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New Day

Tokyo Sees One of Its Highest Daily Case Increases of Year; Crimes That Received More Severe Fates Than First Riot Sentence; Infrastructure Deal on Life Support as Key Senate Vote Looms. Aired 7- 7:30a ET

Aired July 20, 2021 - 07:00   ET

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

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[07:00:00]

JOHN AVLON, CNN NEW DAY: So, here's the key question, what are the weather conditions for the morning's Blue Origin space launch. To answer that, our own Meteorologist Chad Myers. What's it look like, Chad?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, when you put it far enough away from all the weather, you should probably do okay. Van Horn, Texas, way out there in West Texas, dry this morning, good visibility, ten miles at this point. Temperature is 72.

Now, we don't have to worry about other sites for landing sites in an emergency, this just really has to be right here in West Texas.

Here we go, this weather is brought to you by Servpro, helping to make fire and water damage like it never even happened.

I'm going to forward you two hours, there will be a few high clouds, a thin veil of clouds out there, but nothing that I think is going to stop everything, 71 degrees. This doesn't have to take off at a certain time, John, because, well, it's not trying to catch up with the space station. It's just going to go up and come down. So, we could delay it if we have to across parts of West Texas.

Haze, fog, smoke and sky in the northeast, heavy rainfall in the southeast, and still, that monsoonal moisture in the desert southwest.

New Day continues right now.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN NEW DAY: That's where I do the robot.

AVLON: I dig that.

KEILAR: Right? With that music, I'm not going to do it. I will spare you.

But welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world, it is Tuesday, July 20th. And it's all systems go for Jeff Bezos and his three crewmates as they prepare for their 11 minute journey to the edge of space and back. The New Shepherd rocket was positioned on the launch pad overnight, and it's now two hours and counting until lift off from West Texas.

AVLON: Bezos will be joined by his brother and 18-year-old from the Netherlands and an 82-year-old female aviation pioneer, Wally Funk from Texas. His rocket will be launched from Blue Origin's facilities at a remote location near Van Horn, Texas, which is about two hours southeast of El Paso. The mission will eventually pave the way for private space tourism.

So, let's go live to launch site one and bring in CNN's Kristin Fisher.

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE AND DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. Well, the crew should be arriving at launch site one any minute now. The rocket is on the launch pad. The weather is looking good. And so, as of now, all systems are go for launch.

This is a moment that Blue Origin has been building towards for 21 years. It is a moment that Jeff Bezos has been dreaming about since he was a kid, and now he is less than two hours away from riding into space on a rocket that he funded and helped built.

On board with him are going to be his brother, Mark, 82-year-old Wally Funk, who trained to be an astronaut way back in the 1960s, but never got to fly because she's a woman. And so now she is finally going to get her chance. And also on board that 18-year-old, Oliver Daemen, Blue Origin's first paying customer, though, actually, his father paid for the trip because he just graduated from high school.

Now, those four have been here in West Texas training for the last two days, and they are going to be riding on the New Shepard suborbital rocket system. This is a totally autonomous system. There is no pilot. So, these astronauts can just sit back and relax. The rocket is going to lift off a few minutes into flight, the booster and the capsule will separate.

The astronauts will get to experience a few minutes of weightlessness, and then the capsule will descend with the help of three big parachutes before landing in the desert and the rocket is also going to land too. So we get to see a rocket launch and a rocket landing, a huge development and change in human space flight. And Blue Origin is really at the forefront of pioneering -- needs to do this. And the reason this is so important is because it makes space flight more affordable and accessible.

And so, yes, John, today is of course about space tourism but it's also about achieving Blue Origin's goal of building a cargo route to space, moving heavy industry into space to protect the planet. It's still a very long way away but Blue Origin believes that today's launch is a step in that direction, John.

AVLON: No question. The science behind this is fascinating. Kristin Fisher, thank you.

And Kristin is going to joining Anderson Cooper later this hour, anchoring special coverage from Texas. That's coming up.

KEILAR: Tokyo reporting its second highest day this year of new coronavirus cases. Nearly 1,400 infections just three days before the Olympics begin. The number of cases linked to the summer games has risen to 71 positive cases among American athletes, that includes Kara Eaker, who is an alternate on the Women's Gymnastics Team.

[07:05:00]

There's Katie Lou Samuelson, who is a member of the U.S. Olympic 3x3 women's basketball team, and neither of the women is going to get to compete. Incredibly disappointing, especially since both were fully vaccinated.

Organizers say it is still unclear how many people will be participating in Friday's opening ceremony. In the meantime, Dr. Jill Biden is still planning on traveling to Tokyo for the opening event. The last time a U.S. first lady attended the opening ceremony was Michelle Obama in London 2012. And we are going to go live to Tokyo with Dr. Sanjay Gupta in a moment, all these questions intersecting between sports and health, of course.

But, first, Erica Hill has a look at the current state of the pandemic as cases rise here in the U.S.

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ERICA HILL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The delta variant spreading across the United States, fueling a spike in new coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths. And with less than half the country fully vaccinated, Dr. Anthony Fauci warning --

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: If we don't get a significant proportion of these recalcitrant people vaccinated, you're going to be seeing a smoldering of this outbreak in our country for a considerable period of time.

HILL: California seeing the highest number of cases since the winter surge.

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): This is a pandemic overwhelmingly and disproportionately of those who have not been vaccinated.

HILL: About half the state's population is under mask requirements or recommendations, including Los Angeles County, where public health officials say they are seeing a significant increase in hospitalizations. In Florida, University of Florida Health Jacksonville Hospital reported more coronavirus patients now than in January.

CHAD NIELSEN, DIRECTOR OF INFECTION PROTECTION, U.F. HEALTH JACKSONVILLE: My greatest fear is that patients continue to pour in and we're unable to give them the care that they need because we don't have staff or resources. HILL: With back to school weeks away, the American Academy of Pediatrics now recommending all students ages two and older and staff wear masks in the classroom regardless of vaccination.

DR. MEGAN RANNEY, ASSOCIATE DEAN OF PUBLIC HEALTH, BROWN UNIVERSITY: The only way to make sure that those kids are protected for now is unfortunately to insist on universal masking.

HILL: Since no coronavirus vaccine is authorized for kids under 12, the surgeon general sending this message to adults who still haven't gotten the shot.

DR. VIVEK MURTHY, U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: Even if you don't want to do it for yourself, consider getting vaccinated to protect the children in your community. They are depending on us.

HILL: Meantime, a federal judge ruling Indiana University can require students to get the COVID-19 vaccine to return to campus.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The sooner that everyone gets vaccinated, the sooner we can go back to normal.

HILL: The delta variant sending younger people to hospitals. Doctors in several states experiencing a surge, say there is one thing most patients have in common.

DR. HANY ATALLAH, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, JACKSON MEMORIAL HOSPITAL: We are seeing this surge because of it's almost a pandemic of the unvaccinated is what we're seeing.

HILL: At the White House, President Joe Biden urging all Americans to get vaccinated as soon as possible.

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: The data couldn't be clearer, if you're fully vaccinated, you have a high degree of protection against severe illness, hospitalization and death. If you're unvaccinated, you are not protected. So, please, please get vaccinated.

HILL: Erica Hill, CNN, New York.

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KEILAR: And joining us now is CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who is live for us from Tokyo.

Sanjay, first, before we get to the questions of health, which are so at the forefront of these games, what is the latest feeling there on the ground?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think there's excitement and there's anxiety. It's sort of both, you know? It's very interesting, you know, just flying here, typically, you fly to an event like this, you can't barely get seats on the plane, it's very crowded, all of that. There's nobody -- there's nobody on our flight coming at here. It's more like flying into a war zone or a natural disaster. So there's that sense. There's no spectators allowed in the stands.

So, that sort of feeling, you don't have that sort of -- all that earnestness around these games like you have had in the past. There's a lot of testing that's going on. So, we got tested, for example, 96 hours before we left again, 72 hours before we left once we got on the ground. That's happening for all the athletes and everyone that's involved in the village as well. So, there's that whole sort of feeling.

What they have tried to do here is really separate out the Olympic Village from the rest of Tokyo. It's challenging to do and we have spoken to public health experts, like Dr. KenjI Sibuya. Listen to how she put it.

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DR. KENJI SHIBUYRA, CHAIR, GLOBAL HEALTH POLICY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO: Visitors ask these journalists, their guys. And, of course, they are supposed to be within the bubble, but, you know, it's not working well, and, you know, it's obvious that the bubble is kind of broken.

[07:10:01]

And so there seems to be some sort of interaction between guests and visitors, and also local people.

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GUPTA: So that's what they're trying to avoid, is to have these interactions, trying to create this bubble like they did with the NBA, for example, in the United States, but it's hard to do. The testing is rigorous and I think it's effective in a sense that they're trying to really reduce the number of false negatives and find people quickly, even before they get here, but, again, excitement and anxiety at the same time.

AVLON: Sanjay, I mean, he admitted the bubble is kind of broken. That is a statement of fact. We are seeing these cases. But what makes it doubly confusing, frankly, is that, in some cases, the folks who are coming down with COVID have been vaccinated. So, help us understand these breakout cases, which is what they're known as? And what might account for them, someone who's unvaccinated, perhaps, throwing off more virus, infecting people who have been vaccinated? What's the latest science on this?

GUPTA: Yes. So, with regard to the second part of your question, where exactly does someone contract the virus, where does that exposure happen, that can be hard to know sometimes. Clearly, what we know with the delta variant is that the viral load that someone carries in their bodies is maybe a thousand fold higher than it was with the original strain.

So, the way someone described it to me is if you are infected and putting out virus, it's kind of like imagine someone smoking and blowing out smoke, as they're smoking, it's kind of all around them and continues to travel around them as well. So, exposures can happen on all sorts of different ways.

But breakthrough infections, this is going to be something that we learn a lot, I think, because of these Olympic Games. In the United States, we know testing has really dropped off dramatically since the end of last year. CDC says if you've been vaccinated, you don't need to be tested unless you develop symptoms. So, how many of those vaccinated people actually do have a breakthrough infection, we don't know. Again, the overall testing has come down some 80 percent.

But here, you know, you are seeing a lot of people who have been vaccinated who then test positive. They're not necessarily getting sick. They're probably surprised. They don't really have any symptoms. But we're going to get a better idea of just how common those breakthrough infections are.

Again, the vaccine still doing what they're supposed to do, prevent people from getting sick, prevent them from being hospitalized and dying. But how well does it prevent them from actually getting infected? We have said so far, breakthrough infections are rare. They may not be as rare as we once thought.

KEILAR: Yes. We just spoke with an Olympic gymnast's father who was going through the thing you described, incredibly disappointing to go all the way to Tokyo and not compete. Sanjay, thank you so much for joining us from Tokyo.

The first person to have pleaded guilty to storming the Capitol sentenced to just eight months in prison. How that compares to other crimes?

AVLON: Plus, in just under two hours, billionaire Jeff Bezos is set to blast off in historic space flight. What to expect on his trip to the edge of space?

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AVLON: Yesterday, a 38-year-old Florida man named Paul Hodgkins became the first Capitol Hill rioter convicted of a felony to be sentenced. His crime, technically, obstruction of an official proceeding, carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. The Biden Justice Department asked for one and a half years to deter political violence. The judge gave him have that, eight means.

Now, Hodgkins wasn't charged with attacking police or destroying property. The judge thought his apology was sincere and Hodgkins says that he recognizes Joe Biden as the legitimate president, but people shouldn't get points simply for admitting reality. The fact is that he took part in an insurrection by entering the Senate chamber to try to stop the certification of an election, and eight months is a slap on the wrist for that unparalleled crime.

Just compare his sentence with some others that our criminal justice system has doled out for nonviolent crimes. For example, Tommy Chong got sentenced to nine months just for selling bongs back in 2003. More important, a 46-year-old mother of three from Dallas named Crystal Mason was sentenced to five years for casting a provisional ballot in the 2016, apparently unaware that she was ineligible while on supervised release after serving time for tax fraud. Her ballot was not counted.

And eight months is ludicrously lenient compared to the legions of people serving long sentences under mandatory minimums, like 38-year- old Allen Russell, who was sentenced to life in prison for possessing 1.5 ounces of marijuana in Mississippi back in 2019 because of two prior felony convictions and a weapon charge.

Or Timothy Jackson, who is serving life without parole for stealing a jacket at age 36 from a New Orleans department store, the ACLU said the court increased the sentence based under juvenile offense decades earlier and two car burglaries as an adult.

Or Robert J. Riley, who was serving life without parole for mailing LSD to some fellow Deadheads back in 1993 after previous drug convictions. His sentence was commuted by Barack Obama in 2017.

I could go on, but the point should be crystal clear. As a country, we have sentenced people to far longer prison terms for far lesser crimes than trying to overthrow our democracy. And being duped into believing the big lie is not an excuse, especially when the Justice Department has apparently decided not to charge the Capitol Hill attackers with sedition despite their actions meeting the dictionary definition.

We run the risk of defining deviancy down when it comes to an attack on our democracy, because some people only understand the truth of their actions when they face real consequences.

[07:20:07]

KEILAR: And Crystal Mason, the woman who was sentenced to five years in prison for casting a provisional ballot in the 2016 election while she was on probation, John just mentioned her, she is with us now, along with her attorney, Kim Cole.

And just to be clear, Crystal you say you were not aware that you were not permitted to vote. You ended up casting a provisional ballot because you were not on the rolls, and you didn't understand why you cast a provisional ballot. Ultimate, the ballot was not counted.

But I thought of you as we looked at this sentence because you are facing five years in prison. And I just wonder how you feel about the disparity in sentences as you are looking at what some of the Capitol rioters are getting.

CRYSTAL MASON, SENTENCED TO FIVE YEARS IN PRISON FOR ILLEGAL VOTING: Honestly, it makes me sad, sad that our justice system is so unfair. I'm right now facing five years for an innocent mistake. I thought I was exercising my civic duties by voting. I thought I had that right. And yet I am facing five years for an innocent, nonviolent offense.

KEILAR: Why do you think there is a disparity, Crystal?

MASON: I think that -- I think it's a disparity in regards to race.

KEILAR: You think this is an issue of, in this case, someone who is white getting a more lenient sentence because they are white?

MASON: Correct, yes.

KEILAR: I know that you have felt targeted in this particular case with how the prosecuting attorney took it up. One of the questions I have for you on this day, as we're looking at this sentence for Capitol rioter, is that the insurrection was based on the big lie, the lie that Donald Trump won the election. That was the basis for why people went into the Capitol and attacked the Capitol. And it's actually prompted even stricter voting regulations in your state of Texas, even stricter than as you faced in your case. What do you think about that?

MASON: Again, I think that this justice system is very unfair. And, again, you can see exactly what they did to the Capitol, and that was a violent offense. And they went in intent to do exactly what they did, and here I am, an innocent mistake facing five years.

KEILAR: Kim, just to get an update from you, we understand that Crystal's case is now being looked at by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Where does that stand?

KIM COLE, CRYSTAL MASON'S ATTORNEY: So, actually, we just filed our reply to the state's response, and it is left up to the Court of Criminal Appeals at this point to decide whether or not this egregious five-year sentence stands. So they could make a decision today, tomorrow, months from now, it just depends on when they do their review and what their decision is.

KEILAR: Is that why Crystal isn't in prison right now?

COLE: Crystal is not in prison right now. She is out on an appellate bond. However, pending this decision by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, she very well may end up having to serve five years in prison.

KEILAR: This is really, Crystal, a last resort for you but it is unusual that this court would have taken up your case. Does that give you hope?

MASON: Right now, all I can do is just trust God, and that's what I (INAUDIBLE). I'm hoping that they will look at my case and look at it and see and make the right decision. That's it, just follow the law.

KEILAR: Crystal, we certainly appreciate you being with us this morning. Crystal Mason and her attorney, Kim Cole, thank you both.

MASON: Thank you.

COLE: Thank you.

KEILAR: Is it the government's job to protect its citizens? Not according to one Fox host. [07:25:00]

We're going to fact check that, next.

AVLON: And this video just in of the rocket that will soon carry Jeff Bezos and three others into the Earth's orbit. Our coverage live from Texas of the Blue Horizon launch, that's just ahead.

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KEILAR: A crucial vote is now planned for tomorrow to advance the bipartisan infrastructure proposal as Republican senators threaten to vote against to advancing the deal.

Joining us now to discuss this is Democratic Senator Gary Peters of Michigan. Sir, thank you for being with us this morning.

I do want to let our viewers know you were not actually in this meeting last night about infrastructure but many of your colleagues were, and I'm wondering what you're hearing this morning about where things stand.

SEN. GARY PETERS (D-MI): Well, I think there's still some disagreement on some of the terms.

[07:30:02]

That group is still working through that. But I think the important thing for us right now is that we need to proceed.