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Biden Heads Abroad As Domestic Agenda Hits Roadblocks; Senate Passes Bipartisan Bill to Counter China's Growing Might; Johnson & Johnson Working to Extend Shelf Life of Its Vaccine. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired June 09, 2021 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:26]

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is EARLY START.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Christine Romans.

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Laura Jarrett. It's Wednesday, June 9th. It's 5:00 a.m. here in New York.

And in just a few hours, President Biden takes off for the first foreign trip of his presidency. The trip abroad comes at a pivotal moment. Just as hopes for transformational change at home are hitting a wall. The reality of a 50/50 Senate, ideological tensions within the Democratic Party and a GOP united in obstruction are all bringing Mr. Biden to a moment of legislative truth.

ROMANS: That's right. The White House infrastructure talks have flamed out and other top agenda items like voting rights face murky futures. Suddenly a presidency built on huge popular COVID relief and a big jobs and families plan is looking a little bit shakier here.

CNN's Arlette Saenz live this morning in England ahead of Biden's first stop at the G7.

Good morning.

Arlette, bring us up to speed.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine.

President Biden in just a few hours will make his way over to the United Kingdom as he launches his first foreign trip as president. And the president is bringing a clear message that America is back. He has insisted that part of this trip will include rallying the world's democracies and showing a united front among allies.

Now, when the president first lands in the United Kingdom, he will be at Mildenhall Air Base where he and the first lady will speak to service members there, then he will make his way over to this area known as Cornwall where the G7 Summit will be held over the next few days. He will sit down tomorrow with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson

and then also have that meeting with G7 Summit leaders, the first of its kind in two years. COVID-19, climate and China are all expected to be on the agenda and at some point over the course of the next few days, the president will be making -- is expected to make some type of announcement when it comes to global production of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Now, before the president leaves the United Kingdom, he will meet with Queen Elizabeth. This will be her 13th meeting with an American president and the First Lady Jill Biden will also be participating.

Now, after these meetings here in the United Kingdom, the president travels to Brussels where he will attend the NATO and EU summit as he is trying to stress those alliances that America has and that he insists he will remain committed to. All of this was very critically and importantly carefully choreographed so that he met with these allies first as he heads to Geneva, Switzerland, for that high stakes meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. A host of issues are expected to come up there from ransomware to human rights abuses and the president having that first face-to-face meeting at a very precarious time in relations between the U.S. and Russia.

Now, while the president is trying to put foreign policy on the front burner, there are domestic issues brewing back home. The initial infrastructure talks have basically flamed out. Right now, the president plans on remaining engaged with some other members of Congress, a bipartisan group of senators, as he is looking for some other momentum towards an infrastructure deal. There's also voting rights, which is basically dead on arrival at this point. Other elements of the president's agenda also called from police reform to gun control.

So this is a host of domestic issues that will be in the backdrop of the president's first foreign trip. Of course, Biden was well-known in international circles for so many years as a senator and then vice president, but during this trip, he will be at the forefront as a leader of the United States.

ROMANS: Yeah, foreign policy certainly his bailiwick, something he has worked with for years. But he is there in a different role this time.

You mentioned -- you used the word choreography, Arlette, and I want to kind of peel back the curtain for folks. You know, you are already there in position but there are reporters who are going ahead of the president to be there ready to report on this trip and some of those other members of the press are delayed and I'm not joking, they're delayed because of cicadas?

SAENZ: Yeah, things got off to a bit of a buggy start, you can say. The press plane that is carrying many members, our White House colleagues and other members of the White House press corps, it was delayed by a few hours after a swarm of cicadas came out of one of the engines. They eventually got a replacement plane and those reporters are now making their way to join us here in the United Kingdom where so far I haven't spotted any cicadas.

[05:05:08]

ROMANS: Have to leave the Beltway to get rid of the cicadas.

All right. Nice to see you, Arlette. Have a great trip and report back often. Thank you.

SAENZ: Thank you.

JARRETT: All right. With the Biden agenda stalled for now on Capitol Hill, Democrats are taking a win where they can get one. The Senate passed a rare bipartisan bill Tuesday aimed at countering China's growing economic might. The measure would invest nearly $250 billion in scientific research, subsidies for chip-makers and much more.

CNN's David Culver is live in Shanghai for us.

David, good morning to you.

The bill is obviously being hailed in the U.S. as a legislative achievement, especially because it's bipartisan which is so rare here, but how is the bill being received by China?

DAVID CULVER, CNN CORESPONDENT: Laura, we don't often hear about Washington agreeing on much of anything, but there is something over recent months and even years that they have been in agreement on and that is concerns over China and its trajectory.

And hat's something that this bill looks at specifically. We should mention that while it's gone through the Senate, still has to go through the House and ultimately to the president, but it is seeing some progress so far.

This really focuses on putting those billions of dollars that you mentioned over several years into advancement of certain technologies such as 5G technology, something that here in China we have seen rolled out now for several months rather successfully as well. Also R&D, research and development and looking at even technology hubs in the U.S. this is, though, way beyond the economic successes here, this is about national security as it's been portrayed.

And part of the agreement from Republicans in all of this was also looking at some of the concerns they have had with China, specifically with regards to human rights in Xinjiang, with Hong Kong and the pro democracy protests that were quickly quieted and relations with Taiwan, the self-governed island that China considers to be its sovereign territory.

All of that is part of this in different nuances. So, it's going to be increasingly complicated to see how it's going to take effect and really how much teeth it's going to have.

But as the reaction here, Laura, you can bet they are not happy. They have put out a statement through the foreign committee of the National People's Congress, saying that this is a Cold War mentality and they're calling on Washington to back down and to not move forward with this.

It's unlikely of course that it's going to back down, it's likely this is going to move forward and this is going to continue to raise the tensions between these two world powers.

JARRETT: All right. David Culver live in Shanghai for us this morning -- thank you, David.

ROMANS: It's seven minutes past the hour.

Help wanted big time. An astonishing number of open jobs in the American recovery, a record 9.3 million open jobs in April, almost a third more than before the pandemic. In manufacturing job, openings have more than doubled since February 2020. It's 68 percent in leisure and hospitality.

As the economy roars back, companies are hungry to hire, but many workers are holding back. Child care is still a problem for millions of parents, especially mothers. There are health and safety concerns.

Front line low wage workers, they are not rushing to get back to, quote/unquote, normal, a couple of jobs and low wages is why employers are offering everything from free college tuition and scholarships to attract new employees.

It's a reckoning in the American jobs market. Workers hold the cards here and companies are finding they need to pay more to attract and retain workers.

Chipotle is passing on the higher labor costs to the consumers. Chipotle raised its menu prices by 4 percent to cover higher wages for employees.

For food companies, a double whammy here. Global food prices are also on the rise. The wages, they can raise prices for consumers which like Chipotle say they are going to do, they can eat the cost that comes out of their profits for some big companies --

JARRETT: They can afford that.

ROMANS: They can afford, or they can automate. I think you're going to start to see movement in all three of those places.

JARRETT: Yeah, that will be interesting to see for sure.

All right. Still ahead, first there was free beer, million dollar lotteries and now we're going to tell you about one state's incentive to weed out vaccine hesitancy.

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[05:13:17]

ROMANS: Johnson & Johnson is working to extend the shelf life of its COVID vaccine. The vaccine can stay in the refrigerator for up to three months but the single shot has struggled to catch up to the competitors after it was briefly paused to study a rare safety issue, that combined with lagging demand overall means millions of doses are sitting around unused.

In Ohio, 200,000 doses are set to expire within weeks and the state is unable to share them.

In Arkansas, they've stopped ordering the J&J vaccine because they have so many unused doses. Arkansas also has one of the country's lowest vaccination rates.

JARRETT: Ad a new poll shows about half of all Americans support requiring proof of vaccination to return to the office. More workplaces are now requiring a vaccine, but some people may not want to reveal their vaccination status or flat out don't want the vaccine at all. That is at the heart of a growing conflict between nurses and a hospital in Texas.

EARLY START has the pandemic covered coast to coast.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Ed Lavandera in Dallas.

A few months ago, Houston Methodist Hospital announced that it will require all of its employees, about 26,000 people, to get the COVID-19 vaccine. The hospital reports that nearly 100 percent of its workers are now fully vaccinated.

But there is a group of more than 100 workers who have refused and they're filing a lawsuit saying they're being treated like guinea pigs. The hospital system insists that they have the legal right to require its employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hospital patients are by definition vulnerable. We take care of patients with cancer, we take care of patients with immunological diseases. We take care of the elderly.

Every one of our professional tenets requires us to put patients first, require us to keep our patients safe by anything we possibly can do.

[05:15:03]

And so, those individuals who are choosing not to get vaccinated are basically saying they're going against the tenets of our profession and they're not putting patients first.

LAVANDERA: These workers who are refusing have now been suspended for up to two weeks. If they are not vaccinated in that amount of time, they will lose their jobs.

LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Leyla Santiago in Miami following a bit of a back and forth between Governor Ron DeSantis and the cruise lines. The governor is against vaccine passports, even taking the CDC to court over its restrictions on the cruise lines but then you have Royal Caribbean who says it will not require vaccines for its passengers but does encourage it.

And the Norwegian saying it will resume cruises from Miami with only fully vaccinated passengers.

Now, this is an industry that brings in $8.5 billion to the economy here and supports 154,000 jobs. So there is a lot at stake here as the governor decides how he's going to play this one.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: It's so interesting, you know, we have a back to normal index, CNN Business and Moody's, and Florida is one of these states that is actually doing as well as -- if not better today than it was before COVID. These are the five states whose economies are better economically today than before COVID, so Florida interesting there.

JARRETT: Which is not something you hear a lot, right? You think of businesses struggling, people struggling to get back to work. To hear that they're doing better --

ROMANS: If you look at that list, you can see, a lot of those states are states that did not lock down, there were never any restrictions there.

JARRETT: That's the distinction.

ROMANS: There was an economic benefit to not following the public science -- the public health and science.

JARRETT: Well, speaking of boost to the economy, in Washington state, there is a new incentive for people to get vaccinated. Joints for jabs. The Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board gave marijuana dispensaries the green light to offer one pre rolled joint to adult consumers who receive a shot at an in store vaccination clinic. It's being offered to only adults 21 and older and will end on July 12th.

All right. Foo Fighters will be the first band to perform live back at Madison Square Garden. The June 20th concert will be the first full capacity show in the named New York arena in more than 15 months.

Front man Dave Grohl says the group's fans should be prepared for a night of, quote, screaming our heads off forever. There will be no masks, no social distancing, but audience members will have to be fully vaccinated.

JARRETT: That will be a good time.

ROMANS: I would go to that show.

JARRETT: That would be a good time.

All right. Still ahead, is one of the best pitchers in baseball doctoring the ball? Gerrit Cole got the question and didn't seem to have an answer.

Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:22:21]

ROMANS: All right. The Utah Jazz sending their fans home happy last night with a thrilling game one win over the Clippers.

Andy Scholes this morning with the "Bleacher Report".

Hey, Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Christine.

So, after beating the Mavs in game 7, the Clippers were hoping to carry that momentum into their second round match up with the Jazz. Utah fans, they were rocking last night at Vivint Smart Home Arena wearing their color coded matching shirts. More than 18,000 on hand for the game.

The Jazz down by as many as 14. You saw minority owner Dwyane Wade giving Donovan Mitchell a pep talk for the fourth quarter.

Utah go on a big run to take the lead and in the final seconds the two-time defensive player of the year, Rudy Gobert, getting the big block to end the game. Donovan Mitchell had 45 as the Jazz take game one of that series, 112-109.

The Sixers meanwhile getting even with the Hawks in game two. Joel Embiid scoring a career playoff high 40 points in this one, despite playing with a torn meniscus in his knee. Sheikh Milton didn't play in the first half for Philly, but he came off the bench to chip in 14 including a long distance three at the horn to end the third quarter. Philly evens up the series with a game apiece with the 118-102 win. Game three Friday night in Atlanta.

Nuggets center Nikola Jokic is now the lowest drafted player ever to win the NBA's most valuable player award. He was selected with the 41st picket pick in 2014. The announcement was made yesterday. Jokic the first player from Serbia to be named MVP, also the first center since Shaq in 2000 to win the award.

All right. Finally, Major League Baseball is cracking down on pitchers using sticky stuff to doctor baseballs during games. ESPN is reporting that officials will start checking pitchers randomly when they come off the mound to make sure they don't have any illegal substances. This is happening because batting averages are way down and players have been complaining to the league.

Yesterday, Yankees ace Gerrit Cole, he got flustered when he was ever asked if he has ever used a sticky substance on the mound?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GERRIT COLE, NEW YORK YANKEES PITCHER: I don't -- I don't know -- I don't know if -- there no -- I don't quite know how to answer that to be honest. I mean, there are customs and practices that have been passed down from older players to younger players from the last generation of players to this generation of players.

[05:25:03]

And, you know, I think -- I think there are some things that are certainly out of bounds in that regard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: Yikes.

SCHOLES: Yeah, so Laura, you see Cole there basically saying baseball players have been doing this forever.

JARRETT: Yeah.

SCHOLES: Now the league is cracking down on it and this is a point where we might be able to see are batting averages going to start finally going up because right now the league average is about .230. We will see if offense starts to skyrocket from here because pitchers aren't going to be able to do what they've been doing.

JARRETT: I don't think I've ever seen a pregnant pause like that. He was struggling.

SCHOLES: He didn't know what to say.

JARRETT: All right. Andy, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

ROMANS: That was not a no.

JARRETT: No, that was not a no the all.

ROMANS: That was not a no.

JARRETT: All right. Did you see this video, French President Emmanuel Macron slapped across the face for the full world to see.

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