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Mickelson Makes History; Trial Begins for Mexican National Accused of Being a Russian Spy; FBI Analyst Charged with Taking Classified Documents; One Year Anniversary of Floyd's Death; COVID Deaths Surge in Latin America. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired May 24, 2021 - 06:30   ET

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

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[06:34:20]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Phil Mickelson, positively ancient at 50 years old, he became the oldest player to win one of golf's major tournaments. He took the PGA Championship Sunday, his sixth major title, his first since 2013.

Don Riddell has more in the "Bleacher Report."

DON RIDDELL, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes, thanks very much.

What a tournament. What a story. What a champion. This PGA Championship really did have it all, an unlikely winner for sure, but perhaps the winner this tournament deserved.

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RIDDELL (voice over): They call him "Lefty," but at the age of nearly 51, it had seemed that one of the most exciting players of his era had been left behind by the next generation of golfers.

[06:35:04]

Over the weekend, at Kiawah Island, though, Phil Mickelson rolled back the years with a stunning performance to win the PGA championship. A man that has seen and done it all was lost for words.

PHIL MICKELSON, 20201 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP WINNER: Certainly one of those moments I'll cherish my entire life. And I don't -- I don't know how to describe the feeling of excitement and fulfillment and accomplishment to -- to do something when -- you know, with this magnitude when -- when very few people thought that I could.

RIDDELL: As his fans would have expected, there were spills and thrills from Phil. In the twilight of his career, this will be one of the defining moments, a sensational chip from the sand for an early birdie. This is an historic achievement for Mickelson. Nobody has ever won a major tournament after turning 50 and he's broken the record for the oldest major champion by some two and a half years. That record, by the way, has stood since 1968, before man had set foot on the moon. MICKELSON: It's very possible that this is the last tournament I ever

win. Like, if I'm -- if I'm being realistic. But it's also very possible that I may have had a -- a little bit of a breakthrough in some of my focus and -- and maybe I've gone on a little bit of a run. I don't know.

The point is that there's no reason why I or anybody else can't do it at a later age. It just takes a little bit more work.

RIDDELL: And it all happened at an event that was packed to the rafters. After the lengthy pandemic lockdown, this was golf's welcome back party. They could hardly have imaged a more compelling story, the fan's favorite taking center stage. And everything's all right now, the great entertainer is back.

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RIDDELL: You know, it really was just an incredible experience being here, guys. The attention now turns to the U.S. Open next month. It is the one major tournament that has eluded Mickelson. He's finished second there six times. But it's at Torrey Pines in California, a course he knows very well. He's won there three times before. It couldn't happen again, could it? You never know.

BERMAN: I don't know. He's found every way imaginable to lose the U.S. Open in the past. So it would be -- it would be amazing if he here to come through. He qualified, at least. By winning the PGA he's exemption for five years. It wasn't even clear he was going to play at the U.S. Open.

So, Don, thank you very much for that.

RIDDLE: All right.

BERMAN: Brianna, it was -- it was really, really exciting yesterday.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Amazing.

You know, I -- I thought it was interesting to hear him talk about it because golf is such a mental game, you know, but it's, obviously, also a physical game. But he seemed to be saying, maybe I've tapped into something that I've been able to find that focus that perhaps you find with some maturity and much more experience. Maybe he's onto something.

BERMAN: Wisdom, I'm told. I'm told that that's something that happens to people as they age.

KEILAR: Wisdom.

BERMAN: I haven't seen it yet, but -- but I'm assured it may be coming at some point.

KEILAR: I think so.

BERMAN: All right, a Mexican national on trial today, accused of spying for Russia. Who he was allegedly tracking and how.

KEILAR: Plus, an FBI analyst has been indicted for taking home classified material for more than a decade. The critical documents about the U.S. war on terror that she allegedly had about her house, next.

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[06:42:18]

BERMAN: In just a few hours, the trial is set to begin for Hector Alejandro Cabrera Fuentes, a Mexican national accused of acting as a Russian agent in the U.S.

CNN's Laura Jarrett joins us now with this story.

Laura.

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR, "EARLY START": John, his defenders say this was all just one big misunderstanding, but prosecutors claim Cabrera was essentially living a double life, accusing him of spying for the Russian government.

Now, much of this case centers around prosecutor's theory that this award-winning molecular biologist was recruited specifically to gather information on a confidential informant that was used by the U.S. government. According to court records, the Russians believed that this informant had provided dirt to the U.S. on Russian intel operations and so they instructed Cabrera to rent a condo unit next to this informant and then fly down to Miami to find this person's car. Only problem is, Cabrera apparently botched the job once he got there. His wife got caught by security taking a picture of the informant's license plate and Cabrera was arrested back in February, charged with illegally acting as an agent for a foreign government.

So why risk it all? Well, prosecutors argue it was a classic quid pro quo. Cabrera had another wife in Russia who was having trouble leaving the country. Knowing that, a Russian official approaches him back in 2019, telling him, quote, we can help each other. The implication being if Cabrera helped with the Miami deal with the informant, then the Russians would help get his wife out of the country.

However, Cabrera's defense seems to be that he was unaware he was being used by the Russians and he's pled not guilty. If convicted at trial, Cabrera could face up to 10 years in prison.

John.

BERMAN: That's quite a story.

All right, Laura Jarrett, thank you very much for that.

Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes, that is a lot of drama (ph). Also developing this morning, an FBI intelligence analyst indicted for taking highly sensitive, national security documents, including ones related to Osama bin Laden, and then just bringing them home.

CNN's Whitney Wild is with us now.

This was not a one-time thing. This was something that she did repeatedly.

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Right. So investigators are saying that this -- this activity happened between 2004 and December of 2017, around the time that she was dismissed from the FBI.

The accusation here is that she was an FBI analyst, she had a clearance, she should have known the proper way to handle these documents and yet was bringing home sensitive national security information that included information about al Qaeda operations on the African continent, including about an associate of Osama bin Laden, and further about other emerging terrorist groups again on the African continent who might have been in support of al Qaeda. Prosecutors say that this is just a really shocking case. They say that the breadth and depth of classified national security information retained by the defendant for more than a decade is simply astonishing.

[06:45:09]

The defendant, who's well trained in handling classified information, put her country's sensitive secrets at risk.

She was in court on Friday, has posted a $10,000 bond. She's out now. CNN has not yet reached out to his -- her attorney, but we do expect to do that in the next few minutes.

KEILAR: Did you say 2004 to 2017?

WILD: That was -- that's the -- that's the length of time that prosecutors say that this activity occurred.

KEILAR: Oh, my goodness. It's a wonder they didn't catch her before, right?

WILD: Right.

KEILAR: That is such a long period of time.

Whitney Wild, great report, thank you so much.

Calls for police reform ahead of the one year anniversary of George Floyd's death. We are live from Minneapolis.

BERMAN: Plus, a new twist in the pandemic origin story. What we just learned about workers at a Wuhan lab who became sick around the same time the pandemic began.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KEILAR: President Biden will host the family of George Floyd at the White House on Tuesday to mark the one year anniversary of Floyd's death at the hands of police.

[06:50:05]

On Sunday, the family marched at a rally in Minneapolis with hundreds of other people. And that is where CNN's Joe Johns joins us live.

Joe, good morning.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Brianna.

Hard to believe it's been a year already. This was a murder that started a movement. And important to say that while this is about the death of George Floyd one year ago, it's also about all the other people whose names we probably would not know who died in police violence except for what happened here in Minneapolis one year ago. George Floyd's sister talked about that last night.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIDGET FLOYD, SISTER OF GEORGE FLOYD: It has been a painful year. It has been very frustrating for me and my family. For your life to change. When we say we have justice for George, we also have gotten justice for the families that nobody has seen behind this -- behind the curtains. All the cases that nobody has seen or heard about. He brought them out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: The focus of that rally and march here in Minneapolis last night was about the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which is hung up on Capitol Hill in a dispute over the immunity that police officers get when they violate the rights of citizens. The president had hoped that that bill would end up on his desk by the anniversary. The formal day is tomorrow. However, it doesn't look like that's going to happen. Still, as you said at the top, Brianna, the family of George Floyd will visit the White House tomorrow.

Back to you.

KEILAR: We'll see if that maybe gives a push to the effort.

Joe Johns, thank you so much, live for us from Minneapolis.

Marjorie Taylor Greene is under fire for her latest comments comparing mask rules to the Holocaust. Will Republican leadership respond to this one or ignore it like the rest of her comments.

BERMAN: Plus, at least 12 mass shootings in America over the weekend. Twelve. The new numbers show that America's gun violence crisis is getting worse.

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[06:56:02]

BERMAN: New signs that coronavirus vaccines are working. The U.S. is averaging about 25,000 new coronavirus cases every day. That is a dramatically lower number than what we've seen, the lowest number since last summer, it's down 57 percent from a month ago. Look at hospitalizations. They, too, are dropping. In half of all U.S. states, at least 50 percent of adults are now fully vaccinated.

Elsewhere in the world, it's a vastly different story. Latin America coronavirus cases and deaths, they continue to surge.

CNN's Matt Rivers live for us in Mexico City.

Matt, what are you seeing?

MATT RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, unfortunately, John, as you say, there's a lot of good news in the U.S., but that's just not the reality for many countries in this part of the world. It was within the last few days that Latin America and the Caribbean combined crossed 1 million deaths from the coronavirus throughout this pandemic.

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RIVERS (voice over): As cases drop in the U.S. and the country opens back up, other countries are locking back down.

Today, more than ever we need to take care of each other said the president of Argentina as he announced another strict lockdown that began over the weekend. Only essential workers are allowed out during the day. Schools and non-essential businesses shut down once again, the restrictive measures now in place until at least the end of the month. The move comes as the country's seven-day average of new cases hits the highest mark of the entire pandemic. It's now about even with the average new cases in the U.S., even though Argentina's population is more than seven times smaller.

Inside the country's ICUs, stats on a line graph become real.

Every patient is someone's child, somebody's parent, says Dr. Pablo Pratesi, tears in his eyes. I feel their pain.

Argentina's grief shared across Latin America and the Caribbean as the entire region grapples with what might collectively be its gravest moment of this pandemic. The region's seven-day average of new cases recently, the highest it has ever been. In Brazil, one of the worst hit countries in the world, cases that had been declining are now slowly edging back up, still averaging more than 60,000 per day. Health officials say a COVID-19 variant, first detected in India, has now reached Brazil. And in smaller countries, like the Dominican Republic, COVID-19 patients are forced to wait outside hospital entrances for beds to open up inside, facilities overwhelming by sick people. They let her die because of a lack of a bed, of oxygen, said this

woman who had been struggling for three days to find a bed for her mother sick with COVID.

The way out of all of this, of course, are vaccines, which are in extremely short supply throughout the region. About 7 percent of all people in Latin America and the Caribbean have been fully vaccinated, far behind the U.S. The hope is that the U.S. will share with this part of the world a lot of the 80 million doses promised for export by the Biden administration because, without vaccines, it's unclear how any of this gets better anytime soon.

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RIVERS: If there's one bright spot in this part of the world, it could be here in Mexico, Latin America's second largest country. Yesterday, health officials reported 50 deaths from the coronavirus. That number is the lowest such figure in more than a year.

But, John, obviously, Mexico, the outlier right now as so many countries in Latin America grappling with just some terrible days during this pandemic.

BERMAN: You know, and in terms of what the United States is being asked to do and whether or not help from the U.S. in terms of vaccines has started to arrive, is it being felt in any way?

RIVERS: I mean there have been some doses. For example, here in Mexico, a few million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine were donated here by the Biden administration.

[07:00:00]

But in terms of what the U.S. is doing across the region, that's why you're hearing so many calls from so many different countries looking at the extra vaccine supplies that exists right now in the United States saying.