less than 2.5 microns in size. To give you some idea, you know, human hair is 50 to 70 microns in size.

One theory is that these particles, they're in the air. We know that they can get into our lungs in our bloodstream. They may also carry some of these bacteria around, making them more -- making people more susceptible and increasing resistance.

It could also be that there's more infections as a result of those bacterias going around, more people then using antibiotics. And that increasing resistance to those antibiotics. I don't know for sure, but it is a strong correlation, you know, these two seemingly unlink things.

HARLOW: How long has this been a problem?

GUPTA: Yes. You know, this is really interesting, Poppy. I mean, if people think about antibiotics say, well, when was penicillin even discovered? And, you know, it was not even 100 years ago, right? I mean, so there was antibiotics before that back in 1909. Penicillin discovered in 1928. First used in 1942 because it had to go through all these trials.

And within five years, you had antibiotic resistance to Penicillin.

HARLOW: Wow.

GUPTA: -- some evidence of it. So it can happen very quickly.

Right now, there's about 18 resistant bacteria or fungi that are considered serious or urgent. According to the CDC, there's three more. They're on a watch list. So it's pretty -- you know, it's a pretty significant number that they're keeping an eye on.

Typically, it's due to overuse of antibiotics, use too much of it, the bacteria or the pathogens become smart, figure out how to evade it. We also overuse in farm animals and there's often poor infection control in some parts of the world. So these things can all lead to antibiotic resistance. This air pollution link, that's a new one.

[07:55:11] BLACKWELL: So, Sanjay, if there is more to this correlation relationship, the study, the researchers are right, and it's more causal, and they can confirm that. How big of an impact does that have?

GUPTA: Yes. So, you know, I got to tell you, you know, Victor, even before the pandemic, I used to put antimicrobial resistance sort of on the top of my list of things to keep an eye on. Because if you go back to 2019 even and say, what was the impact at that point, 1.27 million deaths responsible for associated with five million deaths? So people who are more vulnerable, they develop an infection, their body can't clear it, and there's not a good bacteria to do it. So that's what we were dealing with in 2019.

The potential, if you fast forward going to 2050, is about 840,000 additional deaths. Now, I want to be careful here. These are modeling studies. These are projections based on what we're seeing. So you can't read completely into the numbers.

But clearly, antibiotic resistance, antimicrobial resistance is a problem. And there's all sorts of things that can make it a bigger problem in the future.

HARLOW: Yes.

BLACKWELL: All right. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you very much.

GUPTA: You got it.

HARLOW: So nearly 50 people were rescued from vehicles trapped by downed power lines in Maryland. Severe storms have pummeled the East Coast. We'll tell you how it's impacting travel this morning.

BLACKWELL: And polls are open in Ohio. Voters are deciding whether to amend the state's constitution which could threaten abortion rights come November. We have a live report ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Powerful storms pushing through the south and into the Northeast.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These are not your summer type thunderstorms.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hundreds of thousands of homes without power as of Monday night.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The wind was crazy. I've just never seen anything like it a lot.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Trump's team pushing back against special counsel's request to limit what the former president can say about the case against him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: His attorneys accusing prosecutors of trying to restrict Trump's First Amendment rights.

[08:00:00]