Return to Transcripts main page

Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Coronavirus Catastrophe in India Grows Worse By the Day; Experts Worry About Inflation As U.S. Economy Recovers; Biden Taking Case for Huge Infrastructure Plan on the Road. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired May 03, 2021 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:00]

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CO-ANCHOR, EARLY START: Good morning, welcome to viewers in the United States and all around the world, this morning, we have reports from India, the White House, Tokyo, Hong Kong and London as only CNN can. This is EARLY START, I'm Christine Romans.

LAURA JARRETT, CO-ANCHOR, EARLY START: Hey, good morning Christine, I'm Laura Jarrett, it's Monday, May 3rd, it's 5:00 a.m. here in New York. Life in the United States is beginning a slow return to normal, but globally, the end of the pandemic is terrifyingly far away. India, now the epicenter of the worst ongoing COVID outbreak. Experts say these uncontrolled surges could prolong the pandemic for everyone, allowing more dangerous variants to emerge and spread worldwide.

ROMANS: The U.S. will start restricting travel from India tomorrow, but experts are not convinced it makes a difference.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER: Well, not sure what we're hoping to accomplish. If the goal is to try to prevent introduction of virus into the United States, there's plenty of virus here already. The goal is to try to prevent introduction of that new variant 617 that's settling in India. I assure you, it's here already. So, we're not going to prevent its introduction. These travel restrictions could serve a purpose, but we need to be clear about what that purpose is. Right now, we still have restrictions in place against travel from China and the U.K., that doesn't make a lot of sense.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: India hit a record 400,000 cases this weekend, more than four times its worst numbers last Summer. And India is not the only global COVID hotspot.

JARRETT: Yes, that's right, Turkey entered its first national lockdown on Thursday, Iran reported its highest death toll last week, but India's surge is a reminder that the virus is evolving and adapting to us faster than we're adapting to it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLARISSA WARD, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Who is the oxygen for?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My mother.

WARD: Your mother? How old is she?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Forty seven.

WARD: Is her oxygen very low?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's in a very critical condition.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fifty eight

WARD: Fifty eight --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fifty eight percent --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fifty eight percent, right --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we're trying since morning, we're not getting oxygen anywhere.

WARD: How many places have you been to?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nineteen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nineteen.

WARD: Nineteen?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Since morning, since 6:00 a.m.

WARD: Have you tried taking her to the hospital?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are no beds.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No beds.

WARD: There are no beds.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Before four days, we have tried so much, but we didn't get any beds.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But they are just not entertaining anything, and they're just refusing all things. I cannot tell who I can blame, it is both government and the hospitals also.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: Senior international correspondent Sam Kiley is live in Delhi outside oxygen supply facilities. Sam, good morning to you, what are you seeing there?

SAM KILEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, you join me just outside on the outskirts of Dehli, and this is a facility that's been set up by the Herdman(ph) NGO, they in some cases have to drive 300 miles to get hold of these oxygen cylinders. They are one of the very few places in the city where it can be found. They are actually establishing another city, another location where it's going to be about four times this. And here, just in this space here, there are three different gentlemen, all struggling for breath. All who would be crushing, potentially dying if they didn't get these oxygen cylinders.

And the last couple of days, we were in the Batra Hospital, which is a state-of-the-art, first world facility, where in the space of about three hours, 12 people died, effectively of asphyxiation, they died of COVID of course, but they died because the oxygen in the hospital ran out -- owners or rather, managers here at this volunteer facility say that they've just in the last hour received an appeal from an actual hospital, saying in that hospital, they've got 50 patients that will die if they don't get oxygen now. And this is in stark contrast to the claims made by the national government, the health minister here in India.

And remember, this is the outskirts of the Indian capital, and he said or claimed that Dehli was getting more oxygen than it could use, now that is simply not borne out by the facts on the ground.

JARRETT: That's why it is just so helpful to have you there on the ground, our eyes and ears for us, Sam, thank you so much, appreciate it.

ROMANS: All right, four minutes past the hour, in the U.S., the great American come-back is here, the size of the economy, America's GDP almost back where it was before the pandemic, measured by jobs, the economy is still down more than 8 million since February 2020.

[05:05:00]

But there's no doubt the economy is roaring back here, as lockdowns ease, people are vaccinated and stimulus flows to bank accounts. An economy so strong cue the inflation worries. What does that look like? Inflation. Higher prices for goods and services, gas prices and wages, pushing up inflation and eventually prompting the Fed to raise interest rates to cool things off. Now, that seems to be a long way off. Janet Yellen at the Treasury, and Jerome Powell over the Fed have not -- seems too worried about inflation.

Powell repeatedly saying higher prices will be temporary and vowing not to get in the way of the recovering economy. But look around you, you can see COVID-related supply shortages and higher prices just about everywhere. Rental car prices are incredibly high if you can find one. There are chlorine shortages for the Summer pool season. The global chip shortage is halting a car assembly lines. Ketchup packets, believe it or not, are in short supply. The chicken sandwich wars have sparked a chicken shortage after millions of Americans were cooped up inside, and buyers are scrambling to find homes in a seller's market.

Now, soaring lumber prices are making new homes even pricier. And Laura, if you have gone out to fill up the tank, you can see gas prices have been rising as well and we expect that to continue through this Summer as people get out there and hit the roads. In many cases, some people are able to take a road trip for the first time --

JARRETT: Yes --

ROMANS: In more than a year.

JARRETT: Yes, the timing there is tough.

ROMANS: Yes.

JARRETT: Well, President Biden hitting the road this morning to sell his big infrastructure plans and the tax hikes that are going to pay for a lot of them. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen tells critics of Biden's tax increases that they're asking the wrong question. She tells CNN's John Harwood, quote, "the greatest threat to our economic recovery and our long-term economic prospects is not a marginally higher tax rate for large corporations or the top 1 percent of taxpayers. It's a lack of support for America's workers and families."

ROMANS: Several Senate Republicans insisting on Sunday that they're open to a bipartisan deal on a narrow infrastructure plan, but that doesn't come close to the scope of the investment the White House is demanding. The president will be making his case not in Washington, but all around the country to sell his vision for the American workforce. CNN's Arlette Saenz has more from the White House.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Laura, President Biden starts the week out on the road as he is looking to build support among the American people for his massive economic proposals. The president and the first lady will travel down to southern Virginia, where they will visit a school as they are looking to tout that $1.8 trillion American families plan. A proposal that covers elements like child care, paid family leave and free community college. The vice president will be heading out to Wisconsin and Rhode Island around midweek, and then President Biden will travel down south to Louisiana on Thursday.

What the White House is trying to do here is build support out in the country for these proposals, and then they hope in turn, that will pressure lawmakers to get on board with the president's plans. They White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain talked a little bit about their thinking behind that on Sunday. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RON KLAIN, CHIEF OF STAFF, WHITE HOUSE: The proposals the president's put forward have broad support. They have broad support in the country. They have support from Republican governors and Republican mayors. I think what we have to see is whether or not Republicans in Washington joined the rest of America in broadly supporting these common sense ideas to grow our economy and to make our families better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Now, the president has said he is willing to negotiate with Republicans and will be hosting a group of Republican senators here at the White House at some point to see if they can hammer out a deal. Republicans do not like that price tag on that infrastructure package, $2.25 trillion. And they want to see a more narrow targeted approach. Focusing just on things like roads, rails, and bridges. The president has said that if Republicans come in, offering just a fourth or fifth of what he is proposed, that will be a no go for him. So, the question in the coming weeks and months is what areas are the two sides willing to give and take a bit in order to reach some type of deal? Laura and Christine?

JARRETT: Arlette, thank you so much for that report. Well, she backs the party on Trump's impeachment, she's not backing down either. Now, top Republicans suggest Congresswoman Liz Cheney could be removed from her leadership role and soon.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:10:00]

ROMANS: A quiet trickle growing to a flood of calls to turn the GOP hard to the right as Republican leaders who defy former President Trump come under serious pressure from the Trump base. A senior house Republican who backed Congresswoman Liz Cheney in the past, told CNN that she could be in very big trouble and stands on shaky ground to remain number three in the House Republican Conference. That source -- that source predicts that while it's unclear when a vote to oust her would occur, a vote is inevitable.

JARRETT: Cheney has been on an island of sort since voting to impeach former President Trump for inspiring that insurrection. She had to defend herself publicly last week after daring to greet the president at his speech to Congress, and this weekend, Senator Mitt Romney faced a hostile crowd in Utah in a GOP convention.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITT ROMNEY (R-UT): And you know me as a person who says what he thinks and I don't hide the fact that I wasn't a fan of our last president's character issues. And I'm also no fan --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Aren't you embarrassed?

ROMNEY: And I'm also no fan of the president's --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sorry , my friends, this is the moment I was talking about. Please, thank you, show respect.

(APPLAUSE)

[05:15:00]

ROMNEY: You might call me an old-fashioned Republican, I am. There are party -- oh, yes, you can -- you can boo all you like, but I've been a Republican all my life, my dad was a governor of Michigan. My dad worked for Republican candidates that he believed in. I worked for Republicans across the country, and if you don't recall, I was a Republican nominee for president in 2012. (APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: That was like a lifetime ago. Shouts of traitor and communist were among the insults being flung at the Senator, though a vote to actually censure him failed.

ROMANS: An apology and a retraction from "Newsmax", the right-wing network settled a lawsuit filed by an executive with a Dominion Voting Systems. "Newsmax" acknowledged its reporting about Eric Coomer was baseless. The network falsely claimed he interfered with the voting machines and software and was involved with Antifa. Coomer has been in hiding and receiving death threats. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

JARRETT: A wild ending no one saw coming. Why a game-tying homerun was overturned. Your "BLEACHER REPORT" is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:20:00]

ROMANS: All right, a wild game between the Phillies and the Mets comes down to inches and an instant replay. Andy Scholes has this Monday morning "BLEACHER REPORT", hey Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Christine. So, Phillies fans not waking up very happy this morning after losing last night to the Mets in dramatic fashion. So, they were down three, two outs, bottom of the 9th, Rhys Hoskins hits this ball hard to right, it appears to hit a seat and come back for a game-tying three- run homerun. The umpires though, they go to review it and it turns out the ball actually hit the top of the metal railing and came back onto the field. So, they sent Hoskins back to second base, and that means the Phillies were now down a run, Bryce Harper comes up to the plate and he will then strikeout to end the big game. So, the Mets end up winning after all that 8-7.

All right, defending champion NBA Lakers have now lost six of their last seven games. LeBron James left last night, lost to the Raptors, late in the quarter with a sore right ankle. LeBron just come back from this 20-game due to that ankle injury. He said after the loss, can see how it feels before assessing whether he's going to play tonight against the Nuggets. Right now, the sixth seed, if they fall to seven, they have to play in the play-in game, and LeBron, not a fan of the playing tournament, saying whoever came up with that idea should be fined.

All right, two of the top teams in the east, the Nets and Bucks squaring off in a possible conference final preview. Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kevin Durant, they were just going toe-to-toe in this one, taking this one down to the final seconds. KD scored 42 in this one, but this, a potential game-tying three at the buzzer. As Giannis, the two-time reigning NBA MVP finished with 49 points. Both teams are going to go at it again tomorrow night at 7:30 Eastern on our sister channel "TNT".

All right, the NFL draft wrapping up over the weekend. We saw some awesome moments as young men realize their dreams of making it to the NFL. The Denver Broncos looking at Jonathan Cooper out of Ohio State in the seventh round, check out what Cooper did. He spoke to -- Columbus area and he celebrated with the kids in his neighborhood on the street after being selected. And then check out this moment, after Atlanta Falcons took Stanford Center Drew Dalman in the fourth round, Drew just overcome with emotion as he hugged his dad.

Dad played seven years in the NFL, he's also a coach for the Falcons. And I tell you what, Laura, that's what the draft is all about. Moments like that. Seeing those young men just overcome, so happy to realize their dream of making it to the NFL.

JARRETT: I love to see it. I love to see them hugging their parents, right? It's just -- it's so great. Andy, thanks so much, appreciate it.

SCHOLES: All right.

JARRETT: All right, got a quick programming note for you here, 50 years after its release, an anthem for a new generation, a CNN special "WHAT'S GOING ON: MARVIN GAYE's ANTHEM FOR THE AGES" premieres Sunday night at 8:00.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:25:00]

JARRETT: This week, more progress at the U.S. southern border. New reunifications of migrant families separated under former President Trump. This is a first since President Biden took office. Priscilla Alvarez covers immigration for us. Priscilla, nice to see you this morning. So, how many families are we talking about?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN IMMIGRATION REPORTER: Laura, this is a significant development since Biden came into office and established that taskforce that identifies and reunifies families who were separated at the U.S.-Mexico border under the Trump administration. The Homeland Security Secretary announcing this morning that four families who were separated under Trump will be reunited this week. They will be granted humanitarian parole to reunify with their kids in the United States. Now, the secretary didn't provide specifics about these cases to protect their privacy, but he did provide two examples, one of a mother from Honduras who was separated from her children in late 2017 at the border and another of a mother from Mexico who was separated from her son during the same time in late 2017.

So, two mothers here who have not seen their kids for more than three years to be reunited this week, under an effort, stemming from that taskforce. Now, the taskforce says that they are sifting through thousands of records and expect that there are more than a thousand families who are still separated or believed to be separated. So, the secretary saying this morning that there's more work to come, and reunification is expected in the coming months, Laura. JARRETT: It's amazing. Three years and more than a thousand families

still separated, the damage there is just really hard to imagine. Priscilla, thank you so much, appreciate it. EARLY START continues right now. Good morning everyone, this is EARLY START, I'm Laura Jarrett.

ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans, it is just about 30 minutes past the hour. The U.S. making real progress against the pandemic this morning. The number of daily deaths has not been this low since last July. Los Angeles County reported no new COVID fatalities on Sunday, that could be an under-count due to a reporting delay, but the health experts are confident.