Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Florida Becomes Epicenter of COVID Surge; Debate: Should Biden Mandate Vaccines for Federal Workers?; Officers to Testify in First January 6th Committee Hearing. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired July 27, 2021 - 06:00   ET

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

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Brianna Keilar alongside John Berman here this morning. A good morning to viewers here in the United States and around the world. It is Tuesday, July 27.

[05:59:43]

And we're beginning with a chilling warning from the former head of the CDC as coronavirus cases surge.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. TOM FRIEDEN, FORMER CDC DIRECTOR: We're heading into a rough time. It's likely that if our trajectory is similar to that in the United Kingdom that we could see as many as 200,000 cases a day, four times our current rate within another four to six weeks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Now, the seven-day average of new cases keeps rising. It is now over 55,000. For context here, one month ago, it was under 12,000.

A growing number of cities and government agencies are taking action. There's New York's mayor announcing that all city workers will be required to get vaccinated or to be tested once a week. And California's governor is doing the same.

The V.A. is mandating that its frontline healthcare workers be vaccinated, becoming the first federal agency to do so.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The Department of Justice now said it is legal to mandate vaccines, even if they only have emergency use authorization. This could be a precursor to more federal agency joining suit.

Measures go into effect elsewhere. The cities of Provincetown in Massachusetts; Savannah in Georgia; and St. Louis are all announcing new requirements for indoor masking.

Florida now really the epicenter of the surge. Cases have more than tripled in the past few weeks, and every county in the state now has high levels of community transmission.

Now, CNN's Randi Kaye visited a Florida hospital in Jacksonville that's now really in crisis mode, Randi. And I understand people there are more or less begging at this point for the vaccine.

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR/CORRESPONDENT: They absolutely are, and you will hear from some of them in a moment, John.

But this hospital I visited is Baptist Medical Center in Jacksonville, where nearly 100 percent of their new COVID patients are unvaccinated. They are getting new patients every single day, and even if they are eligible for the shot, they didn't get it. That's why they're in the hospital now, fighting to survive.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TAMMY DANIEL, CHIEF NURSING OFFICER, BAPTIST HEALTH: The increase started happening so quickly, and it's multiplying so fast every single day. We can't open up beds fast enough to meet the demands.

KAYE (voice-over): We met chief nursing officer Tammy Daniel in Jacksonville's Baptist Medical Center on one of the hospital's COVID floors, where those battling COVID are kept in special rooms, reserved for patients with infectious diseases.

Baptist is now treating 389 COVID patients. That's an increase of about 11 percent from last week. Eighty-three of the patients are in the ICU and on ventilators, fighting to survive.

Baptist says more than 99 percent of the infected patients here are not vaccinated. And Dr. Michelle Aquino says those getting really sick are younger, too.

DR. MICHELLE AQUINO, BAPTIST MEDICAL CENTER: I admitted a perfectly healthy 19-year-old woman, a perfectly healthy 25-year-old. So you're seeing these healthy people that are walking around saying, I don't need a vaccine. I'm fine. If I get COVID, I'll be fine," and that's not true. With the Delta variant, we're really seeing that is not true.

KAYE: About 44 percent of the COVID patients here are under the age of 50, according to the hospital.

MICHAEL MAYO, PRESIDENT AND CEO, BAPTIST HEALTH: Our average age right now is at the 50-year-old mark, and we are seeing patients infected with serious respiratory problems as young as in their 30s.

KAYE: And once patients are seriously ill, it's too late to get the vaccine until they recover, but that hasn't stopped many from begging for it.

DANIEL: We're getting ready to intubate the patient in ICU, which means putting them on a ventilator. And they said, If I get the vaccine -- vaccine now, could I not get on the ventilator. So I mean, they're begging for it. They're desperate, because they're gasping for air. They can't breathe. They are scared. They feel like they're going to pass away.

KAYE: In room 434, we find Francisca, who tells me that her whole family has COVID. None of them got the vaccine. FRANCISCA, COVID PATIENT: I feel bad.

KAYE (on camera): Bad?

FRANCISCA: Yes. I cannot breathe good. I have shortness of breath. I feel sorry about not getting a vaccine.

KAYE: You're sorry -- you're sorry you didn't get the vaccine. Do you -- do you think you would be here if you had gotten the vaccine?

FRANCISCA: No.

KAYE (voice-over): Down the hall, this patient is also unvaccinated.

(on camera): You were more concerned about the vaccine than the disease.

MARIBEL, COVID PATIENT: yes.

KAYE: And now you say you regret it.

MARIBEL: Exactly. That's correct. That's right.

KAYE: You wish you had gotten the vaccine?

MARIBEL: Yes, exactly.

KAYE: You probably wouldn't be here.

MARIBEL: Exactly.

KAYE (voice-over): Same story for Marico. He's 49, unvaccinated, and full of regret about not making the vaccine a priority when his doctor offered it.

(on camera): So you're going to get the vaccine now?

MARICO, COVID PATIENT: Yes, ma'am.

KAYE (voice-over): Frustration is high among staff here, since they know it doesn't have to be this way.

(on camera): Have you lost patients?

AQUINO: Yes. We've all lost patients here in the last few weeks. When you see somebody who's 39, otherwise healthy, didn't get vaccinated for whatever reason, usually not a great reason, to be honest, and then they come in here and they die from complications of COVID.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: At that hospital, John, patients are younger, they're sicker, and they're staying in the hospital longer on average, more than eight days.

But what they're really concerned about also at that hospital, John, are the children. Right now, they have 11 children who are COVID positive in that hospital, one of them seriously ill in the ICU, John.

[06:05:09]

BERMAN: Randi, what a tragic situation. And as they all know, a situation that did not, does not need to be happening right now. Thank you so much for that report.

KEILAR: So how far should the Biden administration go on requiring federal employees to get the COVID vaccine? Let's discuss this with Melody Butler, who's a registered nurse and founder of the group Nurses Who Vaccinate, and Professor Dorit Reiss with us, as well. She's a professor of law at UC Hastings College of Law, and she studies legal and policy issues related to vaccines.

Dorit, starting with you here first, you know the news here. The Justice Department says that federal law allows businesses and agencies to mandate the COVID vaccine, even if it only has emergency use authorization rather than full approval. I wonder if you agree.

Let's just start with not whether it's a good idea, but let's just start with that legal assessment. What do you think?

DORIT REISS, PROFESSOR OF LAW, UC HASTINGS COLLEGE OF LAW: I think that legal assessment is spot on. The question was the law of the U.S. has a provision that says you have to inform recipients that they can accept or refuse a vaccine, and it was a debate among legal scholars whether that means you can't mandate.

The OLC, the Office of Legal Counsel, rightly said this is directed that what you need to tell recipients, not whether you can mandate or not. And I think that's a very compelling statement.

KEILAR: So let's get to Melody, if this is a good idea. Do you think that mandating the vaccine for federal employees is the right move? And you are someone who believes it should be mandated for healthcare workers. What about federal employees?

MELODY BUTLER, REGISTERED NURSE AND FOUNDER, NURSES WHO VACCINATE: Thank you so much for having me here this morning.

So we signed on, Nurses Who Vaccinate, signed on with over 50 other national healthcare organizations just to support healthcare workers, because we believe that it's ethical, it's effective, and it's going to be saving lives.

When it comes to mandating for federal workers, it's all about a risk assessment. Right now, we strongly support the mandate for healthcare workers, because they are the most at risk. That's where the most at- risk clientele is, and we want to make sure we're protecting our staff, and our colleagues, and our patients.

KEILAR: And Dorit, what about once this is fully approved? Do you think the businesses will be on firmer ground and not just legally but also in how their decisions are perceived publicly, if they're requiring the vaccine for people? REISS: Yes, to both. We have a long history of requiring approved

vaccines. Healthcare facilities have been requiring influenza vaccine and other vaccines for many years. And although they have to give some exceptions, that has been upheld by the courts multiple times.

It's completely legal to require a vaccine in the workplace. The only question was is it also true for EUA vaccine.

KEILAR: Melody, you've heard from nurses who are not in favor of the COVID vaccine, right?

BUTLER: Correct. That is correct.

KEILAR: And I wonder --

BUTLER: So --

KEILAR: Sorry, go on.

BUTLER: No, so, I mean, and that's -- and I've been -- we've been through this before when we had previous outbreaks of the H1N1 outbreak. We've had new vaccines come onto the market and were made available. We had vaccine hesitancy within the nursing community, healthcare community.

And what we really need to do is focus on education, and when that doesn't work and we start having -- if you're losing staff, when you're -- when you're seeing such a critical surge such as we're seeing in Florida, we need to take more action.

So by -- by placing these mandates into effect, you know, they're going to be saving lives in the long run. And it's all about protecting our communities. Our healthcare workers, we have a moral obligation to model good healthcare behavior, and to make sure that our patients are safe, and making sure that we can really advocate for everyone to get it, even our colleagues. We need to make sure that we're doing our best with that.

KEILAR: Having heard from nurses who, you know, aren't sure if they want the COVID vaccine, do you think that full approval of the COVID vaccine by the FDA would change their minds, or at least some of the minds of people you've spoken with?

BUTLER: So it's going to play a part. What's going to change someone's mind is having that one-on-one discussion, is having that access to educational resources.

You know, there's so much exposure to the misinformation, whether it's happening online, whether it's happening from somebody you work with. Maybe it's the neighbor down the street who scares -- shares a scary story with you.

It's all about people having access to someone they trust and have a good rapport to when they have these vaccine questions and concerns.

And what we aim to do here in Nurses Who Vaccinate, you know, with other organizations like Voices for Vaccines and Shot at Life, we make sure we're accessible to answer these questions, whether they're coming from a nursing colleague or they're coming from our neighbor down the block. We want to make sure that people have access to evidence-based information to help make good decisions that, hopefully, down the road lead to them getting vaccinated.

[06:10:00]

It's all about trusting the process and making sure people understand the science behind the vaccines and understanding that these vaccines are safe, they are effective, and they will save lives but only and when they're being used.

KEILAR: Yes. It's so essential as we look at the vaccination numbers. Melody, Dorit, thank you so much to both of you for this conversation.

REISS: Thank you.

BUTLER: Thank you.

BERMAN: So new this morning, the man that Donald Trump refers to as "my Bush," now he could call him "my diss."

George P. Bush, who is running for attorney general in Texas, has spent weeks desperately, adamantly, passionately prostrating himself before the former president, kissing the ring, or the Latin equivalent, in an apparent effort to win Trump's endorsement.

This, of course, is particularly notable, since Trump has spent years attacking the Bush family and brutalizing George P.'s father, Jeb Bush.

But no humiliation was too much for George P. to forsake his family in the name of politics. Bush met with Trump recently in New York, tweeted out this picture. There was even a campaign koozie made.

Now, when there's a koozie, you know it's serious. In some cultures, I think that's a binding legal agreement.

Now a source tells CNN that during one meeting that Bush had with Trump, Trump assured him that he would stay out of the attorney general race, but this source also noted that was never going to happen. And you know what? It didn't.

Overnight, Trump announced that he is backing Ken Paxton in the race for attorney general in Texas. Humiliation complete.

Another source compared the situation to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This time I'm going to kick that football clear to the moon.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Isn't it peculiar, Charlie Brown, how some traditions just slowly fade away? (END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Charlie Brown should have known better.

BERMAN: Charlie Brown should know better. Everyone on earth, save Charlie Brown in this case, and Charlie Brown is a metaphor for --

KEILAR: Exactly.

BERMAN: George P.

KEILAR: George P. Bush.

BERMAN: Just so people know. Everyone on Earth knew what was going to happen, except for, apparently, George p. Bush. And I just -- I don't know what you do with the koozies now.

KEILAR: I mean, those are collector's items. I'll take one. You'll take one. That would be lovely.

BERMAN: I suppose there is one way in politics to look at this, to say, Well, maybe George P. knew he was never going to get the endorsement, was either, A, trying to get Trump to stay out of the race or, if Trump endorsed Paxton, his opponent, at least beg Trump not to attack him personally. I mean, I don't know.

KEILAR: I have no idea. I think he's just really in trouble, with Trump having endorsed Paxton. But it -- we've said this before. Blood is thicker than water, but it's not thicker than Kool-Aid.

And that is the fealty that Donald Trump demands. And yet, he never repays.

And I think this one is particularly embarrassing for all of the terrible things that Donald Trump said about the Bush family, that I don't know how George P. Bush ever thought that he could somehow be disconnected from that, being Jeb Bush's son. I just -- I just don't see that.

He wanted to make a big deal in this race about Paxton's character. Right? He'd been indicted. He'd been accused by top aides, former top aides of bribery. And yet the character that I think really got drawn, you know, brought into question here was actually George P. Bush's.

BERMAN: Maybe George P. needs to get a new koozie that says "My Bush," which is what, again, Donald Trump calls him.

KEILAR: That's a great koozie.

BERMAN: It is.

KEILAR: I love it. I love it.

So next, it is a big day for answers on the attack on the U.S. Capitol. New details about who and what lawmakers will see in the first hearing for the January 6th Committee. BERMAN: Plus, former Senator Barbara Boxer attacked and mugged on the

street. New information on her condition.

And President's Biden -- President Biden's infrastructure deal hits a roadblock. A Democratic pollster warns that Democrats shouldn't get too greedy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:18:31]

BERMAN: In just a few hours, the House Select Committee will launch its investigation into the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Today is the first public hearing, and we will hear from four officers, law enforcement officials, who will give a firsthand account of what it was like to defend the Capitol that day.

CNN's Lauren Fox joins us here live now with a preview. Lauren, what are we going to see?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, this is expected to be an emotional day, John, as we see new video footage. And you can expect the Democrats are going to push back on Republican arguments that this was a loving crowd, that this was just a couple of tourists who were out for a walk.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FOX (voice-over): In just hours, the House committee investigating the January 6th insurrection will hold its first hearing.

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): Our democracy is on thin ice, and one of the things that I hope that we will shed light on is how our country got to this point as well as how we got to January 6th.

FOX: Tensions are rising within the GOP, with Congresswoman Liz Cheney and Congresswoman Adam Kinzinger facing the brunt of the anger for accepting a seat on the committee, with some rank-and-file Republicans wanting to see the minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, punish the two for serving on the committee.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, some Republicans have been saying that the G -- the GOP should play a part in this committee.

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): Really? Who is "they"? Who is that, Adam and Liz? Aren't they kind of Pelosi Republicans?

FOX: The two remain unmoved, standing behind their decision to participate.

REP. LIZ CHENEY (R-WY): We have very serious business here. We have important work to do. And I think that's pretty childish.

[06:20:06] REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R-IL): To call, you know, members of Congress by childish names, like Donald Trump used to do, I guess, is just kind of par for the course.

If the conference decides or if Kevin decides they want to punish, you know, Liz Cheney and I for getting to the bottom and telling the truth, I think that probably says more about them than it does for us.

FOX: Monday night, McCarthy brought a vote to the House floor, attempting to block Pelosi from withholding his original Republican picks from the committee. The motion failed, with both Cheney and Kinzinger voting against McCarthy.

REP. KELLY ARMSTRONG (R-ND): The problem isn't that there's Republicans serving on the committee. The problem is who picked the Republicans and the Republicans that are picked. There's a special level of disdain across the country for those two, as even compared to some of the Democrats on the committee.

REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): The country realizes that they've got a lot to hide and that they don't want us to get the truth. But we're going to get to the truth, and we have a very strong bipartisan committee right now.

FOX: The committee is expected to present never-before-seen video footage of the attack today, and will feature the testimony from four law enforcement officers.

Officer Michael Fanone, who was tased with his own taser and suffered a heart attack that day, will testify.

Another officer, Harry Dunn, will also appear. He's publicly spoken about the racial slurs he and other black officers heard from rioters.

OFFICER HARRY DUNN, U.S. CAPITOL POLICE: Here we are giving so much, and putting our lives on the line to protect democracy and keep it, and we're being called racial slurs, traitors.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOX: And Democrats are supposed to have just about three hours to complete this committee hearing. The goal, of course, is to have high impact in what they're talking about today.

After this hearing, we expect that they are going to spend a couple of weeks really trying to identify where they want to go next in this investigation -- John.

KEILAR: All right. Lauren, stay with us, because we're also going to bring in Phil Mudd, who is of course, our CNN counterterrorism analyst, to talk about this.

What are you expecting today? I mean, how do you see this day fitting into this larger investigation?

PHIL MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: You've got to look at this as two pieces: what happened and what do you do about it?

Typically, in a committee like this, you want to focus on how do we improve how the U.S. government operates? But in the current environment, you've got -- as Lauren said, you've got to do the emotional set-up.

You have to have the people on camera to once again explain this was not a bunch of polite protesters. This was a violent riot at the Capitol.

The set-up is today, and eventually, you're going to move on to the tick-tock, the time line of exactly how people were deployed that day, and whether there are things we can do to improve it. Past and future. Today is the past.

BERMAN: Lauren, I've got to say, I'm fascinated to see how Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger will be used. And I don't mean to suggest that they're being manipulated by the Democrats here, but what role exactly they're going to play during these hearings.

FOX: Well, look, I was fascinated yesterday, because there was a prep session on Capitol Hill, and this is the first time I can remember Republicans and Democrats prepping together for one committee.

BERMAN: Never -- never heard of anything like this.

HILL: Exactly. And so we expect that Cheney is going to have an opening statement this morning. And you can expect her to lean very heavily on the fact that it doesn't matter if you have an "R" or a "D" behind your name. What happened on January 6th, getting to the bottom of what caused what happened on January 6th, that is the work that everyone in the U.S. Congress should be doing.

You are seeing right now that Republicans are going after Kinzinger. They're going after Cheney. They do not care. They do not care if this is the end of their political career. They think this is the right thing to do. Expect them to lean heavily on that today in the hearing.

KEILAR: Do you think there will be any daylight between Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger and the Democrats? I mean, if we sort of closed our eyes and just listened to what they were saying, would we be able to tell who's a Democrat and who's a Republican?

FOX: I -- I think today is really about hearing from officers who were on the front line.

And I don't think it matters if you're a Republican or a Democrat. If you start to talk about what led up to this event, there may be differences in how Republicans and Democrats talk about, potentially, the time line there, whether or not this was just Republican political violence.

You've heard Republicans in the past argue that there were events from that summer that maybe contributed to this in some way. Maybe you'll see a difference there.

But when it comes to respecting the officers and the people who put their lives on the line, I don't expect much daylight at all.

BERMAN: Phil, what question do you want answered? If not today, over the next several days and weeks here.

MUDD: Let me give you a simple explanation for what's going to be a bunch of spaghetti over the next few weeks, and that is air gap. There was a time line identified, including by the head of the National Guard in D.C., about the air gap between when he requested people and when people actually showed up to provide support for the Capitol Police.

Was that air gap caused by political interference? And was that appropriate? Very simple question.

Let's move on from the past and ask, is there something we can do to prevent air gaps like that in the future?

[06:25:03]

KEILAR: I also wonder what you think. We've seen some Republicans like Marjorie Taylor Greene, like Paul Gosar, who are coming out sort of as a prebuttal to what we will see today and in the coming days, and they're coming out on the side of rioters. They're calling them prisoners. What do you think of that?

MUDD: The most fundamental thing we have in this country and one of the problems with this country is people don't have passports. One of the most fundamental things we have is respect for the rule of law.

You can walk outside and ensure that you can go to school, the grocery store, your church without having the law applied differently to different people.

The law says that hundreds of people did wrong. They breached the Capitol. They should be charged. Respect for the rule of law is primal in this country. And I find that profoundly disturbing that people say political interference should define the law, not lawyers and judges and juries.

BERMAN: It's situational, I think, for some of these politicians, more than anything, the rule of law.

MUDD: It is. And if you look at the facts of the case and if someone takes federal property by -- by taking a chair and crushing a window, I mean, how many facts do you want? It's not he said, she said. It's on a video. Sorry, you're going to the jail. That's what we do in this country. Politicians don't decide who gets charged.

FOX: And I do think that there's going to be some Republican counter- programming today. I would be very interested to know if Kevin McCarthy was aware or, in any way, contributed to what they're going to do today, because they are trying to have their own Republican leadership press conference with those five members he wanted to seat and then decided not to seat, because Pelosi rejected two of them. He has his own counter-programming plans.

I don't think Marjorie Taylor Greene's plans today are in any way what Kevin McCarthy was hoping to be talking about.

KEILAR: And yet, who will get more attention? Right?

Lauren, Phil, thank you so much to both of you.

Ahead, a conservative radio host regrets not taking the vaccine as he fights for his life in a battle with COVID. His brother will join us live.

BERMAN: Plus, a big celebration in Alaska overnight. A major upset in women's swimming. This is an Alaskan first. You're going to want to see this. Highlights from the Olympics coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)