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CDC: Nearly 41 Percent Of U.S. Is Now Fully Vaccinated; Gloves Come Off In Dem Primary For NYC Mayor. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired June 02, 2021 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, CNN ANALYST: We've seen that Republicans are going to do that. They've even done it with, you know, then President-elect Joe Biden even though he didn't wanted to fund the police, right, and that wasn't part of his agenda.

And here, he really saw that in this race. And if you're the Democrats, it is just an indicator. It's just one race, but you do have to be pleased by the turnout. Also, one thing worth noting is early voting for this race as well. You've got to be pleased with that. I believe it was 71,000 votes.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: I'm pleased by the idea that you're looking at this seat, you're saying what is it? Well, it's Albuquerque. It's a democratic area. But when I started covering politics, New Mexico was more of a red state. Then it became more of a purple state. Democrats are hoping seats like this, urban area, growing diversity of the voters, and then some suburbs which have gotten -- turned against Trump. The question is, can you keep the suburbs against Republicans, with Trump out of the picture?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And it would turn about the picture, how does that affect turnout come next year, both on the Democratic side, but also on the Republican side, that's also going to be a question.

You know, the first midterm of a new president tends to be a referendum on that new president. That president typically loses seats. Barack Obama lost the House in 2010. The Republicans are clear favorites to take back the house next year, just given the fact of how near the majority is, redistricting and just the history here.

But what is the issue set going into 2022, is the big question. What will the economy look like? What will the Dem -- Republicans say, to take on Joe Biden? What will they use to argue either check, which is one reason why they don't want to be talking about January 6th? They don't believe that works politically, they believe attacking his agenda does.

KING: And because the margins are so tight this year, it actually matters tomorrow, in the sense that Nancy Pelosi has such a narrow Democratic majority just she can only afford to lose four or five votes, that even though this was a Democratic seat, you knew you're going to Democrat, this is one of the she's like, please hold a special election as soon as you can. I need that vote.

SEUNG MIN KIM, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. It would have been a giant problem immediately for President Biden's agenda if Republicans were somehow able to pull off an upside. Because we played the clip from President Biden earlier, we always look at the 50-50 Senate and just how there is no room for air, there's very little room for air in the House majority that Pelosi has to play with.

And you are always going to have a few, you know, very conservative Democrats. It's just Jared Golden from Maine who are willing to -- much more willing to buck the party. So you need every Democratic vote that you can to pass something as big and complicated and sweeping as for example, the American jobs plan that President Biden wants so much.

KING: The Speaker wants that one certified ASAP.

Up next for us, the President opposite COVID vaccine update today. Why he says June must be a national month of action.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:37:00]

KING: Just minutes from now President Biden will issue a rallying cry to get more Americans vaccinated, that according to a White House official. The President will deem June a national month of action to get more people vaccinated by July 4th. That is the goal the President says for 70 percent of Americans to have at least one COVID vaccine shot. That's what he wants by Independence Day. Let's walk through some of the latest numbers.

Number one, 12 states have already met that goal, 12 states already have at least 70 percent of their adults with at least one dose, you see them highlighted here on the map, many of them up in New England but beginning to make progress in other parts of the country as well. The U.S. case count, the map this chart getting better. You see the average now 17,289 new cases daily. You have to go way back to a little more than a year ago before you get that low, get that low. Again, the horrific winter peak, we have come down quite considerably, why, because of vaccines.

If you look at the global cases, though the United States in green here now that means our cases are going down, green in much of the world. But you also see some red and orange those are global hotspots, including just to our south in Mexico, of some cases in Central and South America. You see other orange and red on the map there as you go through.

Remember back last year, often the United States lag the world. This is the high case count back in the middle in the winter, the middle of the fall up through the winter. Now the United States a world leader, cases way down, you see India here, Brazil there. So what is the challenge on a global scale? Well, the challenge is to ramp up the vaccinations around the world. And again, on the map now, the United States is a global leader, 40 percent, 41 percent of the population fully vaccinated.

You see in Russia, it's only 8 percent. In India, it's way down 3 percent, Nigeria less than 1 percent. So the global challenge continues. Let's discuss what we will hear from the President and this global map with Dr. Seema Yasmin, she's a former CDC disease detective, also the author of "Viral BS: Medical Myths and Why We Fall for them." Dr. Yasmin, great to see you today.

So the United States has made considerable progress. When you look at the case count, you see 40 percent fully vaccinated. But I want to come back to only 12 states right now, which is ahead of where the President thought they would be. Why is it so important? Is it important for the President say June must be the month of action to fill in more of this map with people having at least one dose?

DR. SEEMA YASMIN, FORMER CDC DISEASE DETECTIVE: Absolutely, John, and I think it reaffirms the emphasis on really getting people out there to get vaccinated and getting vaccines to those who are really marginalized and may not have a lot of confidence in vaccines. The truth is, America has done a great job in vaccinating its population so far. But the rate at which we're vaccinating Americans is slowing down.

We were at a peak of 3.1 million vaccine doses in arms per day in April, John, and we've dropped now to about 1.7, 1.8 million vaccine doses per day at the moment.

So I think this new push, this all America approach that the President will be speaking on, is really reemphasizing the need to speed up vaccines, especially because as you mentioned, we can't look at the U.S. in isolation. We have to look at these global hotspots, some of them far away, India's not so close, but we have neighbors to the U.S. that are really struggling and of course variance creeping in all the time.

[12:40:03]

KING: Right and so you look at the -- I'll call it a dual challenge for the President. Number one, he wants to continue to progress here at home. That is job one, keeping Americans safe. But when you look at the map and you think globally, there are vaccines lagging.

The World Health Organization and others saying it's time for everybody to do a better job, the United States is committed some vaccines, its AstraZeneca vaccines and others. This statement just today, seven European countries starting issue these vaccinations for travel, travel passports essentially. The E.U. certificate was proposed by the Commission to resume safe traveling this summer.

Dr. Yasmin, how important is this? And where do you see the role of government versus some private entity and essentially giving you a card that says I'm safe to go around the world? YASMIN: I think sometimes this conversation feels premature to me, John, like, it's fantastic that the U.S. is finally leading the world in the number of like fewer cases, and also massive increases in vaccinations. But then it also brings forward this question about how inequitable the vaccine access is. It's great that so many Americans are vaccinated. But is it really good for Americans and public health and safety when so much of the world has no access, let's be real, no access to vaccine. We are connected in this fight against the pandemic.

And I always say, one of the central tenets of public health is you have to act locally, but think globally all the time. So it's good that we are leading here. It's good that we're talking about increasing access to vaccines in these parts of the world.

But what about elsewhere, it's not just about Americans and people in the Western world, being able to travel freely. It's about people in poorer parts, lower resource parts of the world, also having access to vaccines. And until that happens, we're not really going to be able to tackle this pandemic on a global scale.

KING: You're right about tackling the myths and the BS out there that we've had the last 14 months as we go through this. Help me take a look, when you look at this, and you see the United States case countdown right now, people -- some people are still skeptical about a vaccine, some of them might hear me on television, other public health worker say, look, the case count is way down here. We're doing so much better and say, maybe I don't need one. What is the message to the people who are still vaccine hesitancy of in your view?

YASMIN: So John, I study this, and I realize it's complicated. And one of the things that really annoys me about public health is when we try and have a one size fits all message for everyone, just go get vaccinated, it's safe. In reality, John, you speak to six people who have, you know, on the fence about vaccines, COVID vaccines or other vaccines, you can hear six very different reasons, historical, geographical, cultural, faith based reasons as to why they might not be very confident about getting vaccinated.

And that's why actually, I'm quite excited about this new presidential approach, calling June this month of action for vaccines, because it's talking about different messaging, targeted messaging for different communities.

The President will be talking later today about getting celebrities, athletes, social media influencers, religious leaders, all of these folks on board to make sure that vaccines get to every part of the U.S., including those communities that have legitimate historic reasons for not trusting the government, not trusting doctors on the medical establishment. That targeted messaging is going to be so important in actually building confidence in the COVID vaccine.

KING: I had several of those very different conversations with individuals who you're talking about just yesterday afternoon. Dr. Yasmin, grateful for your time and insights.

[12:43:20]

Up next for us, its debate night in New York City and things are getting feisty between eight Democrats who want to be the city's next mayor.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: It is debate night in New York City, eight Democratic candidates hoping to lead America's largest city by population face off tonight in their second debate. The Democratic primary is in just three weeks, the winner all about a short of being the next New York Mayor. And the pre debate mood is well, testy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW YANG (D), CANDIDATE FOR NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: We need a change. And if you think that someone who has been rattling around our cities, bureaucracies, and agencies for the last number of years, New Yorker is no different.

KATHRYN GARCIA (D), CANDIDATE FOR NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: Andrew is a lovely guy. But this is a hard job and requires you to really understand how government works, how labor unions work, how the budget works. You don't want anyone in there looking for the light switch.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What did you mean when you said, why is he still in this race about Andrew Yang?

ERIC ADAMS (D), CANDIDATE FOR NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: Because --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Should he not be in the race?

ADAMS: Well, first of all, I think that, you know, he's a joke and it's not funny anymore. New York doesn't need a cheerleader. They need a leader.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Joining us now Errol Louis, the political anchor at spectrum news who moderated the first debate between these candidates, chippie is a word I like to use when races get into crunch time Errol. It is chippie and you have there playing out between several of the candidates or the inside or outside are argument. What is the state of play?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, the state of play is that New Yorkers, of course are going to make the final decision. And as we come out of this pandemic, you know, look, we lost over 30,000 New Yorkers, just in the course of the last year to the pandemic.

And so there's a kind of a serious and somber mood here. There's also a real desire especially I think, among younger New Yorkers to get back to normal, to open up the bars, open up the arenas, get back to life as we knew it.

And so you've got a candidate for every point on the spectrum. There are those who think that we need a cheerleader. We need some optimism. We need some sunniness on the scene after this terrible last year. And then there are others who are saying like look, we're not out of the woods yet.

We need somebody who can make a 35,000 member police force who can run the biggest school system in the country with over 1 million kids in it, 11 hospitals, you know, it's a big -- it is a big, big job. It's very, very complicated. And so each candidate is trying to sort of either appeal to progressive instincts or sunniness and optimism or experience and ability to run a very large, complicated government, John.

[12:50:22]

KING: And police reform has been a big conversation across the country and particularly within progressive and Democratic politics over the last several years, but especially in the year, plus a week or so since the death of George Floyd. It's an issue in your race of course. Crime is up in New York City. There's a big debate about the future of the police department. One of the candidates, Eric Adams, takes a bit of a tougher tone, at least from my perspective, let's listen a little.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADAMS: At least we could have the justice we deserve with the safety we need. And no one wants to talk about that. But I'll be damned if I'm going to find bumper stickers or slogan of what's popular. I'm not going to take a Gallup poll to see what I'm going to talk about. I'm going to talk about truth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: That is an issue. There's not many cities across America like New York City. But that is an issue people will watch. How does the policing crime and punishment police reform conversation playing in this race?

LOUIS: Yes, the conversation has changed quite a bit in the last year, John. So last summer there were thousands and thousands of people marching in the streets and demanding changes and demanding reforms. And then we had a real surge in crime. And I'm not talking about, you know, shoplifting. I'm talking about, you know, murders, shootings, real serious crimes.

And so Eric Adams, his success in the polls these days, and some endorsements that he's received, are in part because he was a cop for 22 years. And he does understand these issues. And he does think very seriously that the cops have to be part of the solution. Some of the reformers, some of the progressive talk in the other direction about, you know, cutting $3 billion out of a $10 billion budget for the police department or assigning them entirely different duties that are normally things that they would handle.

This is talk that is very much of the substance of the debate. I think some of the reformers are a little bit out of step where -- with where the polls say the voters are right now, but of course we still got a couple of weeks to go before election day.

KING: We do. Let me quickly try to get to this, the Trump's have left New York for lower tax climates, if you will, but the Trump name is still pretty big across the city. Don Jr. says the city has gone to, listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP JR. SON OF FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: In New York, crime is going through the roof. Taxes are going to go through the roof. Property values are going down. Murder rates are skyrocketing. I've seen what's happened in New York City. I left for a reason. It's not a good scenario.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: I think he touched on some of the issue -- actual issues in the race, but I'm going to guess Democratic voters in New York are not going to take their cues from that gentleman.

LOUIS: Well, you know what, they may be through with New York but New York is not through with the Trump's. There's a race for Manhattan district attorney and one of the issues on the table is the ongoing investigations and possible prosecution of the Trump Organization and some of its members including Don Jr. So yes, yes, they can bad mouth New York all they want. But they still have some unfinished business here.

KING: Little smart connected dots to why the Trump's might not be such fans of New York at the moment. Errol Louis, grateful for the reporting and insights, it's a fascinating race to get to the finish line.

[12:53:16]

Up next for us, a new Democratic entry in Arizona's governor's race, who is absolutely certain to get Donald Trump's attention.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Topping our political radar today, just moments ago, the White House promising President Biden will raise concerns over recent cyber attacks at his summit later this month with the Russian President Vladimir Putin. Workers at nine American beef plants are slowly returning to work today that after a cyber attack crashed I.T. systems. The company JBS USA is part of JBS foods, one of the largest meat suppliers in the world.

The White House says it is very likely Russian hackers are behind what happened and that would be the second attack on American critical infrastructure in as many months. And it comes just two weeks before the first Biden Putin summit that is in Geneva. Also at that White House briefing just moments ago, the Press Secretary Jen Psaki pushing back on criticism President Biden has received. That after publicly saying two Democratic senators vote more with Republicans than with their own party. The President did not specifically named the senators but it was pretty clear he was referencing senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. This was the Press Secretary's clarification.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: If you look at what the President said, the big tell here is I hear all the folks on T.V. saying he was not giving a specific commentary on a policy. He was conveying again that sometimes that's the summary shorthand version that he sees on cable news at times.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Spin is what we call that, spin. Arizona Secretary of State says she's running for governor in her campaign launch video out just today, Democratic Katie Hobbs note she has been the target of death threats since pushing back against claims of fraud back in the 2020 election and now during the so called audit underway in Arizona's Maricopa County. Hobbs has frequently blasted the former president and his election lies in multiple interviews since November.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATIE HOBBS (D), ARIZONA SECRETARY OF STATE: Most voters, Republican, Democrat, Independent, they understand that this election was over in 2020. That Joe Biden is the legitimate President of the United States and that there was no fraud in Arizona's election.

This just continues to undermine our democracy and is based on one loser's failure to be able to accept the fact that he lost.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Arizona's current Governor, Republican Doug Ducey is terminated from running again. And finally, get a shot, grab a beer. Anheuser- Busch, the national brewer behind brands like Budweiser says the next drink is on them if the United States reaches President Biden's goal of getting 70 percent of adults partially vaccinated by the 4th of July. The company says people 21 and older can enter to win by uploading a picture of themselves at a favorite bar or similar hangout to a website for the company's campaign.

[13:00:26]

Thanks for joining us today. See you back here this time tomorrow. Ana Cabrera picks up right now.