Return to Transcripts main page

Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Ranked-Choice Voting To Decide NYC Mayoral Primary; Airline Groups Want Department Of Justice To Punish Badly Behaved Travelers; U.S. Will Share 41 Million Doses Through COVAX, 10 Million With Africa. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired June 22, 2021 - 05:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:31:15]

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. This is EARLY START. I'm Laura Jarrett.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, I'm Christine Romans. Thirty-one minutes past the hour this Tuesday morning.

In just 30 minutes from now polls open for New York City's mayoral primary. The new ranked-choice system allows voters to rank their top five choices for mayor but it could take weeks to declare a winner. Other citywide offices are on the ballot as well.

Crime could be a key issue driving this mayoral race. New York City's shootings increased by 73 percent in the last month compared to May 2020.

Democrat Eric Adams, the Brooklyn Borough president and former police officer, is trying to convince voters that he's got a fresh approach to policing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC ADAMS (D), NYC MAYORAL CANDIDATE: I am going to show you how to keep a city safe without treating people in disgrace.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: Other candidates, Kathryn Garcia and Andrew Yang teaming up in the campaign's final days.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW YANG (D), NYC MAYORAL CANDIDATE: And anyone listening to my voice right now, if you support me you should rank Kathryn number two on your ballot.

KATHRYN GARCIA (D), NYC MAYOR CANDIDATE: Politics can be a dirty business. It can be a dirty business, but ranked-choice voting means it doesn't have to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Eric Adams accusing them of trying to keep a person of color out of office even though Yang is a person of color.

Another candidate in the crowded Democratic field, progressive Maya Wiley, says quote, "Using racism charges to undermine confidence in ranked-choice voting is cynical, self-interested, and dangerous. We should not be using this term so loosely against other candidates at the end of a long campaign."

JARRETT: Also today, whoever wins the Democratic primary for Manhattan district attorney is likely to inherit a beast of an investigation into the former president and his company.

As CNN has reported, the outgoing D.A., Cyrus Vance, will likely decide whether to charge Mr. Trump, the Trump Organization, or its executives by the end of his term this year.

CNN has learned the probe by Vance's office in the New York State Attorney General into the Trump Organization, his CFO Allen Weisselberg -- well, it's reached an advanced stage. A source telling CNN the prosecutors may decide whether to seek an indictment as soon as next month.

ROMANS: The crime spike driving the New York City mayoral election emblematic of a larger national issue at the moment. There have been almost 300 mass shootings so far this year. Yesterday, a Colorado police officer was among two people killed in a shooting in the city of Arvada.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And we were sitting outside --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we heard the shots.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- and we heard what we thought were gunshots. And after about the second one, we jumped up and we heard at least four gunshots. And we ran inside of the restaurant and people were diving under the tables.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I called my husband.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What did you say to your husband?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You might hear on the news that there's a shooter and I'm OK and tell my son I'm OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A very emotional moment for you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just wanted my family to know I was fine if they heard the news.

(END VIDEO CLIP) JARRETT: At least three people were killed and four others injured in a shooting Monday night in St. Louis, Missouri. And the University of Minnesota is vowing to boost safety after three students were shot over the weekend.

America is no stranger to gun violence, of course, but the situation now is materially worse and the question is why.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF SHON BARNES, MADISON POLICE DEPARTMENT: I think one of the things that's certainly going on is we're trying to determine what are the ramifications of coming out of a pandemic. What are the frustrations that Americans are feeling? How are we dealing with mental health? How are we dealing with some of the stressors related to unemployment in this country?

And so, these are the things that I think we have to wrap our heads around.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[05:35:02]

JARRETT: Again, almost 300 mass shootings so far this year and that's where four or more people are shot. And that's more than all of 2014 and we are not even halfway through this year, Christine.

ROMANS: All right, act up on an airplane, face the consequences. Airline trade and labor groups want the Justice Department to enforce harsher penalties for those air travelers exhibiting bad behavior.

Authorities have received more than 3,000 reports of unruly passengers so far this year. That's 20 times more than usual. That includes 2,300 reports of air travelers refusing to comply with federal mask-wearing requirements.

JARRETT: Really disturbing to see the kid there.

In a critical week for his domestic agenda, President Biden is taking his plans for infrastructure and voting reform directly to two Democrats who might just stand in his way.

Let's bring in Jasmine Wright live at the White House for us. Jasmine, good morning.

The president met with Sen. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema on Monday. So how did it all go down?

JASMINE WRIGHT, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, Laura, the president saying to both of those key vote Democratic senators for their efforts up to their vote -- up to this point, but he conveyed the urgency in which he wants to see these two issues have some movement. Because remember, like it or not, Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin have an outsized role in what President Biden can do -- what his -- what happens to his $4 trillion economic agenda but also what happens to those social priorities, like voting rights.

So on infrastructure, they are both a part of that bipartisan group that offered a proposal that was much smaller than President Biden's original for infrastructure, right? But, President Biden -- in these separate meetings with these two, he really brought up policy issues but also those pay-fors -- how to pay for it. That has been a sticking point of these negotiations overall.

Remember, the White House now says that they do not want to increase user fees like gas taxes because that would increase money on the middle tax -- I mean, excuse me, the middle-class. And Republicans say that they don't want to raise corporate taxes. So it leaves them with few options in just a little bit of time that President Biden wants to see them move on this.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki, yesterday, really described the president's thinking.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Having lived through a lot of legislative battles himself, he knows that sometimes they take some time. The sausage-making takes some time. But to your point, he does not feel the time is unlimited and he would like -- it is not weeks in his view in terms of moving forward and seeing if there's a bipartisan path forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WRIGHT: And on voting, the message was for Sen. Joe Manchin. President Biden conveyed that he wants to see some movement on voting rights. Remember that bill, For the People Act, is coming up in the Senate for a procedural vote at 5:30 today and we do not know how Joe Manchin is going to vote -- Laura.

JARRETT: And, Jasmine, we've talked a lot about policing and public safety in America -- going forward, what does that look like. And we know members of Congress have been working on this modest police reform bill. And now the Republican Tim Scott, leading those efforts, is putting a timeline on actually getting something done.

So what are you learning on that front?

WRIGHT: Exactly right. Tim Scott says that these next 24 to 48 hours will be critical because by Thursday, he wants to see some type of framework agreement to make sure that their efforts for this month- long negotiations will not be in vain.

Remember, on Thursday is when the Senate goes for a recess that lasts past July Fourth, so they want to see some movement right now. Tim Scott says that negotiations are kind of in this moment where they're talking to law enforcement groups and getting their feedback and trying to feed it back into this overall agreement. But still, no word on where they are with that.

Section 242, those issues that really revolve around how to make a standard for criminalizing -- prosecuting these cops when they act poorly, right.

So there are questions as to what this framework will still look like. Of course, they do not have one right now but by Thursday is when Tim Scott says that he wants something more definitive -- Laura.

JARRETT: All right, Jasmine. Thanks so much for the update -- appreciate it.

ROMANS: OK, a milestone for Medicaid. A record 80 1/2 million Americans now have health insurance through Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program, CHIP.

Between February 2020 and this past January, enrollment in Medicaid jumped by almost 10 million people. Nearly 124,000 children joined CHIP during that time. For two years before the pandemic, enrollment in Medicaid had been falling.

Now, the spike is largely because states have had to keep people enrolled during the pandemic. The Biden administration and congressional Democrats looking for ways to broaden access to Medicaid. Earlier this year, the $1.9 trillion rescue package gave more funding to holdout states if they expand. Another four million people could potentially gain access to Medicaid if all states would expand.

JARRETT: The Biden administration is announcing exactly how it plans to share 55 million doses of the COVID vaccine abroad. Now, most of the doses -- 41 million to be exact -- will be shared through COVAX. That's the global vaccine distribution program. And close to 10 million doses are set to go to Africa.

[05:40:07]

David McKenzie is live in Johannesburg for us. David, the global health officials are trying to help get more vaccine actually manufactured in Africa itself so it doesn't have to rely on imports. Tell us about that.

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Laura, and it's a bit of good news that is sorely needed. You know, we're dealing with a third wave here in South Africa. There's several countries on the continent dealing with an increase in cases and death. This pandemic is not over by any means.

And you had that news from the Biden administration -- more doses coming directly to countries like South Africa, but also this news of a technology transfer hub to be set up here in this country. And what that is, effectively, is messenger RNA technology and manufacturing capability famously behind the Pfizer and Moderna jabs will be transferred -- if not that specific technology, but technology like it -- to get manufacturing going on the African continent, which is hugely important not just for this pandemic but future pandemics to allow countries to access vaccine. So that's the good news.

The bad news is, as I said, there's a surge of cases. Help is needed right now and the vaccine doses just aren't coming in enough of a volume.

I put the question to the head of the emergency section of the WHO, what must be done, and is enough being done to get vaccines out?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. MICHAEL RYAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WHO HEALTH EMERGENCIES PROGRAM: We can protect those people now with relatively small transfers of vaccine from the global supply. We can protect those vulnerable people and those frontline workers. And the fact that we haven't -- as the director-general just said, again and again -- is a catastrophic moral failure at a global level.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKENZIE: Well, what they are asking for is not just countries to share their excess vaccines but, in fact, to share vaccines maybe slated for young, healthy people to go to countries where the most vulnerable -- like here in South Africa -- are still dying of COVID -- Laura.

JARRETT: All right, David McKenzie. Thank you so much. Appreciate your reporting, as always.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:46:32]

JARRETT: Iran's president-elect delivering his first speech in the holy city of Mashhad. Ebrahim Raisi has taken an increasingly harder line with the United States and said Iran's ballistic missile program is quote "non-negotiable."

Fred Pleitgen is live in Mashhad, Iran. Fred, you've covered these issues for years. What does Raisi's hardline approach for the Iran nuclear deal?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think, Laura, it's certainly going to make things a lot more difficult for the U.S. not only with that Iran nuclear agreement itself but possibly building on that Iran nuclear agreement. And it's quite interesting because we believe we're going to hear more from Ebrahim Raisi, the Iranian president-elect, today.

But as you've noted, I'm in the town of Mashhad, which is really one of the most sacred places in Shia Islam. Of course, what you see behind me is the legendary shrine of Imam Reza. This is also the hometown of Ebrahim Raisi and it is also very much his stronghold.

So he's going to hold a speech here today where he's obviously going to thank his supporters, but we do expect also that he might outline more of the things that he wants to do with this country. But what he's already said certainly seems to very much indicate that things are going to become a lot tougher for the United States. One of the things that we have to keep in mind is that at this point in time, of course, Iran, the U.S., and other power are negotiating to bring the U.S. back into the nuclear agreement, but also Iran back into full compliance.

However, the U.S. wants an expanded nuclear agreement that also covers things like Iran's ballistic missiles, but also some of Iran's actions here in this region. And there, Raisi -- when I asked him yesterday -- said absolutely not. He said Iran's ballistic missiles are not going to be up for negotiation.

The Iranians also saying that they're going to have what they call an active and dynamic foreign policy here in this region and, indeed, in the entire world. Of course, we've seen some of that. Iran's presence in Iraq, in Lebanon, in Syria, and in other countries as well. That is all going to continue.

Ebrahim Raisi also very much saying he is not open to speaking to President Biden nor will his administration be open to speaking to the Biden administration. So you can already feel that very much harder line here in Iran.

And one of the things that means -- the main thing that means is that more than ever before you have a president here in Iran who is very much, 100 percent, on the same page as Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who, of course, for a very long time, has said he doesn't want to trust the United States and very lukewarm to the Iran nuclear agreement, as well.

So one of the things -- but the main takeaway that we have from what we've learned from Ebrahim Raisi is things are going to become a lot tougher for the U.S. and the Biden administration here in this region, Laura.

JARRETT: That's really interesting. And Fred, you also spoke with a former top-ranking official in Iran who may be up for the top diplomatic post in Tehran. What did he tell you?

PLEITGEN: Yes. Well, he told me -- he told me exactly the same thing. This is Hossein Amir-Abdollahian. And he told me -- look, he's pretty much -- he's an insider if you will with Ebrahim Raisi's thinking but in, generally, with the hardline power structure here in Iran as well. And he said look, the foreign policy of Iran -- it's not going to get scaled back despite the fact that this country has these very big economic problems that it's been dealing with.

I want to listen in to a little bit of what he had to say. Let's listen in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOSSEIN AMIR-ABDOLLAHIAN, IRAN'S FORMER DIRECTOR OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS (through translator): I believe the foreign policy under Mr. Raisi will be dynamic. Foreign policy that is balanced with an eye towards all countries where they're logical.

[05:50:00]

And at the same time, strong discourse. A discourse that will be able to secure Iranian rights on all fronts.

PLEITGEN: And how do you think the relations with the United States will evolve under Ebrahim Raisi because he's been very critical of the United States in the past?

AMIR-ABDOLLAHIAN: It's the United States that has constantly lost opportunities. This will be much dependent on U.S. behavior and for them to determine how they will able to address the relationship with Iran.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PLEITGEN: And I think, Laura, one of the main surprising thing -- or for many of us internationally, surprising things that we heard from Ebrahim Raisi in his press conference -- also, of course, we heard there one of the top foreign policy specialists as well -- is that this new administration, despite the fact it's not even in office yet, has a clear plan for foreign policy. It's a very outgoing plan for foreign policy -- as they put it, active and dynamic -- and it really is one that's going to make it very difficult for the U.S. in this region, Laura.

JARRETT: Fred, such great reporting. Really, really informative. Thank you so much -- appreciate it.

ROMANS: All right.

Claudette pummeled communities along the Gulf Coast over the weekend and strengthened again to a tropical storm Monday, lashing North Carolina before moving northeast. It tore a deadly path across the south over the weekend. Horrific weather conditions caused a highway pileup that killed nine children and an adult.

Meantime, in the drought-stricken west, a brief respite from the record heat. But the critical fire danger remains and the heat will soon return.

Here's meteorologist Pedram Javaheri.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST (on camera): Christine and Laura, good morning, guys. Yes, it has been an incredible run of heat and drought across parts of the western U.S.

And speaking of that heat, you've got to look at June 10th through June 19th. Would you believe it if I told you that across the western U.S. and the Plains, as many as 5,600 record temperatures were observed? Fifty-two hundred of them were daily record highs. Seventy- two of them came in as all-time hottest temps observed.

And notice just about every single state here has coverage as far as records as concerned in the past several weeks. And with all that said, fire season just getting started. Some 46 large active fires around the western U.S. We know about 90 percent of the western U.S. dealing with drought conditions at this hour. And almost 29,000 wildfires observed across the U.S. so far this year. The average is roughly 55,000. So again, well above that mark for this time of year given the season is just getting underway.

But the warmth after this brief break does begin to return back in the forecast. And the northwest now in the center here of seeing potentially as many as 50 record high temps from Saturday into Sunday. Seattle, Washington should be in the low 70s and it could be touching 100 come this weekend -- guys.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right, just incredible run of hot weather out there.

All right, let's get a check on CNN Business this morning. Looking at markets around the world, a big rebound in Tokyo but mixed overall when you look at the Hong Kong and Shanghai Composite. You can see European shares have opened narrowly mixed this morning.

And on Wall Street, stock index futures are pointing very barely lower right now. I'd call that unchanged.

Stocks rallied Monday after a rough week for investors. It was the best day for the Dow since March this year, snapping a five-day losing streak and rebounding strongly to close up 586 points. The S&P also climbed, as did the Nasdaq here.

As stocks rose, cryptocurrencies fell. Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and other digital currencies tanked. Why? China warned major commercial lenders about getting into cryptocurrency. Bitcoin plunged 10 percent overnight before recovering slightly.

The next big event, Fed chief Jay Powell testifies before the House of Representatives today. We'll want to know what he thinks about the recovery, and inflation, and the trajectory of interest rates.

Also, new data on the red hot housing market -- that's existing home sales out at 10:00 a.m.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLIP FROM "Jaws."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: A big deal for Netflix. One of Hollywood's biggest directors, Steven Spielberg, has signed a deal with the streaming platform that will include multiple new films. Just another sign of streaming services redefining entertainment.

The partnership interesting because Spielberg has been critical of streaming. Back in 2018, he said quote, "Once you commit to a television format you're a T.V. movie." JARRETT: Hmm.

The Tampa Bay Lightning are one win away from the Stanley Cup Finals after blowing out the New York Islanders.

Andy Scholes has more in this morning's Bleacher Report. Hey again, Andy.

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

So the Lightning are the defending Stanley Cup champions and one of the reasons why is they've won 12 straight playoff games coming off of a loss. And Tampa Bay's striking like lightning in game five. They scored not even a minute into the game. They had three goals by the end of the first period.

And this was an old-fashioned beatdown. Tampa winning eight to nothing. It was the worst playoff loss in Islanders' history. The Lightning can punch their tickets to the Stanley Cup Final tomorrow night in game six.

[05:55:00]

Major League Baseball has begun checking pitchers for the sticky stuff and Mets Jacob deGrom, the first one to be examined. Umpires gathered around the two-time Cy Young Award winner as the team headed toward the dugout in the middle of the first inning. They checked his glove, belt, and hat. They found no sticky substances.

deGrom, known as the best pitcher in the world -- he had a nice laugh about the whole thing. He went on to pick up the win in a 4-2 victory over the Braves.

Finally, seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady always had a chip on his shoulder ever since being drafted in the sixth round in 2000. In an upcoming episode of HBO's "THE SHOP" Brady called out a mystery team for not signing him in free agency.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM BRADY, SEVEN TIME SUPER BOWL CHAMPION, HBO "THE SHOP: UNINTERRUPTED": -- teams, and they weren't interested at the very end. I was thinking, you're sticking with that mother******?

CHELSEA HANDLER, HBO "THE SHOP: UNINTERRUPTED": I know a lot of men watch this show --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: I'm not sure what that -- or who that mystery team was. "THE SHOP" premieres Friday at 9:30 eastern on HBO Max.

And guys, I'm guessing that mystery team might be kicking themselves now after watching Tom Brady win the Super Bowl this year.

ROMANS: Yes. JARRETT: That's for sure.

ROMANS: Maybe, Andy Scholes.

Tom Brady? Who is this Tom Brady? I haven't heard of that guy before.

Nice to see you, Andy.

Thanks for joining us, everybody. I'm Christine Romans.

JARRETT: I'm Laura Jarrett. "NEW DAY" is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)