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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Former Coach Accuses NFL, Teams of Racial Discrimination; Winter Storm to Stretch 2,000 Miles Across 21 States; Record Number of Americans Quit in 2021; Putin Breaks His Silence; Republican Civil War; Biden's Ambitious Cancer Moonshot. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired February 02, 2022 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:23]

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Good morning, everyone. It's Wednesday, February 2nd. Groundhog Day. Five a.m. in New York.

Thanks for getting an EARLY START with us. I'm Christine Romans.

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Laura Jarrett. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world.

We begin with the extraordinary lawsuit sending a shock wave through the NFL this morning, a claim of racial discrimination against the league and all 32 teams. Brian Flores, who is black, was surprisingly fired by the Miami Dolphins last month after the team missed the playoffs with the 9-8 record.

ROMANS: Now, he claims he was forced to sit for a sham interview for a new job even though a white coach had already been selected merely to satisfy league rules on interviewing minority candidates.

His lawyers write this, quote: In certain critical ways, the NFL is racially segregated and is managed much like a plantation. Its 32 owners, none of whom are black, profit substantially from the labor of NFL players, 70 percent of whom are black. The owners watch the game from atop NFL stadiums in their luxury boxes while their majority Black workforce put their bodies on the line taking vicious hits and suffering debilitating injuries to their bodies and brains while the NFL and its owners reap billions of dollars.

We'll talk to civil rights attorney, Areva Martin, in just a moment.

But, first, CNN sports anchor Andy Scholes has more on the allegations in this lawsuit.

I mean, shock waves really says it. This is -- this is a bold and brave move by Flores here.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, it certainly is a big moment in NFL history.

And Brian Flores taking a stand fully knowing this may cost him his career after being fired by the Dolphins last month after three seasons. Flores has been considered a top candidate for many head jobs this off season. But on Tuesday filed that class action lawsuit in Manhattan federal court against the league, the Dolphins, the Giants and the Broncos for racial discrimination during the hiring process and for his firing, Flores alleges that the Giants gave him an interview for the head coaching job only to satisfy the Rooney rule which requires teams to interview minority candidates for head coaching positions.

And he has some evidence. Bill Belichick mistakenly texted Flores, congratulating him on getting the Giants job. However, he meant to send that text to Brian Daboll who like Flores used to be one of Belichick's assistants. Those texts came three days before Flores actually interviewed for the job with the Giants. And Belichick's texts are one of the key pieces of evidence in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit claims that in 2019, then-Bronco's general manager, John Elway, showed up to an interview with Flores an hour late and looked, quote, completely disheveled and hung over.

Flores also alleges that Dolphins owner Steven Ross offered him $100,000 for every loss during the 2019 season so that the team could get a higher draft pick. Flores says when he refused that, Ross then treated him with disdain and as someone who was difficult to work with.

All three teams in the NFL put out statements refuting Flores' claims. With the suit, Flores also releasing a statement saying: God has gifted me with a special talent to coach the game of football, but the need for change is bigger than my personal goal. And making the decision to file a class action complaint today, I understand that I may be risking coaching the game that I love and that has done so much for my family and me. My sincere hope is that by standing up against systemic racism in the NFL, others will join me to ensure that positive change is made for generations to come.

So, guys, there is a powerful statement. And again, this is certainly a significant moment.

ROMANS: Andy, how many open coaching jobs are there right now?

SCHOLES: So, there were nine head coaching job openings to start the season. I believe four of those have now been filled. None of them by Black coaches.

JARRETT: And he's actively interviewing. He is in the process of this right now as he's making all of these allegations.

All right. Andy, thank you so much. Great reporting.

SCHOLES: All right.

JARRETT: Joining us to help break down all of this in a legal sense, CNN legal analyst and civil rights attorney, Areva Martin.

Areva, so nice to have you. We appreciate you being on so bright and early this morning.

Flores is suing the NFL, this goliath of an organization, essentially blowing the whistle on it and its hiring practice. The organization, the league didn't hire a single black head coach for over 60 years and now only has one. The U.S. Supreme Court is about to have more black people than the NFL.

What is he going to have to prove to win this?

AREVA MARTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yeah, it's pretty explosive allegations contained in Brian Flores' lawsuit, and those numbers that you just cited don't look good for the league. The fact that only one out of 27 head coaches is African-American and given that the league is 70 percent black as it comes to players, it is not a good number of the NFL.

[05:05:08]

Flores has to prove what we call a prima facie case. He has to establish that he was a member of a protected class as an African- American, he was qualified to do this job and clearly, he will meet that standard and that he was denied employment opportunities and that opportunity was given to someone outside of the protected class.

This text message from Bill Belichick is going to be a huge piece of evidence, you know, that will be favorable to Flores as he moves forward with respect to this lawsuit. If, in fact, the Giants had already hired a white coach three days before they were interviewing Flores for this job clearly establishes that the interview was a sham as he alleges in the lawsuit.

ROMANS: Yeah, part of the lawsuit focusing -- zeroing in on this Rooney rule. That is this NFL policy from back in 2003. It requires that teams have to interview a certain number of minority candidates in connection with senior positions. He's saying they're treated as essentially jokes. They'll have to legally try to prove that.

MARTIN: Yeah. Absolutely. And, again, that text message that says that the job was already assigned to someone before the interview just, you know, gives more justification and more weight to his claim that these interviews are a joke. That rule was put in place to bring diversity to the league, but when you look at what happened in the league since 2003 when that rule was implemented, not much has changed. You still only have one black coach out of 27.

So the NFL is going to have to give some justification for why he wasn't given the job specifically with the giants when clearly he was qualified, he was interviewing for a job that had apparently already been filled. Explosive allegations that are going to require a lot of explanations, depositions under oath by league officials and by team owners. So, I think we're going to be seeing a lot with respect to this lawsuit.

ROMANS: Yeah. I mean, if he makes it to discovery, that could be eyebrow raising. He's putting his career on the line with this. As we mentioned, he's actively interviewing to be head coach of multiple teams right now.

What do you make of his decision to bring this suit forward? Do you think other people might come forward now that he's taken the first step?

MARTIN: Well, first of all, I want to commend Brian Flores for coming forward. It takes a lot of courage. When you file a discrimination based on race, age, even gender, you are often ostracized by that particular field. A lot of teams aren't going to want to touch him.

We saw what happened with respect to Colin Kaepernick when he took a stand in the league. You know, he hasn't been able to find a job since then. So, it's unlikely any team is going to want to hire Brian Flores.

If no one comes forward and calls out racism, if you don't file these kinds of lawsuits to challenge blatant discrimination, then nothing ever changes. Very, you know, bold move on his part to do so, as you said, during the time when he's still interviewing, but I think you have to give him a lot of courage -- give him a lot of credit for having the courage to stand up to the league, because he's going to face a tremendous amount of opposition as the league has already come forward and called his allegations meritless.

JARRETT: Yeah, that's for sure. Areva Martin, thank you so much. We'll see where this goes. Appreciate you being on.

ROMANS: We're going to hear from him, the former Dolphins coach Brian Flores is going to tell his story live on "NEW DAY", in the 8:00 a.m. hour Eastern Time.

ROMANS: All right. Now, to this big news, Whoopi Goldberg off "The View" for two weeks. ABC has suspended Goldberg one day after she said this about the holocaust.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WHOOPI GOLDBERG, CO-HOST OF THE VIEW: The Holocaust isn't about race.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

GOLDBERG: No. It's not about race --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, it is --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, they consider Jews a different race.

GOLDBERG: But it's not about race. It's not about race.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is it about?

GOLDBERG: It's about man's inhumanity to man.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: Those remarks drew widespread outrage and so Goldberg apologized on twitter on Monday night and again she went further on Tuesday's show.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOLDBERG: I said something that I feel a responsibility for not leaving unexamined because my words upset so many people, which was never my intention. It is, indeed, about race because Hitler and the Nazis considered Jews to be an inferior race. Now, words matter and mine are no exception. I regret my comments as I said and I stand corrected.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: ABC News president Kim Godwin says in a statement here, she suspended Goldberg for her wrong and hurtful comments and went on to say this: While Whoopi has apologized, I've asked her to take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments.

ROMANS: All right. Dramatic video of the final moments of a manhunt for the accused killer of two police officers on a Virginia college campus.

[05:10:02]

You can hear officers shouting for the suspect with his hands up to stop and turn around. He slowly lies down on the ground as instructed. Just a short time earlier, Bridgewater College Officers John Painter and J.J. Jefferson were shot and killed in a brief interaction with that suspect. The school says they were a dynamic duo as close friends and colleagues. Police have identified the suspected shooter as 27- year-old Alexander Campbell. He has been charged now with multiple counts of murder.

JARRETT: More than 20 states from the Rockies to New England, as far south as Texas are under winter storm watches and warnings. Some parts of the Midwest could see the heaviest snowfall in a century.

Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri live at the CNN weather center for us.

Pedram, good morning.

So, who is going to feel the brunt of this storm most? It sounds bad.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You know, it's such a mixed bag of wintry weather. Not only are we talking about significant and historic snowfall. Significant ice accumulations too across portions of the south, stretching all the way into areas of the upper Midwest into portions of the Great Lakes as well.

Notice this again, parts of 21 states spanning over 2,000 miles upwards of 90 million people impacted across this region. Even an ice storm warning for the national weather service into Arkansas and Missouri. If you are going out on the roadways, pack water, pack food, pack a flashlight. There's a high likelihood you'll be stuck in your car.

This is a multi-day event shaping up over the central U.S. and the Ohio valley. Notice by 7, 8, 9 p.m. you'll see the rain, ice accumulations in northern Texas, includes portions of the Dallas metroplex, eastern Oklahoma and southern areas of Missouri. I noticed again into areas of the Ohio valley.

This continues into Thursday morning before conditions begin to improve. Widespread power outages, major travel disruptions as a result of this before conditions improve going into Friday and Saturday.

JARRETT: Yeah. It feels like just one storm on top of another. I am ready for spring.

Pedram, thank you.

ROMANS: All right. Take this job and shove it. A record number of Americans quit their jobs last year and U.S. employers now have more open positions than ever before. Another 4.3 million, million workers quit their jobs in December, the total for the year an astonishing 47.4 million.

It's been called the Great Resignation. People left for better paying jobs, they retired or they stayed home to take care of children and relatives.

Another way to look at these figures, there are 1.7 open jobs for every job seeker. We have never seen that before. The biggest sector to quit, education workers. "The Wall Street Journal" reports teachers are quitting and companies are hot to hire them. Head hunters are wooing teachers for jobs in software, sales, education -- sorry, health care training. That's from "The Wall Street Journal".

Workers have the upper hand and companies know it. Home Depot is promising speedy job offers the next day after applying. Domino's is so short of delivery drivers it's now going to pay you 3 bucks to pick up your own pizza.

And wages are rising just about everywhere. It's economics 101. When something is scarce, it becomes more valuable. That's the American worker.

As JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon put it to investors recently, CEOs shouldn't be cry babies about it. They should just deal with it.

JARRETT: What do you make of those teachers quitting?

ROMANS: I think teachers are exhausted. I think teachers have been undervalued.

JARRETT: And underpaid.

ROMANS: Underpaid.

And I think that the health care crisis has really shown a light, and the American economy is run by millions of women, largely, who are working jobs they're underpaid for. They're simply -- in this environment not going to take it.

Also, stock market record highs, housing market equity is high. People in their mid 50s can afford to retire. That's a lot of teachers who are now looking for something else.

JARRETT: It's interesting that they're going somewhere else.

ROMANS: Yeah.

JARRETT: All right. Up next for you, Vladimir Putin breaking his silence and not mincing words.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): As people say, they screwed us over.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: More from Moscow in just a moment.

ROMANS: And later today, Republicans in Congress turning on two of their own.

JARRETT: And just in to CNN, the new Biden White House plan so ambitious they're calling it a moonshot.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:18:45]

ROMANS: Russia's Vladimir Putin speaking out about rising tensions with Ukraine and the West. He insists he's being ignored and deceived by NATO.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PUTIN (through translator): We were given promises not to push the infrastructure of the NATO bloc to the east one inch. Everyone knows this well. Today, we see where NATO is located. Poland, Romania, the Baltic countries. They said one thing, they did another. As people say, they screwed us over.

(END VIDEO CLPI)

ROMANS: We have two live reports on the growing crisis. Melissa Bell is in Ukraine. But we start with Nic Robertson in Moscow.

Nic, Putin now turning his attention to another world leader.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yeah, Emmanuel Macron at the end -- the French president, at the end of the press conference yesterday said he hoped he would meet with him soon. Putin had a phone call with Macron on Monday, had a phone call with him a few days before.

Interesting as well that last night, Emmanuel Macron had a phone call with the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who reminded Macron that the strength of NATO is in its unity. Perhaps a reminder for the French president if he does get deeper into a conversation, maybe a meeting with Putin, he goes there as a representative of NATO and not of his own nation.

So, you know, of course everyone is trying to scratch their heads and figure out what did Putin really mean?

[05:20:07]

What was he trying to do? In his pronouncements yesterday, the State Department, of course, saying they'll wait for the written response. They won't try to read the tea leaves.

But, you know, this is very much Putin's negotiating style to turn up the talks. You can look at -- you know, his position yesterday as part of his very aggressive diplomacy but he is standing there at the door wanting to get -- wanting to have a conversation whereby he gets something he wants.

What he's doing is saying don't look at me. Don't look at my previous invasions. Look what you've done. Look at the time you've broken international agreements. And, of course it will be down to NATO to maintain its unity on responding to that.

So, the Macron is -- we heard from the president a few minutes ago, potential diplomacy. The Kremlin is saying a potential line for diplomacy here.

ROMANS: All right. Nic, thank you so much for that.

JARRETT: Meantime, you have British Prime Minister Boris Johnson with some of his own words for Putin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: What I think president Putin is trying to achieve here. I think that he is trying by holding a gun, as it were, to the head of Ukraine by intimidating Ukraine to get us to change the way we look at something that was absolutely fantastic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: CNN's Melissa Bell joins us live from Kyiv, Ukraine, this morning.

Melissa, what was behind Johnson's meeting with President Zelensky?

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, what's been interesting these last few weeks is the proximity between London and Washington on this question, Laura. The intelligence assessments are the same not only in their substance, but in the way they've been communicated.

The tone has been extremely firm with Vladimir Putin as well. That press conference was being held even as Vladimir Putin was holding his own. So, it appears that window for diplomacy appeared to be narrowing.

Now, we've been hearing this morning from the French foreign minister who represents another school of thought within NATO. The infrastructure may be there to Russia to carry out invasion of Ukraine, but we have yet to hear about the Russian president's willingness. Interesting as well as Nic just said, that Vladimir should have spoke about meeting with Emmanuel Macron. That's been on the cards for sometime. The two mean spoke twice in the space of four days this last week.

It is clear that the French represent with their German counterparts a much more determined approach in terms of looking at diplomacy, looking at how they can reach out to Moscow than either Washington or London at this stage, Laura.

JARRETT: All right. Melissa Bell, thank you for your reporting on this as always.

ROMANS: All right. Coming up, the new FBI warning to Olympic athletes. Forget bringing this to the Beijing Games.

JARRETT: Plus, a pilot's last-minute decision to abort a jumbo jet landing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:27:18]

JARRETT: Welcome back.

In just a couple hours from now, the Republican National Committee's winter meeting kicks off in Salt Lake City. One of the key items on their agenda, kicking two of their own out of the House Republican conference for telling the truth about their de facto leader, Donald Trump.

CNN's Daniella Diaz is live for us on Capitol Hill. Daniella, who exactly is being targeted here? And do they care?

DANIELLA DIAZ, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Laura, no surprise, it's Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney, the two Republicans who, of course, served on the House Select Committee and the two most outspoken Republicans against former President Donald Trump's big lie that the election -- the 2020 election was stolen from him.

But, look, this is a proposal to endorse removing Cheney and Kinzinger from the Republican Party. While it's symbolic, it shows the criticism that conservatives have against these two Republicans for their continued comments against the former president. The way this will work, it's expected to be taken up at the Republican National Committee's winter meeting in Salt Lake City. It will be likely passed out of the resolutions committee today. And then all 168 RNC members are likely to vote on it Friday morning.

But I do want to emphasize, Laura, that Congresswoman Liz Cheney did provide a statement about this. She dismissed this resolution. She said: The leaders of the Republican Party have made themselves willing hostages to a man who admits he tried to overturn a presidential election and suggests he would pardon January 6th defendants, some of whom have been charged with seditious conspiracy.

So, really, Laura, the bottom line here is that these conservatives continue to criticize Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney. Now, I do want to note, Kinzinger is retiring. But these two continued to be very outspoken against former President Donald Trump and the Republicans that continue to push that big lie -- Laura.

JARRETT: Daniella, thank you.

ROMANS: All right. New this morning, President Biden set to relaunch the White House cancer moonshot initiative he led as VP in the Obama administration. He'll announce a series of goals today, including cutting the death rate from cancer by half over the next 25 years. The cancer fight, of course, is personal for the president and vice president. Bo Biden, the president's eldest son, died of brain cancer in 2015, and Kamala Harris's mother was a breast cancer researcher who died of colon cancer in 2009.

JARRETT: A real honor for soldiers with fake weapons. Their story is still ahead for you.

ROMANS: And real questions surrounding the Beijing Olympics and the pandemic is just a part of it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)