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COVID Deaths Now Younger, Disproportionately Black; VP Harris After Bill Defeat: Voting Rights 'Fight is Not Over'; White House Officials to Meet with Dem Leaders on Infrastructure; Results of NYC Mayoral Race Hang in Balance; Socialist Claims Victory in Buffalo Mayor Race; Suns Exploit Little-Known Rule to Win Game at Last Second. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired June 23, 2021 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm John Berman, alongside Brianna Keilar.
[05:59:56]
On this NEW DAY, Senate Republicans refusing to even debate a voting rights bill, leaving Democrats trying to plot a new way forward.
Plus, breaking overnight, results from the heated New York City mayoral race. And a socialist pulls off a stunning surprise, an upset, in another primary.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: And as crime surges across America, President Biden set to address it today in a speech as it becomes a growing problem for his presidency.
And Britney Spears goes to court as we learn new details about the conservatorship that she has been under for years.
BERMAN: All right. Good morning to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. It is Wednesday, June 23.
As the dangerous new COVID variant surges across the United States, new numbers this morning show a disturbing rise in younger people dying of COVID. And the victims: disproportionately African-American. That's according to a new CNN analysis, released just moments ago.
Deaths have fallen dramatically across the United States, but nearly 300 people are still dying a day of COVID. And the victims seem to be younger, and the racial disparity is growing.
KEILAR: And while the Delta variant is posing this growing threat, Dr. Anthony Fauci says Americans who are still dying from COVID are overwhelmingly unvaccinated. So in other words, vaccines are the tools to crush coronavirus, and this message is echoed by the director of the CDC.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: Nearly every death due to COVID- 19 is tragic, because nearly every death, especially among adults due to COVID-19 is, at this point, entirely preventable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is with us now. That is heartbreaking to hear her say that, Elizabeth. What does CNN's analysis show about these coronavirus deaths?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, Brianna, in many ways, what our analysis shows is that vaccination works. It works so well and that people who are not taking advantage of it are, unfortunately, suffering.
So let's take a look at what our data shows about racial disparity. So this analysis of CDC data, if we start off with black people in the United States are about 12.5 percent of the population. We know that COVID has disproportionately affected people of color throughout the pandemic. Black people have accounted for more than 15 percent of deaths from COVID from the beginning of the pandemic.
But in May, things got even worse, and black people accounted for 19 percent of deaths. Now part of this is a continuation of the same terrible trend that we've seen of racial disparities, but part of it is also that black people are vaccinated at a lower rate than white people are. And there's a lot of work now to try to change that.
Now let's take a look at age. You see sort of an interesting trend here, as well. Throughout the pandemic, the majority of deaths have been among people older than aged 75, but in May, another turn. The majority of deaths have been people under age 75.
Again, the reason for that, people over age 75 have availed themselves of the vaccine metropolitan, much more so than younger people. Younger people are not taking advantage of the vaccine in the way that they should. Choose vaccination, choose life. It's really quite that simple -- Brianna, John.
KEILAR: Yes. It's such a good thing to remember. And we're seeing the real effects of the vaccines. Elizabeth Cohen, thank you so much.
BERMAN: So this morning, it seems clear that Senate Republicans are afraid to even discuss voting rights. Overnight, all 50 refused to debate a voting bill, and that's despite the fact that moderate Democrat Joe Manchin gave Republicans what they demanded on key issues like voter I.D.
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell insisted it's up to individual states to sort it all out. He claims there's just nothing to discuss.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): There's nothing broken around the country. The system upheld very well during intense stress in the latter part of the previous Congress. There's no rational basis for federalizing this election. Therefore, there's no point in having an election [SIC] in the U.S. -- a debate in the U.S. Senate about something we ought not to do. (END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: All right. So there is a flaw in the logic here, right, because if there's nothing to fix, why are so many Republican states committed to restricting or blocking voting rights, changing them from the 2020 election?
According to the Brennan Center, there are 14 states that have passed at least 22 laws that limit voter access. And if nothing is broken, as the minority leader claims, why conduct a sham audit in Arizona? If nothing is broken, why all the claims of election fraud? If nothing is broken, what are Republicans trying to fix in the states?
BERMAN: Right. This is what Vice President Kamala Harris had to say about the failure of the voting rights bill. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The bottom line is that the president and I are very clear we support S-1. We support the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, and the fight is not over.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[06:05:07]
BERMAN: It's not over, she says. So then, what happens now? Lauren Fox joins us from Capitol Hill this morning.
Lauren, what does happen? Where does this go?
LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, look, this party line vote really demonstrated just how much division there is on the issue of voting rights here in the U.S. Senate.
I will, you know, lay out for you that one of the issues that Democrats are dealing with here is they just don't have 60 votes to get through the U.S. Senate at this point.
And, while there are many progressives who are going to amp up their calls to get rid of the filibuster at this point, they don't have the votes to do that either.
Here's what Joe Manchin said yesterday when I asked him specifically if this vote demonstrated they need to change the filibuster. You will also see one of his progressive colleagues argue right after why the filibuster needs to be changed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FOX: Your Democratic colleagues are saying this moment illustrates exactly why the filibuster needs to be changed. Do you disagree with that?
SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D-WV): Some of the things we've done over the years, let's go back and look how many times they -- they bring things back and rework them and rework them until we finally got a bipartisan buy- in. And I think this is no different.
FOX: Do you feel like now is the time to change the filibuster?
SEN. SHERROD BROWN (D-OH): I've thought it for some time. Mitch McConnell is part of this, this effort by Republicans to suppress the vote.
They know they can't win elections anymore. They lost the popular vote by millions of votes. They lose overall votes for the House and Senate. And the only way they can win is to change the electorate, and Republican senators almost to the person, blindly follow McConnell when he does this.
FOX: Does Biden need to get involved? Does he need --
BROWN: I think we need to figure out how to do this. I don't care what it takes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: And, of course, Joe Manchin making the case there that the effort needs to be focused on bipartisanship. And as you saw from Mitch McConnell, they don't think anything is broken at this point.
And a lot of Republicans I talked to said there is no piece of the bill that they would have voted on if they had gotten into the debate yesterday that they would have supported.
So breaking this bill apart trying smaller pieces of it, that's not really an option at this point. Expect Democrats to keep up the heat, though, because this is going to be a key issue for them going into the 2022 mid-term elections -- John.
BERMAN: I mean, of course, Mitch McConnell likes the status quo, because the status quo is Republican-led states rigging the system so Republicans can do better at this point.
Lauren Fox, thank you so much for that report. More on this in just a moment.
KEILAR: Amid growing criticism from the left for not doing more on the bill, President Biden has made it clear that his top priority is actually infrastructure.
And later today, top White House officials are scheduled to meet with Senator Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Jeremy Diamond with us now on this.
Tell us where negotiations stand, Jeremy.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen, some progress but no clear breakthroughs, that is the clear consensus on all sides of this negotiation after White House officials yesterday spent some time on Capitol Hill, meeting with that group of senators, working on this bipartisan infrastructure deal. There will be more meetings today, as well, and the status of those
meetings and how much progress in that meeting, I'm told, is going to determine whether or not President Biden is going to meet with those 21 senators, Democrats and Republicans, who are working on this bipartisan infrastructure deal.
We've been told that that meeting is likely to happen this week, but I am being told by a senior White House official that they're making day-by-day decisions on whether the president will meet with that group of senators, depending on how much progress is actually made.
Now despite some signs of progress, the Republican majority whip, John Thune, saying that the bipartisan group seems to have made three steps forward and one step backwards. So a bit of a more pessimistic assessment there.
But one thing is clear here at the White House, and that is, even as they pursue these bipartisan negotiations, they are looking at this on two tracks.
On one track, these bipartisan negotiations. And on the other track, this meeting that's happening today with the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, sending a very clear signal that, while the president is pursuing these bipartisan negotiations, he's also looking at that reconciliation track where Democrats could potentially pass an infrastructure package or perhaps even this broader $4 trillion jobs package, simply along party lines, using that budget reconciliation progress.
We will see whether that's ultimately the track that they decide they have to take -- John, Brianna.
KEILAR: All right. We will see. Jeremy, thank you so much for that.
You know, we expected this, but I don't think it makes it any less significant what has happened with the Senate vote. So let's bring in our CNN chief legal analyst, Jeffrey Toogin [SIC] -- Toobin.
How do you put this into perspective?
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: Well, you know, what I think is interesting is there are two big issues before Congress right now. There's infrastructure, and there's voting rights.
And infrastructure is sort of the classic -- classic stuff of politics. How much do you spend on roads and bridges? How do you pay for it? And that should be the stuff of compromise.
The voting rights is very different. This is life or death for the democracy. This is about whether the people are going to control their government or the government is going to decide how the democracy works or doesn't work.
[06:10:13]
And I just think one of them is an existential crisis for the United States, and the other seems like it's going to be worked out.
BERMAN: Are either of you "Star Trek" fans?
TOOBIN: No.
BERMAN: So Kobayashi Maru, in the movies, right --
KEILAR: Where is he going with this?
BERMAN: -- is -- is the test they take --
KEILAR: He's going to take us somewhere.
BERMAN: -- in the Star Fleet Academy. They have to pass this test in order to go through in training. It turns out there's no way to pass it. The test is rigged, so you fail every time.
Mitch McConnell is Kobayashi Maru on voting rights. Democrats can't get past him, no matter what. Kirk, what he ultimately did, was he changed the programming. The only way to get beyond the Kobayashi Maru test is to change the programming.
And unless Democrats are -- and I'm not saying they should -- but unless they're willing to change the programming, which is to change the filibuster rules, this is -- this is a moot point. It's done.
TOOBIN: It is -- it is done.
BERMAN: It's rigged.
TOOBIN: That -- that is absolutely the case. And, you know, everybody is focused on Joe Manchin, for understandable reasons, because he is the leading Democratic holdout on changing the filibuster.
But you know, I think sometimes we focus too much on Manchin and not enough on 50 Republican senators, some of whom call themselves moderates, who are falling completely in lock step with a program that is destroy -- I don't want to overstate it, but is limiting our democracy in a way that we haven't seen.
And as you were pointing out earlier, McConnell trying to have it both ways, saying everything is fine, at the same time his Republican colleagues in Florida, in -- in Iowa, in Georgia, in all these states that they control, are limiting the vote. It can't be that the system is working perfectly, as he says, at the same time as his Republican colleagues around the country are limiting the franchise.
KEILAR: You heard what Lauren Fox asked Sherrod Brown. She asked him about President Biden. And that's because some progressives are saying, Come on, get more involved here.
What about his role in this? Is it something that you're focused on?
TOOBIN: You know, I think that's magical thinking about, you know, the power of the president. You know, Joe Manchin knows what the stakes are here. He has made a decision about the filibuster. I don't know what Joe Biden could say to him that that's going to change.
You know, we have sometimes this -- this, I think, somewhat naive faith in what presidents can accomplish. Joe Manchin doesn't answer to Joe Biden. He answers to the voters of West Virginia, and he -- he and his conscience, and he has made a decision about this. And what Biden does or doesn't do here I think is sort of irrelevant.
BERMAN: I'll say it again. You know, every time people try to go through the Star Fleet Academy without changing the rules. the test fails, and everyone on the Enterprise dies. They all die.
Joe Manchin thinks he can get through this test by the rules. He can't.
TOOBIN: And he keeps talking about we need to do bipartisanship. You know, what channel is he watching where bipartisanship on this or any other issue is possible? I mean, it's just -- particularly about voting rights. It is possible, it seems, on infrastructure. But on voting rights, the Republicans are locked in, and there is not going to be any bipartisanship.
BERMAN: I will say that there is one way besides changing the rules or reprogramming the system that Democrats can get through this if they want, which is to vote, which is to figure out a way to mobilize the vote, despite the new obstacles that are jumping up around the country. We just haven't seen a lot of evidence that that happens in the past.
TOOBIN: You know, the -- another possibility along those lines is the courts. Is, you know, will the courts step in and restrict some of these attempts to stop the vote?
At 10 a.m. today we're going to have some of the last Supreme Court decisions. There's a very important voting rights case out of Arizona that may give us a hint about whether the courts are going to step in.
You know, ever since the Shelby County decision, the Voting Rights Act has been much less power -- a powerful tool. This decision is going to tell us whether the Voting Rights Act is a tool left at all in its current form.
BERMAN: Well, this is John Roberts' problem here for Democrats, too, John Roberts, who Democrats now depend on as a -- more of a swing vote than he was in the past. He's been clear on where he is on voting rights.
TOOBIN: He is the author of the Shelby County decision. And remember, the Shelby County decision was when Ruth Bader Ginsburg was still on the court. This is a different Supreme Court. This is a court with Neil Gorsuch, with Bret Kavanaugh, with Amy Coney Barrett, three Republican appointees, plus Clarence Thomas, plus Samuel Alito.
Even if John Roberts were to join the three remaining liberals, there's not five votes for the moderation that Democrats hope for.
KEILAR: A very interesting point. [06:15:02]
I will say thank you for your "Star Trek" analogy. I actually found it very illustrative.
TOOBIN: I did, too.
BERMAN: Kobayashi Maru.
TOOBIN: Both of us were, I think, somewhat skeptical of the whole "Star Wars" [SIC].
KEILAR: I was initially. He turned me around.
BERMAN: I'm not even a Trekkie. I'm not even a Trekkie, but -- but it basically deals with a system that you can't win in. You know, there's no way to succeed unless you change the rules.
KEILAR: You have to break the system --
BERMAN: Exactly.
KEILAR: -- is the lesson.
BERMAN: Exactly. Kirk taught me that.
KEILAR: OK. We'll see if -- I don't know. We'll see if Democrats are learning a lesson.
TOOBIN: I was going to say, "May the force be with you," but that's the wrong movie.
KEILAR: That's totally the wrong one.
TOOBIN: Sorry. I was going to try so hard.
KEILAR: You caught yourself. We're going to -- we're going to let it go. Twitter won't let it go. We're going to let it go.
All right. Jeffrey Toobin, thank you so much.
You know, the votes are actually still being counted here in New York City's mayoral primary. We will break down where things stand.
Plus, a significant potential upset in Buffalo looking more and more like it, where a socialist has declared victory over the four-term incumbent Democrat.
BERMAN: And the Phoenix Suns pulling off an incredible victory over the Los Angeles Clippers. With one second left -- well, it's not this play, but the play they did it in. There's a question about whether it was even legal. Is this it? Can you do that? We'll explain next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:20:25] BERMAN: All right. They're counting ballots here in New York City. The Democratic primary for New York City mayor, we don't know who won. We won't know for a while.
What we do know is Brooklyn borough President Eric Adams is leading among the votes that are already counted. And we also know that Andrew Yang, the guy who had run for president before, he says he's toast, that he's not going to win.
We're joined now by CNN senior political writer and analyst Harry Enten.
Let's look at where we stand with the ballots that are counted so far.
HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL WRITER AND ANALYST: Where do we stand? Well, there is a clear leader right now. The polls are actually pretty good. Yes, current first choice is -- look at this -- Eric Adams with near 32 percent of the vote. Maya Wiley about ten points back at 22 percent. Kathryn Garcia, who supposedly had all that late momentum, near 20 percent of the vote. Andrew Yang, who faded significantly, all the way back at just 12 percent of the vote.
I should point out that this does not include at least 87,000 mail ballots received. There could be more of that coming, and a few election-night votes. So these totals may shift a little bit down the road. But it's very clear at this point that Eric Adams is well out in front.
BERMAN: This gives us a shape of where things stand. We'll talk about the ranked choice impact in a second, because that's a little harder to decipher.
What I think isn't as hard to decipher is the choice that New York City voters made, by and large, on ideology. Explain.
ENTEN: Yes. So you know, one of the things we've been talking about is the left wing of the party versus the moderate mainstream part of the party. And at least in New York City, it's very clear that the moderate mainstream part of the party did very well, totaling a little bit over two-thirds of the vote so far.
Look at this. Three of the top four candidates, Adams, Garcia, Yang, look at this, they, right there, 12, 20, 32 percent. Just 30 percent on the left-wing part of that -- of the ideological spectrum. Maya Wiley, obviously, in second right now with 22. But everyone else way back.
And this has been part of a pattern, John. We saw it in the Virginia gubernatorial race. We saw it down in Louisiana, 2nd Congressional District, and we even saw it last year in the Democratic primary for president, that at least in the biggest races, the moderate mainstream candidate seemed to be outlasting the left-wing candidate.
BERMAN: They're at 67 percent in New York City. People think of this -- that New York City is so liberal. No. Right now, moderate Democrats are getting 67 percent of the first choice votes. ENTEN: That's exactly right. Eric Adams, who ran a very hard, you
know, tough on crime message, you know, more police on the subway, doing especially well and especially well in African-American communities.
BERMAN: All right. I want to look at -- we talked about the ranked choice voting. Eric Adams is about ten points ahead with 31, 32 percent. What are the chances that someone else wins at this point?
ENTEN: So obviously, you know, we still have those near 100,000 ballots that are still out for the absentee, plus some of the election-day votes. But essentially, that ten-point lead, in my mind, is pretty solid if it holds.
Why is that? Well, we can look back at ranked choice elections that have taken place in the U.S. since 2000. It just started in New York, but we have obviously a lot of other elections.
When you have a leader with less than 40 percent of the vote, which Adams clearly has, and is ahead by less than ten points, that first- round leader wins just 72 percent of the time.
But if the leader has less than 40, as Adamas has, and is ahead by more than ten points, they have won 100 percent of the time. So a ten- point lead is right on that border. But if that ten-point lead holds, Eric Adams is a very, very clear favorite, even when we get into the ranked choice voting.
BERMAN: So maybe not 100 percent, but closer to 100 percent than 70. I just want to show people one more thing again with this. Look, they're trying to do the math here and seeing how someone could come up -- and it's hard to tell. Because you don't know where all the votes would go.
But one -- one possible way is if people wanted to have the first woman as mayor of New York City, well, maybe they made their first and second choice votes Maya Wiley and Kathryn Garcia. We don't know. What we do know is ideologically, Eric Adams and Kathryn Garcia are closer.
ENTEN: That's exactly right. And the polls indicated that Garcia's second choices, for example, would be more likely to go to Adams than Wiley. The Wiley, though, could go to Garcia. So one thing to watch is whether Garcia and Wiley flip. Garcia has a better chance in a one-on- one with Adams.
BERMAN: OK. When will we know who won?
ENTEN: Yes. We won't know for a while. Ranked choice results from in- person voting won't come in until June 29. We were talking about the absentees. Those really won't be included in the ranked choice voting until July 6.
It's not until the week of July 12 that we should expect official results, so we're going to have to wait a while. But I think the key message coming out of last night is Eric Adams is definitely the man to beat. BERMAN: And also, turnout wasn't bad.
ENTEN: It wasn't bad. It's going to end up probably near 900,000, which is actually right near the top of the primaries in New York City mayoral races this century.
BERMAN: All right. Harry, thank you. Don't go far. We have a lot more --
ENTEN: I'm not going anywhere.
BERMAN: -- important things to discuss.
ENTEN: I'm here.
BERMAN: Let's go back to Brianna now.
KEILAR: Yes, stick around for what Harry has ahead.
[06:25:01]
So CNN right now has not projected a winner in a different mayoral race, the one in Buffalo, but that didn't stop self-proclaimed socialist India Walton from declaring victory over incumbent Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown in the Democratic primary. That's because she has a considerable lead here, with still some votes to be counted.
CNN's Brynn Gingras is joining us with the latest.
This is an upset, to say the least.
BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, well, absentee ballots, Brianna, still need to be counted. But should she pull this off, as you just said, it's a stunning upset and a notable one.
She would be the first woman mayor in Buffalo, defeating incumbent Byron Brown, who wants to make history of his own by being the first mayor in that city to win a fifth term.
But like you said, India Walton already declaring victory in this race. Again, CNN has not made a production.
Now, Walton is a self-professed socialist with the backing of the country's largest socialist organization. She is a nurse and a community organizer who really ran a campaign on wanting to change Buffalo's leadership.
She promised voters she would make changes to police reform, where she doesn't want police to respond to calls about quality of life and mental health issues. We've heard about that.
She also wants to declare Buffalo a sanctuary city. These, of course, are very progressive ideas that seem to have resonated there.
Last night's early numbers also got the attention of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She tweeted this: "India Walton became a mother at 14 years old. She earned her GED while pregnant with twins. She graduated, became a registered nurse, and then a representative in her union. And then directed a Community Land Trust. Tonight it seems Buffalo may be making her mayor."
Now, Walton, again, feeling confident at her campaign rally last night. She came to the mic and said, quote, "I hate to say I told you so."
Certainly a political surprise in this state's -- remember -- second largest city. Brown, though, not conceding at this point, saying he wants every vote to be counted -- Brianna.
KEILAR: And he was running for his fifth term. I mean, wow. We're going to talk, I should say, to India Walton. So we'll get her perspective on really, for her, what is an exciting moment.
Brynn Gingras, thank you so much.
BERMAN: All right. So there were two just amazing sports stories overnight that require the Harry Enten treatment.
First, a stunning to last night's Suns/Clippers NBA playoff game. Phoenix was [SIC] it -- won it with a buzzer-beating alley-oop from out of bounds, which was incredible.
Harry Enten is back with us.
Can we see that just one more time and watch this? Because Harry, what people are asking with this, it's Jae Crowder in ball -- throws the ball inbounds to Deandre Ayton. They're seeing him pass the ball, right? It's right over the hoop, and he jams it in.
Now, as you and I know, from when we played basketball, normally, that would be goaltending. Right? I can't hover above the hoop when the ball's above the cylinder and jam it in, as much as I would like to under normal circumstances. So people watched this and said, wait a second, that had to be goaltending.
ENTEN: First off, I love the idea that you think that either of us could get high enough so that we could goaltend above the cylinder.
No, what's so important to recognize about this play is that you can't -- you can't make a basket on an inbounds pass. So how the heck could there be goaltending? That's what's going on here.
So this, as we're going to see, as he throws it up there, that can't be legally a shot. So he is allowed to go above the cylinder, and there can't possibly be goaltending. And that's exactly what he did.
BERMAN: Just to say it more clearly, there's no goal -- goaltending --
ENTEN: Right.
BERMAN: -- on an inbound pass. It's a little -- you know, it's an exception to the rule here, which the Suns knew. Everyone else is like, no, no, it can't be. Yes, it was a brilliant play. The Suns win. Not goaltending.
That's what I'm going to do next time I play.
ENTEN: That's exactly what I'm going to do. And I should point out it's rare, but it has happened before. In fact, I went searching for it myself, and it was pointed out an example that they have done it before. So this isn't one in a million, but it's probably at least one in 10,000.
BERMAN: All right. The other second sports story last night happened in the Phillies/Nationals game, where Phillies manager Joe Girardi three times -- three times in the game -- asked for the umpire to go check out Max Scherzer, terrific pitcher for the Nationals, to see if he had a foreign substance on his hand, hat, hair anywhere.
This is part of the new rules in place in baseball to try to stop pitchers from cheating, frankly.
ENTEN: Right.
BERMAN: From using foreign substances to give them a better grip on the ball. It allows managers to make this challenge, but Girardi did it three times, which seems like a lot.
ENTEN: Right. Two is generally what's expected and what the pitchers were expecting. Three times he claimed that, you know, he seemed to be going to his hat a lot. It was more so than usual.
But I think this is what will generally be expected. Right? Pitchers have been throwing the ball so hard. They're getting so many strikeouts. Managers are very, very suspicious.
But I should point out that, you know, messing with pitchers is not necessarily anything new. I don't know if you remember but Jay Howell in the '88 NLSC national championship series was checked and was actually thrown out. Or whether it be Joe Niekro, who was thrown out for using sand paper. They pulled it out of his pocket.
BERMAN: Yes.
ENTEN: It was very, very bizarre.
I think that this is just the start of something. Major League Baseball has no idea what's going on. They're more than they bargained for. And there are going to be a lot of upset pitchers.
BERMAN: The rules say that a manager can't ask the pitcher to be searched in bad faith.
