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Bird Strike Forces Delta Flight to Return to Airport After Takeoff; Fauci: It May Be Time to Relax Indoor Mask Mandates; Stunning Map: No States Reporting Increase in COVID Cases; 3 GOP Govs Ending Jobless Benefits to Force People Back to Work; Why Businesses are Having a Hard Time Hiring Workers; Biden Eager for Infrastructure Deal with GOP; Dems Skeptical; McCarthy Officially Backs Ouster of Cheney, Endorses Stefanik; Carville: "Wokeness: A Big Problem for Democrats; At Least 9 Mass Shootings in U.S. This Weekend, Including at Party; Trump Fans Push Election Conspiracies, Lies: "I Watched It on TV!." Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired May 10, 2021 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY HOST: United States and all around the world, it is Monday, May 10. New overnight, a Delta Airlines flight forced to return to Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport after striking birds.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN NEW DAY HOST: The Delta Flight was headed to Washington, D.C., but it returned to Atlanta just minutes after taking off. CNN's Pete Muntean is tracking the latest from Washington. Tell us what happened, Pete.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well Brianna, that flight was supposed to arrive here at Reagan National Airport late last night. Instead, the crew had to turn the airplane around back to Atlanta International Airport only 47 minutes after departure. This is Delta Flight 2281, and here is what the crew reported to air traffic control after it hit those birds.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PILOT: Climb 1-4, 14,000, Delta 2281. Just had a bird strike.

CONTROLLER: Do you want to declare an emergency?

PILOT: And Departure, Delta 2281. Yes, we're going to have to turn back. We've got a cracked windshield. We're going to be declaring an emergency and back to Atlanta.

PILOT: Delta 2281, 14,100 pounds of fuel onboard.

CONTROLLER: Roger. Do you need to burn off the fuel or can you land now?

PILOT: Yes, we'll be able to land right now off of the pattern. We've just got to get set up. (END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: I want you to look at the photos here now. This is what the bird hit. Apparently the windshield of this flight, an Airbus 8320, and in a way that is good news because it is a very strong part of the airplane.

The 8320 has a windshield that is three layers of strengthened glass built to withstand birds, hail, lightening. It's a very strong piece of equipment of the airplane. So there was a crack the crew says, although not all that big of a deal and doesn't seem like the crew or the passengers were in all that much of danger.

You know, the FAA says there's about 15,000 bird strikes in a typical year, and only about 5 percent of those result in significant damage to an airplane. The FAA actually says that number went up about three fold after the miracle on the Hudson, that accident where Captain Sulley Sullenberger landed an Airbus 8320 in the middle of the Hudson River after birds hit both engines, in this case not near as significant. John, Brianna -

KEILAR: Pete, thank you so much for that. Yes, that's the thing, John, that it always go back to when you see the damage that a bird can do is thus the Sully Sullenberger flight. I mean, you were living in New York at the time that that happened.

BERMAN: I covered that. I was on the banks of the Hudson watching the U.S. airplane float by me on the Hudson River. I have never seen anything like that in my life. That went into the engines. This on the windshield. I will note that I cracked the windshield of my Toyota this weekend, but the Toyota very much on the ground, so a vastly different scenario.

KEILAR: And I bet you were not as calm afterwards as that pilot was. That always makes me just so amazed at how calm they remain.

BERMAN: They were. And it's not clear that it was when I was driving. My wife says it is. I think it happened when she was. Again, I digress.

KEILAR: I side with your wife. OK. All right.

(LAUGHTER)

Dr. Anthony Fauci says the federal guidance on wearing masks indoors that it may soon change.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATL. INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY & INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We do need to start being more liberal as we get more people vaccinated. As you get more people vaccinated the number of cases per day will absolutely go down.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BERMAN: Dr. Fauci says the CDC will update its guidance in real time as more Americans get vaccinated. Cases are down. I want you to look at this map, right? Everyone in green cases are going down. Everywhere in beige they're staying the same. I actually don't think I've ever seen a map that looks this good before since the pandemic began.

We've been talking to some of our people around the country. Apparently a couple times over the last year we've had a map with no red where cases are rising. This is really good what you're looking at right here. If it continues is beyond good to phenomenal, so let's hope, OK? One-third of the U.S. is now fully vaccinated, but the pace of vaccinations is slowing.

KEILAR: I love that map, too. It's soothing tones of beige and green instead of the alarming tones of red. Elizabeth Cohen with us now to talk about how things have been here, and you've been looking into the accessibility of vaccines across America. What did you find?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, Brianna. We actually found more good news.

Not only is there plenty of vaccine out there, but there's so much vaccine that most Americans in analysis done for CNN shows nearly 80 percent of Americans are within five miles of any of the three vaccines. In others words, within easy reach of any of the three - Moderna, Pfizer, or Johnson & Johnson. They can take their pick and decide which they want.

So let's take a look at some maps that show how this works. So we chose, first of all, CNN in Hudson Yards in New York City. Not surprisingly you could walk to any of the three. Those little marks there are the pharmacies that offer the three vaccines. You walk just minutes. You can get to any of the three.

[07:05:00]

Now you might say, well it's New York City. I'd expect that. Let's take a look in Zebulon, North Carolina. I'd like to say we chose it randomly, but that's where one of our producers is from, and that is a town of under 6,000 people in North Carolina. A three-minute drive gets you to Pfizer or Moderna. A five-minute drive gets you to Johnson & Johnson, and that's in Zebulon, North Carolina.

Now let's go even smaller. We looked at Freeport, Kansas, population four. That's right, four. It is the smallest city in Kansas. Again, like to say random but one of our producers grew up near there.

So that is a 20 to 30-minute drive to Johnson & Johnson or Moderna. The four people who live in Freeport, Kansas, they only have to drive 20 to 30 minutes. They can get either of those two, or they could drive an hour and get Pfizer.

Now all of this was done - this analysis was done by Vaccine Finder, which is the folks that power vaccines.gov. You can go on vaccines.gov, put in your zip code. Chances are you will be within five miles of any of the three vaccines. John, Brianna - KEILAR: That is very, very cool, Elizabeth. Thank you so much for showing that to us. Republican governors are slashing jobless benefits in their states. They're hoping that it will force people to return to work. The cuts target the extra $300 in federal aid that millions of out of work Americans have been receiving in addition to their regular unemployment checks.

Arkansas is the latest to announce plans to cancel the extra benefits. Governor Asa Hutchinson say they interfere "with the ability of employers to fill over 40,000 job vacancies in Arkansas."

The Montana Governor, Greg Gianforte, slamming the stimulus benefits as "no-work bonuses" that don't encourage people to find jobs. He's ending the federal pandemic-related benefits and launching a return to work bonus program in the state.

And the Governor of South Carolina says, "What was intended to be short-term financial assistance during the height of the pandemic has turned into a dangerous federal entitlement program paying workers to stay at home rather than encouraging them to return to the workplace."

BERMAN: So where are we seeing evidence of this if it really exists. What could be a sign that some restaurants for instance have more jobs than people apply? Joined now by Harry Enten, CNN's Senior Political Writer and Analyst, and Harry, you look at this in a really interesting way, at the wages being offered by restaurants. Why is this a good metric, and what does it show us?

HARRY EMTEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL WRITER AND ANALYST: So it's a good metric because obviously if you have - if you want to entice people to get back to work, if they're not coming back in the numbers that you want, you're going to offer them more money.

And what do we see here? This is the hourly wage growth, April over March, and what we see in those non-supervisory, leisure and hospitality jobs, look at this - look at this growth in the wages. Plus 2.7 percent April over March.

Look at just all non-foreign jobs overall. Significantly lower than that at just 0.7 percent growth, so this is a suggestion that in fact these jobs that are in the restaurant industry, they are in fact having to entice more people to get back and doing it by lifting the wages.

BERMAN: They're harder to fill. They have to pay more money to get people, a sign that this could be happening. There are many issues, though, surrounding this, surrounding a worker's decision about whether to go back to the workplace, including safety here.

ENTEN: Yes, so look. If you don't feel safe at your job because of the coronavirus, you're likely not going to go back. So take a look at this. This is a Gallop poll.

This is the satisfaction with safety conditions at work by annual household income, and what I think what's clear here is if we break it down by those who are making $75,000 or more in their annual household income versus those making less than $75,000, look at this difference right now between - in 2020 between those making $75,000 or more or those making $75,000 or less.

And look at this, an 18 point difference there. People in those higher wage - excuse me, in those higher-income households they are much more likely to feel safe about their working conditions, and more than that look at the change over time. Look at the change from 2019.

In those making $75,000 or more, just a five point difference, but those making less than $75,000 in those blue collar jobs where you might have to be interacting with people, look at that. A drop of 17 points.

BERMAN: So you may be reluctant. As more people get vaccinated, if we get those numbers up even higher maybe that number will get better and you will see more people returning.

Schools, we know that parents need to, you know, be sure that their kids will be safely in school in order to go back to work.

ENTEN: That's exactly right, and what do we see here? We see that just 54 percent of schools as of March were open for full in-person learning. If you're making less than say $50,000 a year, you're not going to be necessarily able to pay for baby sitter or a nanny in those blue collar jobs. You might have to stay at home.

So these folks may be reluctant to go back because they have kids at home because they're not in school full time.

BERMAN: And your last slide here, Harry, is I think the most revealing. There may be - again, people may be waiting for what?

ENTEN: They may be - they may want a new job. Look at the 66 percent to of those who were unemployed Americans back in January considered switching jobs. So it could be they were at home for awhile.

[07:10:00]

They had time to check over their life, and you know what? I don't want to go back to that low-wage job right in front of people, working people. Maybe I want to do something new for a living and this number certainly suggests that they did.

BERMAN: By the way, it's not mutually exclusive from the enhanced unemployment benefits. It may give you the security or the time -

(CROSSTALK)

ENTEN: Sure.

BERMAN: -- to change jobs, and that may not - may or may not be a bad thing either. That's a qualitative judgment, not a quantitative one. Harry Enten, great to see you.

ENTEN: Nice to see you, too.

BERMAN: Thank you very much. Brianna -

KEILAR: That's a tough question to answer if your kids aren't back in school full time. We just heard that is the case in so many places, so let's discuss this now further with former Democratic Senator, Al Franken. He is the host of "The Al Franken Podcast". Senator, thank you so much for being with us. When you hear these Republican governors starting to cut jobless benefits, saying that it is incentivizing people to not go back to work, what do you say to that?

AL FRANKEN (D), FORMER U.S. SENATOR FROM MINNESOTA: It seems kind of backward. They always - Republicans seem to always finding and excuse to, you know, cut unemployment benefits. This seems to be the latest one.

If you look at the data, a lot of the data who aren't going back to work are women, and a lot of that has to do with childcare. This is why when part of his proposal in the joint session was for daycare, and Mitch McConnell, you know, said, well this breaks the connection (ph) between work and childcare, and it's actually the opposite.

This is pretty much a no brainer that if you have child care the number one reason that people want safe, reliable childcare for their kids is so that they can go to work. So we need to do that. We should have been doing it like other countries do that, and that's really why the huge difference in men and women in terms of going back to work.

BERMAN: So President Biden later this week will be meeting with this group of Republican senators on infrastructure led by Shelley Moore Capito. Based on your past experience in the Senate and different attempts to do things in a bipartisan way, how genuine do you think this outreach is from Republicans, and if it were up to you how much longer would you be willing to negotiate as a Democrat to try to do this in a bipartisan way?

FRANKEN: I don't know how genuine it is. We saw just one the relief package that when Biden - President Biden came in with a $1.9 billion plan, 10 Republicans entered (ph) the White House and offered $600 billion. That wasn't really serious. And so, they had to go to reconciliation and pass that with just a Democratic bills.

On infrastructure, Americans want infrastructure. Trump had campaigned on a trillion dollar infrastructure package and didn't do anything. This is something we need to do for all kinds of reasons to address climate, of course, but also because we need modern, 21st century infrastructure if we're going to compete.

It provides an enormous number of jobs. Jobs - 80 percent of those jobs are for people that don't have college degrees. Americans want this, and we'll see what the Republicans come back with, but thus far we haven't really seen them responding in any way that gives you any confidence that they're going to be part of this.

KEILAR: We're watching. I know you're watching what's happening in the House right now. Elise Stefanik is poised to replace Liz Cheney as number three in House GOP leadership, and it's - I mean, it's a foregone conclusion. She has the backing of Kevin McCarthy and Steve Scalise, who are the number one and the number two.

When you're looking at this, you know, obviously we see the state of the Republican Party, but what does it say to you about the state of the union, about the state of American democracy?

FRANKEN: This is really sad because we have one entire party that is captive to this narrative that the election was stolen, and if you don't adhere to that you're out. And I don't think that most of the Republicans in Congress actually believe that the election was stolen. I know like 140 plus in the House said they believed that, but I don't really believe that.

[07:15:00]

But this is incredibly disturbing that we have in this country an unprecedented situation where we have two systems of information and one of them is disinformation. And the Republicans in Congress seem to be terrified of the Trump people and believe that the only way they get elected is by getting that 84 percent, 85 percent of the Republican Party that supports Trump.

And it doesn't matter what the truth is. It doesn't matter that this is anti-democratic and practically treasonous, and it's a very, very dangerous situation that we're in in this country.

BERMAN: Senator, there's a separate discussion going on about the Democratic Party, and this is a very different kind of conversation. This has to do with the direction of the party and I think how progressive you want to be. And there are some centrist Democrats or at least Democrats in the centers of the past like James Carville who says the party has an issue with wokeness. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES CARVILLE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: It's just faculty lounge jargon, and it's counterproductive. It gives the aura of cosmopolitan smugness to the rest of the country that somehow or another we think we're smarter and better than other people and we're going to lecture them where we are - people agree with us on the issues.

They like our tax plans and they like - they believe - they think climate is an issue. They think that racial inequality and inequality, as I do, is a terrible issue in American politics, but the way that you solve that is through power. It is not going to get done attacking 68 percent of the people who are going to vote in a national election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So I ask you this as I notice you have a tribute to the late Senator Paul Wellstone behind you, what do you think about what Carville was saying?

FRANKEN: Well Paul spoke very plainly to people. He said we all do better when we all do better. That's not faculty language speak even though he was on the faculty of Carlton College. He spoke very plainly to people and with real conviction. And I think what James is talking about is more about language than anything. And listen, as a senator in Minnesota, we have a very diverse population in Minnesota in many ways. Many of my constituents - one of out six jobs in Minnesota tied to agriculture.

You have to know how to talk to everybody, and you know, and people can disagree with you. People in Minnesota - Paul Wellstone got reelected even though people disagreed with him on things, but he was straightforward and honest about it.

And when he said we all do better when we all do better, what he meant was is that when we all have jobs like this big infrastructure package where 80 percent of these jobs will not require a college degree, people really respond to that and where people will have daycare - reliable daycare so that they can go to work and know that their kid's being cared for.

That's what people care about in their lives, and sometimes we get into ascertaric (ph) ideas. And sometimes it's just the language that we use, and I think that's what he meant by faculty lounge language.

KEILAR: Senator, I want to thank you so much for being with us this morning.

FRANKEN: My pleasure. Thank you for having me.

KEILAR: All right, sir. Coming up, bloodshed across America. Nine - nine mass shootings this weekend, including one at a birthday party.

BERMAN: Plus the conspiracy caucus hits the road. We're going to speak to a former QAnon believer about the big election lie that doesn't seem to be fading.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

KEILAR: Developing this morning, six people are dead after a gunmen opened fire during a birthday party on Colorado Springs on Sunday. The suspect is also dead after turning the gun on himself. CNN's Lucy Kafanov is live for us in Denver with more.

Lucy, it's important to note the country saw nine mass shootings just this weekend.

LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brianna, I mean, it's not the normal any of us wanted to go back to and it's exhausting to keep having the same conversation about gun violence. One of the nine mass shootings over this weekend was this horrific incident in Colorado Springs.

This was a birthday party at a mobile home park, a mix of adults and children. The mass shooting unfolded at around midnight Saturday and to Sunday and police say a man who was the boyfriend of one of the victims drove to the residents, he walked inside and began shooting people at the party before taking his own life. Police say they are investigating the motive and they have not specified the weapon that was used. Now officers responded the Canterbury mobile home park where they found six dead adults with a seventh person who was injured and later died at a local hospital.

All of the victims whose names and identities and ages have yet to be released were adults. We understand that the children there were not physically injured. They are now with relatives.

Now Colorado police chief, Vince Niski, issued a statement. I'm going to read you a short version. Words fall short to describe this tragedy that took place this morning from the officers who responded to the shooting, to the investigators still on scene, we are all left incredibly shaken.

And of course this took place on Mother's Day, a fact not lost on Colorado Governor Jared Polis who also issued a statement. He called the shooting devastating; especially as many of us are spending the day celebrating the women in our lives who have made us the people we are today.

Multiple lives were taken today by this terrible act of violence he said, families torn apart and at a birthday party no less. Again, one of nine tragic mass shootings across the country this weekend. Brianna.

KEILAR: It is terrible. Thank you for those details. Lucy, thank you.

BERMAN: So hundreds gathered to hear from Republicans Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz at their first America first tour on Friday.

[07:25:00]

This was essentially a Trump rally without Trump as the Republican Party grapples with leadership fractures. CNN's Donie O'Sullivan spoke with attendees to get a sense of whether they too believe the election was stolen. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You guys both genuinely believe the election was stolen.

UNKNOWN: Yes.

O'SULLIVAN: I mean that's, you know -- if you believe that that's true that is -- is that horrible?

UNKNOWN: Yes, I know it is.

UNKNOWN: Yes, that is horrible.

UNKNOWN: Is it horrible that we would even be in this situation to even think that?

O'SULLIVAN: But it's false. UNKNOWN: No it is not. Why would they have all those ballots hidden under tables? Why did that man drive that truck all the way across state lines with ballots?

O'SULLIVAN: But wasn't like the ballots under table thing with Giuliani in Georgia, that's all been proven to be false.

UNKNOWN: It has not. I watched on T.V.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: It is false. Joining me now, Jitarth Jadeja. He's a former QAnon follower. Thank you so much for being with us. I watched it all on T.V. What do those -- what do those words tell you?

JITARTH JADEJA, FORMER QANON FOLLOWER: Honestly, I think the first reaction you can naturally have is that's a pretty ludicrous justification, right. It's really cringey. But the thing is that's the problem. She watched it on T.V. She watched it on OAN, she watched it on Newsmax.

Ironically she didn't see much of it on FOX because they haven't gone full into the election was stolen narrative. That -- this is exactly the point that the Republican Party and the conservative main stream political and media ecosystem is now downstream and filled with all these conspiracy theories and ideas that come straight from QAnon and they don't even realize it.

BERMAN: Talk to me about what you mean by that because I think this is really interesting. You're saying that Republican elected officials, and we were talking about Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene and this former president as well, they're downstream from QAnon, what do you mean?

JADEJA: So what I mean is that before -- let's take a look at dominion voting, right. Before -- you know that Donald Trump mentioned it, it had got brought up; no one had ever heard of dominion voting.

I had heard of dominion voting because that was mentioned on the QAnon 8chan Research boards back in 2018. It was mentioned on and off every few months and then just after the start of November there was a massive flurry of activity.

On the 12th of November, OAN, Chanel Rion starts talking about dominion voting and even quotes a report that does not exist by the Edison Institute in -- in regards to their voting machines. Edison should be straight from the QAnon research boards.

A week later, Ron Watkins who is the administrator of 8chan, has an interview with Chanel Rion where he talks about dominion voting. Donald Trump sees that, retweets it and then boom. That's -- that's exactly what I mean.

BERMAN: Yes, there's no space (ph).

JADEJA: It's just that there's so many things like that. BERMAN: There's no space between the messages anymore of QAnon. And some people within the Republican Party. That video we showed, Donie's interview. You look at this through different eyes, right? You also noted a physical shift while Donie was speaking to that couple.

JADEJA: Yes, so if you look at the video, you know, they're pretty calm and cool and collected, especially the wife. But the second Donie says that was false. Her -- immediately her behavior changes. She becomes agitated, she becomes aggressive, she talks louder, faster. There is a physical reaction she has in her.

She's essentially being triggered. Then when he brings it up again and he reiterates his point, both the husband and the wife say the exact same thing. And if you watch just before the second time, the husband can't even look at his wife as she's talking. The husband's calm, the wife gets even more aggressive and agitated.

I've seen this. This is what happens if you talk to someone who is involved in his conspiracy theories or believes in it, whether they've heard of QAnon or not because a lot of them don't even know what QAnon is and they expose the same ideas; they get agitated, frustrated and almost -- almost manic.

And the same thing happened to me, the same thing happens to my dad and I see so many stories everyday about the same thing happening to other people. This is what concerns me is this physical, emotional behavior change that's -- it's like a flip of a switch.

BERMAN: I wish I knew a way to stop it at this point. I mean I do know one way is stop spreading -- media outlets stop spreading the misinformation for sure but I wish people made better choices too as they were watching this stuff.

Jitarth Jadeja, I really appreciate you being with us, helping us understand it through your eyes.

JADEJA: No worries. Have a good day guys.

KEILAR: It's so amazing, John, to hear someone who has been through this and come out on the other side.