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New Restrictive Voting Bills In Texas on Verge Of Becoming Law; GOP Recall Candidate Brings A Thousand-Pound Bear In Campaign Stunt; Weekly Jobless Claims Hit New Pandemic Low; Facing Ouster, Liz Cheney Says GOP At A Turning Point; Vaccine Maker Stocks Fall After US Backs Waiving Patent Protections; Woman With Rare Disorder Finds Strength In Song. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired May 06, 2021 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

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BRIANNA KEILAR, ANCHOR: The nation's next big voting battle is underway in Texas. State lawmakers in the House could vote on new sweeping restrictive voting legislation today despite growing warnings from business leaders that the measures could harm democracy and the economic climate.

CNN's Dianne Gallagher is live for us in Austin, Texas with more. Tell us about this effort, Dianne.

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, Brianna, I think it's important to start with the fact that Texas already has some of the most restrictive election laws, especially when it comes to mail-in voting in the country. So any additional restrictions that are added on would simply make it that much harder to vote. Now, there are dozens of bills that have been introduced this session, but much of the focus right now we're on these two sort of election overhaul bills, one of which is scheduled to be debated on the House floor today, at the Capitol behind me.

Now, we're talking about a slew of changes between these two bills here that would basically add criminal penalties throughout the voting process for voters and election officials. Like for example, if an official were to send out unsolicited mail-in ballot applications, that would then be a felony. It also empowers further these partisan poll watchers which adds concerns about voter intimidation, and official intimidation from these voting rights advocates.

[08:34:58]

And then there's the fact that it seems to target the more diverse population centers, the more blue leaning counties like Harris County here in Texas where Houston is by eliminating their ability to use these more creative tactics, Brianna. Now, business leaders, roughly 50 organizations and businesses, including places like Microsoft, HP and American Airlines signed a letter encouraging lawmakers not to do any kind of legislation that could potentially harm the right to vote. KEILAR: Yes. We'll have to see if there is anyone listening on the other end of that. Dianne Gallagher live for us in Austin, thank you so much.

JOHN BERMAN, ANCHOR: All right. I want to bring in Ari Berman, no relation, Senior Reporter for Mother Jones and Author of "Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America."

Ari, you know, I think with every state, there are two basic questions as they keep on looking at these laws. I'm going to ask the small question first, and I promise to ask the big question. So in Texas, the small specific question is, what specifically do these laws do and to whom?

ARI BERMAN, SENIOR REPORTER, MOTHER JONES: Well, what these laws do is, first off, they criminalize making voting easier. It would actually be a state jail felony under one of the laws, HB 6, for election officials to send out absentee ballot applications to voters, something that is standard in many other states. And then, it also legalizes voter intimidation by making it very, very difficult to remove poll watchers that are being disruptive in the process. So this is the exact opposite of what a state should be doing if it wanted to make it easier to vote.

J. BERMAN: And so, these are the very specific things that are being done by these laws or bills that may very well pass to Texas soon. As I said, the big question, though, continues to be as this spread around the country, is why, right? Why? What is this actually in response to?

A. BERMAN: Well, the big picture of what Republicans are doing in Texas and what Republicans are doing all across the country is they are weaponizing Trump's big lie. They are trying to tilt the playing field towards Republicans, and they're trying to accomplish through legislation what they couldn't accomplish through litigation and intimidation in 2020. And so, whether it's the effort to oust Liz Cheney, or whether it's this crazy audit in Arizona, or whether it's these voter suppression bills moving through states like Texas and Florida, they all have the same aim, which is to institutionalize the big lie that Trump told that the election was stolen, and to make it harder for Democratic constituencies to vote in future elections.

J. BERMAN: Ari Berman, no relation, always a pleasure to speak with you.

A. BERMAN: Thank you so much, cousin John.

BERMAN: Well, I said every time, thanks so much, Ari. Next, candidates in California's recall election getting upstaged by a thousand pound bear.

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[08:41:23]

KEILAR: Former Olympian and reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner laying out why she is running to replace California Governor Gavin Newsom in a recall election.

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CAITLYN JENNER, CALIFORNIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: He's been horrible for business. Obviously companies are leaving left and right, 18,000 companies have left California. My friends have leaving California. Actually, my hanger, the guy right across, he was packing up his hanger. I said, where are you going? And he says, I'm moving to Sedona, Arizona. I can't take it anymore. I can't walk down the streets and see the homeless. I don't want to leave, OK, either I stay and fight or I get out of here.

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KEILAR: And Jenner is not the only Newsom challenger with a brash pitch to voters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You want beauty?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pretty boy, pretty boy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (inaudible) beast, recall the beauty and elect the nicest, the smartest beast you've ever met, John Cox.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Businessman John Cox is also running as a Republican and an outsider. And as you can see, he brought that thousand pound bear to a campaign event this week. And John Cox is joining us now without the bear, which I'm fine with that, sir.

OK, first off, I got to get this. I got to get the thousand pound bear out of the room here because you're taking a lot of heat for bringing this bear to campaign events, you know, animal rights activists are all over you about this.

JOHN COX, CALIFORNIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: It's a wonderful animal. It's been raised in captivity. And it's a symbol of the big beastly changes that we need to make in California, Brianna, and thanks for having me on.

Gavin Newsome, the pretty boy, has really run this state down. We got great weather out here, but we have unbelievably tough living conditions. Housing and cost of living are outrageous. Taxes are skyrocketing. Homeless population has vastly increased. And he's done almost nothing about it. Electricity, we had blackouts last year, water shortages. We live in fear of fires. Our kids have been sitting at home on a screen.

And I got to tell you, Brianna, even before the pandemic, our state was challenging Mississippi for some of the worst education results in the country. You know, a good education is what gave me the ability to rise up. I started out with nothing. I didn't know my father growing up. And I started as a CPA at the age of 20. And I built a business by delivering results because I had a good education.

The education out here is just not good for the regular people, for Gavin Newsom, you know, his kids have been going to a private school and they're just fine. But most of the kids in this state are not getting the education they deserve. And I think that's wrong, and it's not good for the long term health of the state.

KEILAR: All right. You're talking to a personal product of public school education, K through way up into college in California. So I don't know if I fully agree with you on that putting it on par with Mississippi. But I want to ask you because, this is going to be tough for you to really push forward in this, to, you know, for anyone to unseat Gavin Newsom, but you have Caitlyn Jenner on the ballot.

You mentioned the homeless problem, which she brought up. She talked about knowing someone in a hanger. I don't know if that was the best way to show that she's in touch with people, but is she a serious candidate in your estimation?

[08:45:05]

COX: Listen, we have tried celebrities before, Brianna, Arnold Schwarzenegger, that didn't improve the situation. We've had career politicians like the pretty boy, and that hasn't improved the situation. I think it's time to try a business guy. You know, listen, a lot of blue states, Maryland, Massachusetts, Vermont --

KEILAR: OK, but I have to ask, a business guy with a bear. I mean, you're bringing in someone who you mentioned a bear. You said he wasn't a member of the Screen Actors Guild. Aren't you kind of relying on kind of this sort of a circus trick or something that kind of goes people in like that?

COX: Listen, there's 40 million people in the state, I think they now feel that they have to do something about the leadership. But, you know, as you mentioned, there's going to be a lot of candidates here. But the point is, that is a symbol of the beastly changes that are going to have to be made. And that's why the bear was there.

But we really have to focus on the issues in this state, Brianna. The people of this state have put their name on the line over 2 million, including a lot of Democrats and Independents signed that petition to recall the governor. They've had enough. They're saying stop. We need to have a cost of living that we can afford. We need to have taxes lowered. We need to have electricity and water when we need it.

These are really basic functions that the government in the state has just not been able to handle right. And it needs management. It needs fixing. It needs someone who's going to roll up their sleeves and really get, you know, stand up to the special interest. That French Laundry dinner that Gavin Newsom had, was powerful for the voters because it really illustrated where Gavin Newsom is.

He's there for the lobbyists. He's there for the elites. He's one of them. He grew up with the Gettys and, you know, with the Browns and the Pelosi so they're running it very well for the average working California.

KEILAR: John, thank you so much. Look, I give you credit for the French Laundry appearance, we too hear, looked at what Gavin Newsom did there, not following his own COVID guidance. The bear, though, I just don't know, sir. But we appreciate you, John Cox, coming on to talk with us.

COX: Well, thank you. Thank you. It's well-taken care of bear. It's a wonderful pet. No question about it.

KEILAR: OK. All right, sir. Just in to CNN, a brand new snapshot of unemployment in the US, what it says about America's recovery from the pandemic.

BERMAN: Plus, Peloton recalling tens of thousands of treadmills and admitting a mistake.

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[08:51:56]

BERMAN: All right. Just in to CNN, new jobs numbers released moments ago. Let's get right to CNN Chief Business Correspondent Christine Romans. The verdict is?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: The lowest jobless claims of the pandemic and the first time below 500,000 since March of last year. Look, these numbers are still double what they were before the pandemic, but the trend you can see that trend, John, is very, very good here. These numbers have been getting better and better.

All together, 16.1 million people are still receiving some sort of jobless benefit. That shows you the depths of the job crisis. And we're starting to hear from the restaurant industry, for example, and manufacturing that they can't find workers three reasons there. There's a fear of sickness, people are having trouble finding daycare because so many of the schools are not full time now, and there are these extra jobless benefits, right? People are getting $300 extra, (inaudible) jobless benefits until the fall, John.

BERMAN: OK. What's the situation now? Obviously millions of people getting vaccines, how's their stock doing?

ROMANS: It's so interesting. The stocks have fallen because the Biden ministration yesterday said it supports waiving patent protection for coronavirus vaccines. The vaccine makers don't think that's a very good idea but the administration says it's a temporary waiver is something that they would agree with, something that's moving forward when the World Trade Organization, the industry opposes it.

Here's what the US said, yesterday, of the Trade Representative, "The administration believes strongly in intellectual property protections. But in service of ending this pandemic supports the waiver of those protections for COVID-19 vaccines. No surprise, you can see the major vaccine stocks all tumbled here. Moderna down 6%, BioNTech fell 3%.

We heard from the BioNTech chief medical officer on our air earlier this morning who said patent waivers simply won't increase the availability of the COVID-19 vaccine doses in the next year. So watch this space.

BERMAN: All right. Christine, Romans, as always, thank you very much for that. Just ahead, Liz Cheney was a new warning to Republicans about the turning point they face.

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[08:55:00]

KEILAR: A woman with a rare disorder found strength through song, and now she's making a difference. Here's this week's "Human Factor."

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Singing has been a way since childhood for me to exercise my lungs, taking a deep breath and practicing my diaphragm muscles. I have spinal muscular atrophy type 2. I was first diagnosed when I was nine months old. My parents noticed that I wasn't sitting up on my own. I have never been able to walk.

When I turned 18 is when I started to be able to have health aids and that made the possibility of me moving out, and living in a dormitory worked perfectly. I graduated Summa Cum Laude in Computer Science and I minor in Mathematics and Music.

My father would always play guitar and piano for us. And that's how my sister and I started to sing. I started to write songs to deal with coping with my disability, the pain I go through physically.

My first single is called "I am Able." "I am Able" is a reminder saying I can help someone, I can be someone and most importantly, I can be loved like anyone else.

I am an advocate for people with disabilities in trying to get more places to be wheelchair accessible. There are a lot of things that have been done to help make the world more inclusive, but there's so much left to be done.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: That was awesome. I have to say, I wasn't expecting that. I wasn't expecting her to open her mouth and have that giant big voice, and I think that's exactly the point. That's why it's so exceptional.

KEILAR: It's amazing and her advocacy is amazing. She's using her voice in so many ways. It's such an inspirational story.

BERMAN: Well, I hope you have a wonderful day. Enjoy your screening of Armageddon. CNN's coverage continues right now.