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Elsa Whips Florida's West Coast With High Winds And Heavy Rains; U.S. Departure Leave Al Qaeda And Taliban Prisoners In Afghan Hands; Pressure Mounts On Biden To Lift Border Travel Restrictions. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired July 07, 2021 - 05:30   ET

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


[05:30:00]

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: That sparked an outcry from critics who point out marijuana is not a performance-enhancing drug.

Richardson, though, taking the news in stride, tweeting that she believes her misfortune has helped women's track and field -- tweeting, quote, "You can't be mad at that."

You know, the whole situation is just so sad. Her mom died and --

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.

JARRETT: -- the drug is legal there. It's just really unfortunate.

ROMANS: And she's 21 years old. She's got a bright future. She's obviously a very talented athlete.

JARRETT: Yes.

ROMANS: I hope there are more Olympics in her future.

JARRETT: For sure.

All right. Well, just ahead, Tropical Storm Elsa barreling towards Florida and is expected to make landfall in just a few hours. We are live in Florida. Stay with us.

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[05:35:14]

ROMANS: Good morning, this is EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

JARRETT: I'm Laura Jarrett. It's almost 35 minutes past the hour here in New York.

And our breaking news this morning, the west coast of Florida battered this morning by Tropical Storm Elsa, with winds just under 65 miles an hour. It's expected to make landfall in just a couple of hours somewhere along Florida's Big Bend area. ROMANS: All day Tuesday, Elsa pounded the Florida coast with high winds and heavy rains. Most of the area still under a tornado watch for the next few hours, until 8:00 a.m. Thirty-three Florida counties under a state of emergency right now.

CNN's Derek Van Dam is in Tampa for us this morning --

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Here we go.

ROMANS: -- where he has been riding out the storm. Derek, what are the conditions like there for you?

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, good morning, Christine and Laura.

You know, it's -- this is the nature of tropical storms. It changes so quickly. Twenty minutes ago when we were talking I was enjoying just a warm breeze in my short-sleeved shirt. Now we had to run to the car to get our raincoat because one of these feeder bands has now started to move over the Tampa region where I'm located now.

But we scoured the city before our live shots this morning. The typical areas that flood during tropical storms, especially with high tide and the passage of a hurricane or a tropical storm -- Bay Shore Boulevard over my right shoulder, the South Tampa area -- none of that has flooded, so that's good news. It seems to be spared from the worst impacts from what is now Tropical Storm Elsa.

But regardless, there are still threats across the Florida peninsula right through coastal Georgia and into the Carolinas today, including the threat of spin-up tornados. That is also a consideration when you start moving from that I-4 corridor -- basically from the coastal areas of Tampa through Orlando. There's a lot of pine within that region so it doesn't take much for a tornado to topple a tree and take down electricity as well.

Speaking of electricity, 13,000 customers without power within the state of Florida, mainly in Dixie County -- not here. You can see, clearly, we have power behind us. It seems to be -- it seems to be kind of status quo and normal around here with the passage of this storm really just to our north and west.

The Big Bend of Florida -- that's the area where we have storm surge potential today. And then, a potential for another four to eight inches.

By the way, there have been reports of over a foot of rain in some localized areas as these feeder bands set up along the coastal areas of Florida. So that will cause local flooding within those areas.

Back to you.

ROMANS: All right, Derek. Thank you so much for that -- Laura.

JARRETT: All right. Meantime, rescue crews in Surfside, Florida finding more and more victims at the site of that terrible condo collapse, now that the entire building is down. Thirty-six people confirmed dead as of now but the search continues for 109 people still unaccounted for.

The rest of the building was demolished Sunday for the safety of the rescue workers there. But now, those same workers are facing strong winds and rain brought on by Hurricane Elsa.

Leyla Santiago has more from the scene in Surfside.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Christine, Laura, this is as close as we have been able to get to where the building collapsed. You can see the twisted metal -- the concrete that has made a very, very tall pile. In fact, on the other side is the ocean and you can't even see that. You just see crews working and you hear the equipment.

Now, this, of course, is what we see -- what we've been looking at. But it's what's underneath that is tearing apart this community. For families, it's knowing that their loved one is somewhere in there. For survivors, it's knowing that they will never again see things that they cherished from their apartments.

Now, the Surfside mayor says that he has drafted a letter that could go out today, and it's advising all of Surfside's oceanfront condo boards and building owners of the next steps that the city's expert engineers and building officials believe should be taken as they a, quote, "minimum stopgap measure" to provide residents with a basic -- a very basic level of confidence that their building is not, obviously, unsafe.

Another big factor here is the weather, given that the wind and the rain that we have seen here. That is obviously a challenge for crews as they continue to dig. Lightning has caused several pauses as the search continues here at the building collapse in Surfside -- Christine, Laura.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JARRETT: All right, Leyla. Thank you for that report.

We jump overseas now with new concerns this morning in the wake of last week's complete U.S. withdrawal from Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. CNN has now learned thousands of prisoners -- most of them said to be al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists -- remain at the prison on Bagram Base, now under the sole control of Afghan authorities.

[05:40:00]

CNN's Anna Coren is live in Kabul and has been following this for us. Anna, just who are these detainees, and how is all this going to work now that the U.S. has mostly pulled out of the region? ANNA COREN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Laura, look, certainly there is concern that Bagram Air Base may be a target for the Taliban, but what is much more pressing is that the Taliban has claimed its first provincial city. That is Qala-e-Naw. It's in the province of Badghis. This is in the north of the country above Herat.

We have seen video from a local journalist and spoken to those local journalists saying that there has been a prison break. Hundreds of prisoners have been released from that prison. There is video that we have seen of the Taliban being cheered as they drive through the main streets of this city.

We're also hearing of defections coming from the police and from the NDS as well. We're hearing from a local journalist it could be a handful -- a few dozen. The Taliban is claiming that it could be as many as 200.

So this is a very fluid situation but certainly, that province now gone to the Taliban.

The other province that is of grave concern at the moment is Badakhshan, which is in the northeast. This borders Tajikistan, China, and Pakistan. Most of the districts in Badakhshan have fallen. However, the capital there, Fayzabad, is under siege by the Taliban.

We know that the government has sent up its army and -- as well as commandos. These reinforcements going up to launch counterattacks. But from what we've seen -- the local video that has been sent to us by journalists on the ground -- it does seem that the Taliban has claimed a great deal of territory.

Now, the other development today is that peace talks, of all things, were held between the Afghan government and the Taliban in Tehran, in Iran. This was hosted by the Iranian foreign minister who said that the future of Afghanistan now in the hands of its people.

JARRETT: All right. We appreciate you staying on this for us. Come back as you get more details for us, Anna -- thanks.

ROMANS: All right, 42 minutes past the hour.

New York City Democrats have a nominee for mayor. CNN projects Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams has narrowly defeated former sanitation commissioner Kathryn Garcia. The latest tally includes most of the nearly 126,000 absentee ballots cast.

Let's get more now on this from CNN's Harry Enten.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HARRY ENTEN, CNN POLITICS SENIOR WRITER AND ANALYST: CNN projects that Eric Adams is the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor.

It was a long row to hoe for the now-nominee Eric Adams but he did come out on top. If you look at the initial preferences, Adams was ahead of the rest of the field, clearly, with just a little bit more than 30 percent of the vote, just as he was on election night two weeks ago.

Of course, New York City was, in fact, going to be using rank-choice voting in this election -- the first time they ever did so. With the rank-choice results in, what we see in the final round is that Eric Adams barely held on to his lead over Kathryn Garcia by just a little less than 10,000 votes. That includes absentee ballots. And with so few votes remaining to be counted, that's why Adams was declared the winner.

Perhaps the biggest reason why Adams won this race was he sold a tough-on-crime message. And if you look at recent polling it showed that more New York City Democratic primary voters wanted police on the subway than not, and crime was the issue that Adams was able to ride to victory.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right, Harry. Thank you so much for that.

And, Eric Adams will be live on "NEW DAY" in the 8:00 hour.

We'll be right back.

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[05:47:57]

JARRETT: Welcome back.

Pressure is mounting on President Biden to lift COVID-related travel restrictions at U.S. borders. Cross-border travel has been suspended for more than a year now. Local mayors are pressing immigration officials for answers, given the increase in vaccination rates and downward trend in infections.

Priscilla Alvarez is covering this story for us live in D.C. this morning. Priscilla -- so these restrictions were first put in place in the early days of the pandemic. But now that air travel has basically opened back up to mostly normal, how does the Biden administration justify keeping the restrictions on the ground at the border?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN REPORTER: That's the question that they are getting from border mayors and lawmakers, Laura, and there just doesn't seem to be an answer yet.

So the current set of travel restrictions on non-essential travel is -- expires on July 21st, but the administration has not yet indicated when those might lift.

Now, this is really concerning for border mayors who say that their economies rely, in part, on cross-border travel. In fact, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria put it quite simply. He said our economy will not be reopened until our border is.

Now, as you mentioned, Laura, these are restrictions that went into place at the beginning of the pandemic. The Trump administration had put restrictions on non-essential travel, as well as invoked a public health authority to turn away migrants encountered at the border.

Now, what border mayors have pointed out is the circumstances then are different than they are now, with COVID-19 cases dropping and vaccines becoming more readily accessible.

Now, we should note these restrictions are mutually agreed upon with Canada and Mexico. And the Department of Homeland Security told me in a statement that they are seeing recent -- in recent weeks, they've seen positive developments and that U.S. agencies are working with Canada and Mexico to decide when they may start to ease restrictions and eventually lift them.

But the question still remains, Laura, when will that happen? And that is a question that they're posing and that the administration has not been able to answer yet.

JARRETT: Yes, when will that happen? I know my Canadian in-laws want to know the answer to that question, too.

[05:50:01]

Priscilla, thank you.

ROMANS: All right.

Air passengers who behave badly are being ordered to pay up. The FAA revealing plans to fine nine more passengers for unruly or violent behavior on flights.

JARRETT: Two of the unidentified passengers are accused of striking other passengers. Officials say another made repeated calls to 911 and the FBI claiming that the plane was being hijacked and had a bomb on board.

The proposed fines total $119,000. That brings the total to nearly $683,000 in fines against 43 passengers since the start of 2021. Just amazing.

ROMANS: I think Americans forget how to behave, right?

JARRETT: How to be around each other, right? Yes. All right.

Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones has rejected a tenured position at the University of North Carolina, choosing instead to join the faculty at Howard University. Her decision follows a storm of controversy that began when UNC -- her alma mater, by the way -- initially declined to offer her tenure then reversed their decision after students, faculty, and alumni protested.

Hannah-Jones says the process has been painful, but she's also sharing lessons on redefining what success looks like.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES, PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING JOURNALIST: It was humiliating. It was deeply hurtful. And it was -- it was enraging. Because as you know, you don't grow up a Black child in this country without being told that you have to work twice as hard to get half as far, but you have to be twice as good. But I've been that.

This is not a consolation prize for me. This is what I wanted. I decided I was going to go to a historically Black college. I had other options and I didn't want to go anywhere else.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: Hannah-Jones earned a Pulitzer for her work on "The New York Times" 1619 Project examining the history of slavery in the U.S.

She will be a guest later on "NEW DAY" in the 7:00 hour.

All right. Britney Spears court-appointed conservatorship lawyer is asking to resign from the role. Samuel Ingham has represented the popstar since the court-ordered arrangement began back in 2008. Her longtime manager Larry Rudolph has also resigned.

It's the latest fallout since Spears' dramatic testimony at a hearing last month where she pleaded with the judge to end this conservatorship, calling it abusive.

ROMANS: She's been working and earning money for two-thirds of her life and she does not control that money. She told the judge recently, I just want to own my own money.

JARRETT: Yes.

ROMANS: So we'll see where that goes.

Let's get a check -- speaking of money -- on CNN Business this morning. Looking at markets around the world, you can see Asian shares have closed mixed and Europe is shrugging off some of that Wall Street weakness we saw yesterday. On Wall Street at this hour, moving up just a little bit.

After seven straight record highs, the S&P 500 broke that winning streak Tuesday, down slightly, but the Nasdaq managed a record. The Dow fell 209 points, dragged down by Chevron and Caterpillar.

Cyclical stocks are weak and oil is in focus here. High energy prices could hurt consumer spending. Gas prices are at a seven-year high and could keep rising if OPEC and its allies don't step in to pump more oil to meet all the surging demand.

ROMANS: All right. Get ready for more content on the streaming service Peacock. Universal Pictures announced Tuesday its films will play exclusively on Peacock after they play in the theaters.

The studio also announced it would develop and produce exclusive original films for Peacock starting in 2022. Offering exclusive content is essential, of course, for streaming services to compete in a very crowded market.

The Pentagon canceling that controversial $10 billion cloud computing contract given to Microsoft during the Trump administration. This is the so-called Jedi contract. It was given to Microsoft over Amazon in 2019.

Amazon later filed a lawsuit protesting that decision. Amazon argued that decision was politically motivated by the former president, Donald Trump's, dislike of then-Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and "The Washington Post," which Bezos owns.

The Pentagon says it will ask for bids for a new, updated contract from Microsoft, Amazon, and other cloud service providers.

JARRETT: All right, you are looking at the world's tallest sandcastle built in Denmark. Look at that. It stands at a whopping seven -- 69 feet, I should say.

It took nearly five tons of sand to build. Dozens of artists worked to carve intricate details into the castle, including a nod to the pandemic with, of course, a corona or crown on top.

And they didn't just beat the previous Guinness record holder, they buried it in the sand, topping it by more than 11 feet.

ROMANS: All right.

Finally, a pandemic puppy. Elmo is getting a new friend on "SESAME STREET."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELMO, "SESAME STREET" CHARACTER: Grover, Elmo is wondering what should we call the puppy.

GROVER, "SESAME STREET" CHARACTER: Huh? Puppy is not their name? Oh, I am so embarrassed.

ELMO: Well, the puppy loves to dance. Maybe we should give her a dancing name.

GROVER: Great idea.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: Meet Tango. Sesame Workshop says the character has actually been in development for a couple of years, well before the pandemic sent pet adoption rates soaring.

[05:55:03]

Tango will be introduced officially in a "SESAME STREET" special, "FURRY FRIENDS FOREVER," premiering August fifth on HBO Max.

Have your kids asked for a pandemic puppy yet?

ROMANS: No.

JARRETT: My son is, thankfully, too young but he loved this. ROMANS: Yes. They already have a puppy and I'm very bullish on puppies. I say that our dog makes my kids better people.

JARRETT: Yes.

ROMANS: They're just so good with her.

JARRETT: They're wonderful.

ROMANS: All right, thanks for joining us, everybody. I'm Christine Romans. That was the content you needed today -- Tango and Elmo. You're welcome.

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

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