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New Day

Op-Ed: Vaccinated America Has Had Enough; McConnell Blames Biden For Vaccine Plateau In U.S.; Simone Biles Out Of Team Competition At Olympics; Do-Or-Die Moment For Biden's Fragile Infrastructure Deal; Dem. Pollster: Liberals Getting Too Greedy With Spending Demands; Bezos Offers NASA $2 Billion To Get Back Into Moon Race; Britney Spears' Mom Support Removing Father As Conservator. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired July 27, 2021 - 07:30   ET

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


[07:30:00]

DAVID FRUM, STAFF WRITER, THE ATLANTIC: Well, we are going to move from a world of incentives to a world of disincentives. We're going to say if you're not vaccinated, you're going to be standing in longer lines. You may not be able to fly, you may not be able to take interstate bus or trains. You may not -- that private businesses should have the legitimate right to refuse you service if you're in an indoor space, like a bar could say, no shirt, no shoes, no Vax, no service.

And I think that the mood of patients' needs to change a little bit because this is no longer just people hurting themselves, it's people incubating deadlier forms of the virus, more infectious forms of the virus and exposing others to harm especially children and especially those children's teachers.

KEILAR: Does the White House need to do more? Does President Biden need to do more in modeling those disincentives?

FRUM: I think President Biden has an interesting leadership model where he waits to act until other people demand that he act. So no one can ever say that he's been precipitated. Instead, he said, well, if you all insist, I think we're going to see -- we're already seeing this happening at private businesses. We can all see this, 500 bars in San Francisco have agreed we won't serve anyone unless they've been vaccinated.

It's coming from the States. Kept the state of California. I think other states will follow in saying frontline health care workers is not optional, National Guard people, it's not optional, teachers in schools, it's not optional. And for everyone -- and everywhere else we use our regulatory authority to say you don't have to do it, but you also don't have to take the boss.

KEILAR: I want you to listen to something that the Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said yesterday. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MINORITY LEADER: And after the Biden ministration was very eager to claim ownership and spike the football on the vaccination trajectory, which they largely inherited from Republican leadership, we've now seen vaccination rates in many places plateau on what his White House has been insisting is their watch. This turn toward pessimism is especially stunning, and especially sad because President Biden took office with when I had his back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: I wonder what you think of that. Mitch McConnell, personally, is pro vaccine --

FRUM: Yes.

KEILAR: -- right? But we're seeing a lot of Republicans who have emboldened this anti-COVID vaccine rhetoric.

FRUM: Mitch McConnell is a polio survivor. He knows what -- how vaccines changed the world for the better. Republican politicians have been playing a double game. And again last week, you can begin to see that change.

And I think what we can see is they were getting gates of hell pulling numbers on their cutesy pootsy (ph), well, we're not anti-Vax, but we're certainly not -- we're for certainly for protecting the anti- Vax. And people are realizing they are branding themselves as the party of permission to non-Vax.

Branding themselves of the party like Governor DeSantis in Florida that says, if you want to cruise ship to stop here, you have to let unvaccinated people on a cruise ship, one of the deadliest venues for COVID. So, I think now he's trying to change. Mitch McConnell is trying to change that and to make it seem like it's somehow President Biden's fault that he and his colleagues have been doing so much to sabotage the Biden effort. I don't know it works. I think Biden is strongly branded as pro-Vax.

And Republican politicians, not Mitch McConnell personally have given a lot of room to anti-Vax lunacy.

KEILAR: Yes, I think there's too much tape for him to turn that ship around, if you'll pardon the pun at this point in time.

David, great to see you. Thank you so much.

FRUM: Thank you. Bye-bye.

KEILAR: President Biden's bipartisan infrastructure bill is on the verge of collapse. So, can anything be done to save this deal?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And billionaire Jeff Bezos back from his trip to space and now shooting for the moon.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:38:03]

BERMAN: Major breaking news out of the Olympic. We just learned that Simone Biles has pulled out of the team competition. Let's go live to Christine Brennan in Tokyo.

Christine, a number of questions here. Number one, what happened with Simone Biles? Number two, what does this mean for the U.S. team competing in the competition? Number three, what does this mean for Simone Biles going forward in the individual competitions?

CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST (via telephone): John, this is shocking news. This is exactly what the United States with Simone Biles, what every gymnastic fan around the world, everyone who's been watching the Olympics and waiting for Simone Biles to compete, this is exactly what they did not want to have happen.

Worst nightmare coming to pass here, Simone on the first event of the first rotation of the team competition tonight, about a half hour ago, she bailed out of her M&R vault and several people said -- I'm not at the venue right now but several people said it looks like she kind of got lost in the air. She nearly landed on her knees. Looks like she was about to cry as she came off the podium.

Lots of hugs, lots of concern. She talked to the trainer. She left the field of play that, again, is Simone Biles leaving the field of play. Getting looked at, came back.

And within a few minutes, and again, this is probably about 10, 15 minutes ago now, John, within a few minutes of her return word came and it was then reported and now USA Gymnastics is confirming it to USA Today, my colleagues, that Simone Biles is out for the rest of the night. Obviously early morning in the United States, out for the rest of the night. She is out of the team competition. United States will not have the greatest gymnast of all time to be part of this very important team competition.

BERMAN: Now, any word on the nature of the injury itself? Or Christine, again, does this mean the U.S. gets to put an alternate in?

[07:40:03]

BRENNAN (via telephone): That is correct. And Jordan Chiles is that alternate. And she came up -- she had -- she -- the next event, John was the uneven bar to the Americans. And she -- I'm not -- I did not see it, but she had a stronger team. She came in, and she really was you know, excellent in this incredibly quick last minute replacement role of having to replace, of course, as we know, the greatest of all time, Simone Biles.

So, the Americans are moving on. Also, I'm seeing that the Associated Press is reporting that there's an apparent injury. We don't yet know what it is reports are -- that nothing is yet being announced in the arena. So, the competition goes down. Simone Biles is not in the competition, replaced by Jordan Chiles. That's normal. There's always an alternate ready to go in this -- in the case of injury.

But of course, this isn't just any old injury. As you know, John, this is Simone Biles.

And as you asked, what does this mean for the rest of the competition? That is a great question. Certainly, it brings into question whether or not Simone Biles can continue in the Olympic Games. I cannot believe I just said that sentence. By far the biggest name is worldwide, not just the United States, but the biggest name in these games.

And now, obviously incredible questions moving forward if she can compete in the all-around competition, and also the individual events competition. The apparatus (ph) is later in the Olympics. But huge news, stunning news and incredibly sad news for the millions of Simone Biles fans and of course for Simone herself, as she's trying to repeat to help U.S. team repeat as the team gold medalist. And then of course, her opportunity to win gold medals, individually herself.

BERMAN: The greatest U.S. gymnast of all time. One of the greatest U.S. Olympic athletes of all time, uncertainty about her future at these games major news.

Christine Brennan, thank you so much for helping us understand. Please keep us posted. Obviously, more details coming in about the exact nature of this injury. Thank you.

This morning, uncertainty looms over the fate of the bipartisan infrastructure deal with Republicans and Democrats remaining far apart in a range of outstanding issues after the latest round of talks.

Joining us now is CNN White House Correspondent John Harwood.

John, I know you're sitting here with all of us.

Standing by the Simone Biles news, to be honest, I mean, this is a big deal. But let's talk about infrastructure, a big deal here in Washington. Where exactly are the talks right now? And what exactly are the holdups

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: They're on the five yard line where they've been for some time. Members spend more than a month since Joe Biden walked out with those Republicans at the White House and said, we've got to deal.

But you have to go from having a deal in concept to putting the numbers on a piece of paper and putting the policy on a piece of paper and coming up with what is the ratio of transit funding to highway funding? What are the ways to pay for the deal? Can you use surplus COVID relief money?

At the end of the day, though, I think it is going to be about do those 11 Republicans who made the deal, potential bipartisan deal, do they have the stomach at a time when their party is looking for the 2022 elections, wants Joe Biden to fail? Do they have the stomach to cut that deal with him? Joe Biden wants this very badly. If he gets it, that will help him get the second part of his agenda, that huge three and a half trillion dollar reconciliation bill that only Democrats are going to pass, help for struggling families. They've got to decide if they're willing to do that. And we don't know the answer to that yet.

KEILAR: There's a lot of tension over the fact that you have these two bills, the big one that doesn't have Republican support, and then this bipartisan potential path forward. But yesterday, Joe Manchin, who is key in this, the West Virginia Democrat said that if the bipartisan infrastructure bill falls apart, then everything could fall apart. Meaning, he's not just going to go along necessarily with this bigger all Democrat bill. What do you think?

HARWOOD: That's certainly possible. I don't think that's the likeliest outcome. I think if in the end, the bipartisan deal falls apart, it will be because Republicans don't want to cut that deal. Then it's going to fall to Joe Manchin, to Kyrsten Sinema, the Senator from Arizona, who've been saying, let's give bipartisanship a chance to work, as Joe Biden has wanted it to work. And only then will we consider doing something more ambitious with Democratic votes alone.

If it falls apart, there's going to be tremendous pressure on them to play as part of the team and not bring down the agenda of this new Democratic president. Are they willing to do that? I think the White House doubts it, but they can't know for sure.

BERMAN: John Harwood, thank you very much for being with us this morning.

[07:45:00]

KEILAR: All right. Let's bring in CNN Contributor Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, as well as former adviser to the Pete Buttigieg campaign and former Obama pollster, Joel Benenson.

OK, Joel, you actually have a warning for Democrats about being greedy, too greedy in their demands. Explain this position.

JOEL BENENSON, FORMER ADVISER, PETE BUTTIGIEG CAMPAIGN: Well, what I said is that you want to push your agenda as far as you can without losing supportive voters in the middle. And what I mean by that is, you know, we don't have a majority of people on the left or on the right. So, to be successful, you've got to persuade centrist voters, a lot of them in swing states.

President Biden did a very good job of this in his campaign in 2020. And I think this infrastructure bill actually does resonate with those folks. You know, in 2020, President Biden won with Independent and moderate voters outperformed what Hillary Clinton had done in the previous presidential election by 12 points. That's how we got elected in a very tight election.

And so, Democrats here have an opportunity to do is to be ambitious, not move too far away, so that they lose some of those voters who will support this plan, which has a ton of stuff in it that people want, from clean water to clean energy to child care. I mean, they're just amazed -- there is so many things here that can sell in America, that connect with people's lives. We did a poll on infrastructure for a group called Build Together and we had 53 percent of Republicans said they support rolling back tax cuts on the wealthy to pay for these moves forward on our infrastructure.

So, Democrats can get to a winning place here. Just don't overshoot the runway. That was my one cautionary note.

BERMAN: Dr. El-Sayed?

DR. ABDUL EL-SAYED, CNN CONTRIBUTOR, EPIDEMIOLOGIST: Yes, with all due respect to my friend, Joel, it's clear he spent a lot of time in D.C., I'm thinking about where I live here in Michigan. And the fact is, is that you go to Wayne County, and you think about black voters who delivered Michigan for Joe Biden, it has rained three times, historical levels of rain for July, and every single time it is flooded.

And what they're saying is don't just fix infrastructure, do something about the fact that we are barreling toward indelible climate change right now. And we've got to fix these problems.

And so, you know, Joel didn't really mention what is too much. But what I think he's talking about is the idea that we also have to take on climate change. And this $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill actually does what it takes not just to fix the infrastructure, but also to do what we need to do to be thinking about our role on climate change, and so many other issues.

And I think we've got to really go to the folks that we're talking about here, people who live in communities like Detroit, and ask, what do you need? And they've been waiting for a long time. And I think they deserve this administration to deliver for them.

KEILAR: Joel?

BENENSON: Yes, look, I've been very clear on climate change. I think this is a winning issue in the work we've done on this issue, we see it across the board. And in fact, in the polling we did on infrastructure, one interesting fact, people should know in America, the three states leading in the production of wind energy today are Texas, Oklahoma and Iowa, three of the six states leading.

Now, something about those states, they're not blue states. If people in oil and gas states like Texas, and Oklahoma are leading in the production of wind energy, that's where the future is. No one is saying we shouldn't have clean energy. I'm not saying that at all.

I'm saying is, continue to communicate with people about how these programs connect with their daily lives with their future. The idea of clean water, which Republicans complaining about clean water and broadband, I can tell you that the way this resonates with people is because we've got kids sitting on school buses in rural America doing homework because they don't have broadband at home. The American people know that there are billions of tons of sewage being dumped into their waterways, and they want clean water coming out of their taps for children. These are winning arguments. I'm not saying they're not and I'm not saying that we shouldn't be ambitious. We should be, it's an ambitious plan.

But I think we also have to be mindful of how do we keep enough voters who are going to be very important, not just in the 2022 midterms, but also in the 2024 reelection. Because it's really important for the future of this country, in my mind, that Democrats keep their control on the levers of government.

BERMAN: Dr. El-Sayed, what about alienating the centrist voters Joel was talking about? And also maybe along the way that the centrist politicians whose votes you're going to need to pass it?

EL-SAYED: Well, it's quite clear that that Joel has the talking points on what we need to do down and I would argue that rather than telling us that we really shouldn't go that far, that we really should hold our horses less. Some mythical middle voter is going to return to the trumpets Republican Party power.

I think what we should be doing is hitting the stump, talking about exactly how it is that both the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package, not to the challenges that people have been facing for a long time. People elect politicians, not to tell them what they can't do, they elect politicians to get those things done and to map them to the challenges that they face in our lives.

[07:50:10]

I think everything that's been included in both packages is fundamentally necessary. It was necessary 20 years ago, and it's even more necessary now. I think we have a responsibility to get out there and show folks how Democrats are solving problems so that we can continue to stay in power.

I don't believe in a vision of politics that reads a bunch of polls and tea leaves and tells us what we can and can't do. I believe in a vision of politics where you sit with folks, ask them what needs to be done, and then do everything you can, do your damnedest to get it done. And I think that is what this administration is trying to do. And I'd hate to put some mythical middle voter that we haven't really actually sat down and talk to in the way.

BENENSON: This isn't about reading tea leaves and polls. I yes, I am a pollster. But I was also the pollster for President Obama when he push through Obamacare, which was a very mixed bill at the time, it's far more popular today than it was when it passed. Republicans are learning that the hard way. And my point is, keep pushing things that have an impact on people's lives, and you will be successful.

Don't overshoot the runway. We've got things in these packages, like free college, free community college, which is essential for working class people, they know that gives them a step up on a ladder to success. These are not poll tested ideas. These are ideas that make sense because they improve the lives of people in America.

Universal pre-K for children. We know that a year of pre-K has a dramatic impact on the education of the children.

And I liked your jive at the beginning, but frankly, I never lived in Washington, D.C. So, my strength has always been that I come from outside. I come from a working class community in Queens, Borough in New York City. And I think I'm pretty in touch with where working class Americans are. And I think it's important that Democrats maintain their connection with working and middle class Americans.

BERMAN: Well --

KEILAR: Perhaps something they can agree on.

BERMAN: I was going to say the beltway, much worse off for the absence of both of you, gentlemen.

KEILAR: Did anything is better than Washington, gentlemen, you're in agreement. Thank you so much. It's such a wonderful opportunity to have you together debating this, really. Discussing this. It's an internal conversation within your party that is just so important.

Joel, Dr. Al-Sayed, thank you.

BENENSON: Thank you.

KEILAR: Up next, the billionaire battle to get now to the moon. And Jeff Bezos beat out Elon Musk.

BERMAN: A new revelations in the Britney Spears case. What her mother told the court about the pop star's father.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Jeff Bezos making an aggressive play to get back in the space race to the moon. He is now offering NASA $2 billion in order to be reconsidered for a key contract to build a moon landing vehicle. Bezos lost the bid to SpaceX founder and rival billionaire Elon Musk back in April.

[07:55:09]

CNN's Kristin Fisher joins us now with the details on this. What's going on?

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE AND DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, so we're talking about $2 billion here, right? I mean, it's a tremendous amount of money, especially for an agency like NASA that always could use more funding to do the things that they want to do. What we're talking about is the lunar lander, which will ultimately land American astronauts on the moon, hopefully by 2024, as part of NASA's new premier human spaceflight program, the Artemis program.

But the problem is, they were not allocated enough money to grant two contracts. And so, when this competition opened up, NASA surprised everybody in April by saying, hey, we're just going to give one contract and it's going to be to the lowest bidder, SpaceX, who came in at $2.9 billion. Well, Blue Origin and the national team and the other losing company, Dynetics, they filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office, and we're still waiting for an answer on that.

Then, Jeff Bezos also tried to pass an amendment, getting an amendment passed forcing NASA to select two companies for this lander. And when it appeared that that did not work, that's when Jeff Bezos wrote this open letter to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. He wrote it yesterday saying that he would put forward $2 billion of his own money to essentially get back into this competition.

And then, he also said this in case that was not enough. In the letter, he said, "If NASA has different ideas about what would best facilitate getting back to true competition now, we are willing and ready to discuss them." So, he's putting everything on the table to get back in the game and be a part of this Artemis program.

BERMAN: One of the (INAUDIBLE) has been basically saying, give me a price.

FISHER: Right.

BERMAN: Tell me how much it will cost. Listen, you said 2024.

FISHER: I know.

BERMAN: That seems awfully close at this point.

FISHER: Just three years away.

BERMAN: Is that realistic? Is that a real data at this point to get Americans back on the moon?

FISHER: So, the official word from both NASA and the Biden administration is yes, that is the goal. They believe they can do it.

But if you talk to folks within the industry, they say that it is increasingly unlikely that that will happen. Because I mean, anytime you have a GIO protest, that slows things down. But the big picture here, yes, this was a program that was started by the Trump administration, but it now has the full support of the Biden ministration. And it is very difficult, as you know, for programs to make the jump successfully from one administration to the next. So at least Artemis has done that but we'll see if that 2024 date stick.

BERMAN: Might take the over if I'm back in Vegas on that.

Kristin Fisher, great to see you in studio.

FISHER: Thanks for having me.

BERMAN: Nice to meet you.

FISHER: Great to be here. KEILAR: Yes, everybody loves space, right? That is what we've learned. It's bipartisan.

All right, so new twist this morning in the free Brittany case. The pop stars attorneys have asked to replace her father as the conservator of her estate. They call the current arrangement a "Kafkaesque nightmare" that has grown increasingly toxic and is simply no longer tenable.

So, let's bring in CNN Entertainment Reporter Chloe Melas on this.

A "Kafkaesque nightmare," Chloe?

CHLOE MELAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: Yes, I mean, look, some bombshell claims are being made and Matthew Rosengart's petition that he filed yesterday. Remember, Britney Spears just hired him a few weeks ago when Judge Brenda Penny said that OK, you can go out and you can hire your own attorney because hers was court appointed. He says, we want to remove Jamie Spears as the conservator of the state Tirana (ph), but hire Jason Rubin, who is a CPA.

I have questions as to why not just file to terminate the conservatorship altogether when we heard Britney Spears not once but twice this summer at two separate hearings, say that she wants this conservatorship to be over. So maybe these are baby steps in that direction, Brianna. But this filing says that the relationship is completely toxic with her father. And that yes, it's a "Kafkaesque nightmare."

KEILAR: Her mom is weighing in. Tell us about that.

MELAS: Her mother in her own filing that we have obtained list of -- a bunch of reasons, Brianna, as to why she wants her ex-husband out of the picture. She says that not only is it toxic, she claims that there was a physical altercation between Jamie Spears and one of Britney Spears's children, which she said was, quote, "appalling" and inexcusable. Britney talked about this alleged altercation during the July 14 hearing, saying that her father broke down a door and shook one of her children.

Jamie Spears has not commented. I've reached out multiple times in the last few hours to get comment. He's not saying anything right now. She also claims that Britney Spears was forced into a health treatment facility against her will in 2019.

If you Google that at the time, Britney said, I want to seek treatment for myself. It turns out she was forced according to Lynne and allegedly threatened with abuse. And lastly, supposedly Lynne Spears claims that Britney Spears was treated by a sports enhancement doctor and given the wrong type of medication and that this was a doctor hired by Brittany's dad, Jamie Spears.

So, could this be the same doctor that allegedly put Brittany on lithium that she talked about this summer? A lot of questions. A lot of stones being thrown.

The next court hearing is September 29. And you better believe it's probably going to be explosive.

KEILAR: Yes. Oh my goodness these are bombshell allegations.

Chloe Melas, thank you so much for joining us.

New Day continues right now.