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Francis Suarez is Interviewed about Florida's Anti-Riot Law. Debate over Vaccine Patents; J&J Vaccine Halt over Quality Issues; New Book on Nancy Pelosi; Millions Under Freeze Warnings. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired April 22, 2021 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Individual arrested for such offenses until their first court appearance. It prohibits damaging or defacing property deemed historic, including confederate monuments and it allows state attorneys and city officials to appeal local decisions to reduce police department budgets.

Now, critics say the law stifles free speech and infringes on the rights of Floridians to peacefully protest. Many also fear it targets minority communities.

Joining us now, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez.

Mayor, thanks so much for being with us.

Look, your colleague, the mayor of Tallahassee, says this law would allow someone to be arrested for simply participating in a protest where violence happens to occur.

What's your opinion of the law?

MAYOR FRANCIS SUAREZ (R), MIAMI: Well, my opinion of the law is I'm not sure why it's necessary. You know, we had, obviously, civil disturbances last year and there wasn't any, you know, sort of major rioting. We had one night out of two weeks of protesting where we had 50 arrests. We were able to do it with the laws that we had.

We did have some defacing of monuments, but we were able to catch the people that defaced them. We were able to arrest those people for damaging property under the current laws that we had. And so we were able to manage, you know, those protest, which were, by the way, by and large extremely peaceful. And they were done in the public view. In other words, they were done in our streets. We allowed protesters to go out and express themselves. We set very clear rules. And I would say there was 99 percent compliance of those rules.

Were there people that crossed the line? Absolutely. And when they did, we arrested them and we -- and we brought them to justice.

So the question is, what is the need for any sort of enhanced set of rules when the rules we had worked perfectly fine. And, frankly, there wasn't any real rioting in any other city in Florida. So I just don't understand what the need was to change the laws on the books that we use and that we use effectively.

BERMAN: To be clear, you say you don't understand why it's necessary. You disagree with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on this?

SUAREZ: Yes, to be -- to be clear, like I said, number one, there wasn't any rioting in the city and certainly not in the state of Florida. Number two, any kind of disturbance or any kind of breaking of the law, we were able to handle with in the current set of laws that we had. So I don't understand what is the need to change the laws on the books. There wasn't any need, for example, for the National Guard never came to any of our cities. We were offered --

BERMAN: He says -- let me ask you, Governor DeSantis says -- he says it was necessary to battle what he calls the tactics of the radical left. That's what he says.

Do you find that framing politically divisive?

SUAREZ: Look, I mean were there people that came to our cities that were probably paid to protest or were paid to create havoc? I'm sure there were. But that's not the point. The point is that whether or not they were there to create chaos or whether or not they were there to try to create division in our community, it didn't work, a, and, b, we were able to handle it with the laws that we had.

You know, to the extent that there was any sort of lawlessness in our city, frankly, it was that people got onto our expressways, and that's state jurisdiction.

BERMAN: Right.

SUAREZ: So I think the state could have done a better job of protecting, you know, our highways within their jurisdiction. That's something that we prepared for and hopefully it will not happen again in the future with their -- with their collaboration.

BERMAN: So, Mr. Mayor, "Politico" is reporting that you met with former South Carolina Governor, U.N. -- Ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley, this week.

One word answer, did you meet with her?

SUAREZ: I did. Another --

BERMAN: OK, multiple world answer. Multiple word answer now. "Politico" suggests that the notion of being her running mate in 2024 hung over this meeting.

Is it fair to interpret that?

SUAREZ: Look, that's their interpretation. You know, that's not anything that we discussed. We focused on why the city of Miami is thriving and doing well in comparison to other cities across the country. That's what we talked about. I actually had what I call a (INAUDIBLE) tech talk, which is something

that I've been doing sort of a podcast. And she was a guest on our podcast. We had a very nice long-form interview. And it was focused why cities like Miami are working, why our formula of reducing taxes, of having -- increasing our police budgets and having more officers than we've ever had before and reducing crime in our city and focusing on quality of life is a way and formula for cities in America.

BERMAN: I've got to let you go, but would you be in favor of a Nicki Haley candidacy for president?

SUAREZ: Look, I think it's -- it's 2021. That's very, very far into the future. That would be something that I would love to discuss with her if that's something that she decides to do in the future and go from there.

BERMAN: Mayor Francis Suarez, we appreciate you coming on NEW DAY. Thanks for get up.

SUAREZ: Thank you.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: So it sounds like yes.

BERMAN: Yes, that was sort of -- you know, it's always interesting when you interview a politician and you kind of get some answers.

[06:35:04]

KEILAR: That's right.

BERMAN: You know, first of all, he doesn't like the Florida anti-riot bill. He doesn't like what Governor Ron DeSantis there -- and he was pretty blunt about that. And on Nikki Haley, he's like, yes, you know, maybe, we should talk about that.

KEILAR: It's like swiping right. They had a date. I mean we're not talking about getting married but, you know, one thing leads to another, right?

BERMAN: Thanks for making me understand it in cultural terms. I appreciate it.

KEILAR: Yes, that's how I look at it. Right.

Peeling paint, unsanitary conditions, and inadequate training. What the FDA is now saying about the plant that ruined millions of doses of Johnson & Johnson's vaccine. Plus, should American vaccine makers release their patents? Why our next guest says poorer countries are experiencing vaccine apartheid.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: As of this morning, more than 87 million Americans or more than a quarter of the total population are fully vaccinated, but some poorer countries are far behind. The World Health Organization says that of the 832 million vaccine doses available globally, 0.2 percent have gone to low income countries where one in 500 people are vaccinated and 82 percent of these vaccines have gone to upper and middle income countries where one in four people are vaccinated.

[06:40:20]

Let's talk more about this disparity with Nick Dearden, who's the director of Global Justice Now, a non-profit organization that is advocating for global vaccine equality.

These differences are huge. You call this a vaccine apartheid. How did this happen?

NICK DEARDEN, DIRECTOR, GLOBAL JUSTICE NOW: Well, it's really interesting because we saw the possibility of this happening right at the beginning of the pandemic. The World Health Organization created bodies to try to deal with it and to try to fairly distribute vaccines around the world. But, sadly, rich countries bypassed those bodies and so they have very few vaccines themselves, but rich countries have hoarded as many vaccines as they possibly can.

And, meanwhile, the corporations that are making these vaccines, despite the huge amount of public money that's gone into the creation of these vaccines, the corporations that have made them a restricting supply by not sharing the technology with other companies. And that's just absolutely scandalous. I mean we've calculated today that these -- some of these companies, three of the biggest vaccine producers in the world, have handed over $26 billion to shareholders last year, at the same time as so many people in the world are suffering so badly with COVID and can't get hold of any of these medicines.

KEILAR: So, Nick -- and I want to talk to you about that, the intellectual property of these companies that have gotten public funding.

First, though, look, we're looking at a situation where it seems it's every country is for itself. That's how they're behaving. Of course we know this is a global society.

Does it hurt developed nations? You know, let's maybe appeal on that way to them. Does it hurt developed nations, like the U.S., if COVID is running rampant throughout other parts of the world?

DEARDEN: It absolutely does. I mean it's been said repeatedly that we're all in this together, but we're not safe unless everybody's safe. And I think that's really obvious now. I mean as long as this virus is running like wildfire around parts of the world, it is going to come back and it's going to come back in mutated form that may be far more resistant to the vaccines that we've got. So the very efficacy of our own vaccines is going to be affected by allowing this to run around in other parts of the world.

We will get -- it will come back to bite us. And so even just in terms of our own self-interest, we have a real interest in making sure that the whole world is vaccinated as fast as possible. And I think that, you know, in the U.S., I think President Biden is beginning to see that, which is one of the reasons he's really weighing up this patient, this intellectual property issue.

KEILAR: Yes, and maybe that will be some answers on that here in the not-too-distant future.

Nick, thank you. This is a huge problem. Thank you for talking with us about it.

DEARDEN: Thank you.

BERMAN: So developing this morning, a new FDA report has found what, quite frankly, sounds like deplorable conditions in a Baltimore manufacturing facility that mistakenly ruined millions and millions of Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses. We're talking peeling paint, unsealed bags of medical waste, among other questionable sanitary things. Vaccine production there remains on hold until these potential quality issues are addressed.

CNN's Jacqueline Howard joins us now.

So, Jacqueline, the FDA report was just jaw-dropping. What else was in there?

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEATH REPORTER: It was jaw-dropping. Now, what else was in the report? Here's what stood out to me. The report really identified procedures to prevent cross-contamination not being followed. The report also says that there was inadequate quality control, lack of employee training, and, as you mentioned, John, unsanitary building conditions. That peeling paint that you mentioned. And there was some residue on walls and some unclean surfaces.

Now, the manufacturing company Emergent (ph) has put out a statement in response to this. The statement says that it's, quote, committed to working with the FDA and Johnson & Johnson to quickly resolve the issues identified. Johnson & Johnson also put out a statement. The company says, quote, Johnson & Johnson will exercise its oversight authority to ensure that all of FDA's observations are addressed promptly and comprehensively.

Now, John, previously, Johnson & Johnson had said that the fact that these quality issues were identified shows the system working. And it's important to note that no COVID-19 vaccine manufactured at this plant has been distributed in the United States.

BERMAN: Jacqueline Howard, you know, thank you for that. I have to say, I mean, it's gross. And then you have to remember, it's being around a vaccine that millions of people are intending on getting. It really is of concern there.

So remember this, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tearing up Donald Trump's final State of the Union Address.

[06:45:04]

Hear the backstory. Details I promise you, you didn't know from that remarkable moment, next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: In a new book, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi addresses this moment from former President Trump's final State of the Union Address when she tore a copy of his speech in half. Now, despite criticism, the speaker says she has no regrets and felt liberated in that moment, telling the book's author, Susan Page, he was shredding the truth, so she shredded his speech. Susan Page joins us now. The title of her new book is "Madam Speaker: Nancy Pelosi and the Lessons of Power."

That was some moment, Susan. But I have to say, the backstory that you tell is equally eye-popping. Explain how it all happened.

SUSAN PAGE, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, "USA TODAY" AND AUTHOR, "MADAM SPEAKER: NANCY PELOSI AND THE LESSONS OF POWER": You know, I'd never seen a scene like that all my years in -- in Washington. So remarkable. She told me that the president gave her a text of the speech before he started speaking, which is tradition, and she was scanning through it to see what he was going to say. She saw something that she thought was untrue, and she wanted just to mark that place so that she could get back to it but couldn't find a pen. She didn't have a pen on her. There's a little drawer up there. She opened the drawer. It was empty. So she made a tiny tear in the margin of the -- of the paper so that she could find this untruth.

Then she found another thing she thought was untrue and another and another. And she said, by the time he was through speaking, the whole speech had little tears along the margins of things he had said that she thought were false. So that's when she decided, I might as well tear this up.

[06:50:04]

And it's remarkable, he's standing -- the president's standing in front of her, his back to her, basking in applause from the Republican side of the chamber. Meanwhile, Vice President Mike Pence is standing next to her, pretending he can't see what she's doing.

KEILAR: So there is -- there's no way that this was planned. I mean this became an instant meme. This was something she just decided in the moment? I know a lot of folks might have a hard time believing that.

PAGE: I -- I don't -- she told me that she didn't decide finally do that until the last moment. She was steaming. The honor he awarded to Rush Limbaugh during that speech really, really set her off.

And, in fact, it was the one time I think we saw Donald Trump really get under Nancy Pelosi's skin. She got under his skin all the time. That was the one time where I think she did not act in the kind of disciplined way that is usually her manner.

BERMAN: Susan, what's getting a lot of coverage from your book is how Nancy Pelosi talks about some of the most progressive members of the Democratic caucus, the so-called squad, and her relationship with, you know, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and others. How does she perceive this group, and how does she deal with them

because I think that's even more interesting?

PAGE: Well, you know, we -- there's a phrase that "Politico" once used about a decade ago in describing Nancy Pelosi. They said she was an iron fist in a Gucci glove. And that is pretty much the combination of skills that Nancy Pelosi has brought to being a legislator leader. You know, she sees some of herself in AOC. She was once a pretty disruptive young protester, she says, marching in the streets. But now she is a legislator determined to get things done. And I think she sees some of these younger progressives as not being realistic, as being naive about how you actually get things done and the compromises you sometimes have to make to get a deal, to get half a loaf better, in her view, than getting no loaf at all.

KEILAR: Yes, it sounds like that generational critique that many parents might make as well, right?

I wonder what you think -- and let's just listen to it. This is how Speaker Pelosi reacted upon the news of Derek Chauvin being convicted of all three charges in the murder of George Floyd.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): Thank you, George Floyd, for sacrificing your life for justice, for being there to call out to your mom, how -- how heartbreaking was that, call out for your mom, I can't breathe. But because of you, and because of thousands, millions of people around the world who came out for justice, your name will always be synonymous with justice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: You know, I think she was trying to be complimentary, but it came out very insensitive, and she had to clean that up in a tweet, Susan.

PAGE: Yes, she wanted to revise and extend her remarks after that.

You know, the fact is, that was a remarkably tone-deaf comment for her to make.

The fact is, Nancy Pelosi has never been particularly good at the talking out loud part of politics, at the outside game of politics, making a big speech, or being on the Sunday morning shows. What she has excelled at is the inside game of politics. And, in fact, I would argue that we haven't seen anyone since Sam Rayburn and LBJ who has been as good at the inside game of politics, as consequential as a congressional leader as Nancy Pelosi has been.

KEILAR: Yes, I only half-jokingly say, having covered the passage of Obamacare, that perhaps it should have been called Pelosicare because she was instrumental in that.

Susan, great book. You really, as always, spill the tea in it, as the kids say. Thank you so much for talking with us about it.

PAGE: Hey, Brianna, thank you, and congratulations on your new gig.

KEILAR: Thank you.

We'll see you again soon, Susan.

BERMAN: All right, an officer fired for allegedly donating to Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager accused of killing two men during street protest in Kenosha.

KEILAR: Plus, some conservatives suggesting the jury was scared into a guilty verdict for Derek Chauvin, scared of what the, quote, mob might do.

And an officer allegedly told units on the morning of the insurrection at the Capitol to only monitor for anti-Trump protesters. We have details ahead on NEW DAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:59:09]

KEILAR: The Northeast is grappling with some unseasonably cold weather right now. So what is in store for the rest of the week? Let's check in with meteorologist Chad Myers.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, a little bit of a warmup, especially by Saturday and Sunday, but it is a cold morning outside. I have candles burning in my garden right now trying to keep my plants alive. Thirty-two at my house, although 40 at the airport.

This weather is brought to you by Carvana, the new way to buy a car.

So, yes, cold air really has settled in. And 89 million people under freeze warnings right now, another 20 million under frost advisories. And there's snow on the ground. I saw snow at baseball games yesterday. That's something you don't really ever want to see.

Below average temperatures across the East Coast for today and for tomorrow. But look at the big warmup in the west. And it's coming to the East. It's going to warm up by Saturday and Sunday. Even New York City by Saturday afternoon, all the way to 70.

[07:00:02]

Cooler down in Atlanta with some rain showers in the morning hours. But even by Saturday, all the way to 71.

Heat is on the horizon.