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Simone Biles Drops Out of Olympic All-Around Competition; CDC: Even Fully Vaccinated People Should Now Mask Indoors; Restaurant Attacked Over 'No Vax, No Service' Policy. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired July 28, 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. Good morning to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. It is Wednesday, July 28th.

[05:59:54]

The breaking news this morning, Simone Biles, perhaps the greatest gymnast of all time and maybe the best athlete on Earth right now, announced moments ago that she will not compete in tomorrow's all- around gymnastics competition for Team USA at the Olympics.

USA Gymnastics says she's withdrawing to focus on her mental health, and she has their support.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: This is a move that comes one day after Biles pulled out of the team competition following a stumble during a vault.

Coy Wire is joining us now, live from Tokyo. Coy, tell us what does this mean for tomorrow's competition?

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brianna, it means that Jade Carey will take Biles' spot in the individual all-around tomorrow, but it also means that one of the most highly anticipated events of the Summer Games will now go on without the athlete that everyone wants to see.

The individual all-around is the event where Simone Biles could have become the first woman in 53 years to repeat as the Olympic champ. It also means that Biles, who's already the most decorated American gymnast ever, will miss out on at least one more potential medal that she could have won here in Tokyo.

Brianna, John, she does still have more opportunities to medal if she decides to go, having qualified for all four of the individual events already.

BERMAN: Coy, I just want to ask you for a moment about mental health here, because what we're seeing is the greatest athlete on earth, more or less, tell us that mental health -- her mental health, her wellbeing is more important to her right now than competing.

You were a professional athlete, which we forget sometimes, because you're such a wonderful journalist. Just -- just talk to us about the pressure that you feel competing at those highest levels and what the risks would be trying to do it if you were not feeling well.

WIRE: Yes. I'll just lean on my experience as a former professional football player in the NFL, John, it is a pressure-cooker situation being a professional athlete. You feel like every moment that you step out there on the competition plain, it could be your last moment, whether it's because of injury or whether it's because you just don't perform, and then your time has gone.

So it's -- it's tough to put into words what Simone Biles is going through, what Naomi Osaka was going through when we look about two months ago, when she withdrew from the French Open, because they're at an entirely different level. I'm just a mere mortal who played in the NFL. These are two of the greatest female athletes of all time.

And we have to remember that Simone Biles is just 24 years old, dealing with all this stuff. She's still young to most of us, but she's talked about how, aside from the physical, she's starting to feel more physical pain than she used to.

She's posted on social media about her nickname within the team, OG, which stands for "Olympic grandma." So this could be the last time we see Biles competing in the Olympics.

And maybe, John, Brianna, we already have seen her last. We don't know what she's feeling mentally. We're getting a good -- good glimpse of what it is. The world is waiting to see if she will be OK, if she can still compete here again in Tokyo.

John, Brianna, I asked a Team USA official last week about what resources they have in place for the mental health of their Olympic athletes. They referred me to a mental health resource handbook. They told me that, due to a need that they saw before these games even, they brought to Tokyo for the first time ever at an Olympics two mental health officers. That's on top of the psychiatrists and the doctors and the psychologists that they already have on staff. They're dedicated to helping athletes who suffer tough losses, injury, and situations like the one we're seeing with arguably the greatest gymnast of all time -- I'll just say it, the greatest gymnast of all time, Simone Biles.

BERMAN: All right, Coy, thank you very much for that perspective.

KEILAR: You know, this is really extraordinary what has happened at the Olympics. Simone Biles pulling out of the individual all-around competition, citing her mental health. And she talked to the cameras yesterday after dropping out of the team competition.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SIMONE BILES, OLYMPIC ATHLETE: I was just like shaking, could barely nap. I've just never felt like this going into a competition before.

Once I came out here, I was like, no. Mental is not there. So I just need to let the girls do it and focus on myself.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KEILAR: Now, that happened after Biles stumbled on her vault landing. She posted a score that, quite frankly, she just doesn't post, ever. A score that actually dropped Team USA in the silver zone, and Biles decided that her team had a better shot trying for gold without her. They held onto silver but Russia took gold.

And in America, as many rallied behind Biles, there was also a loud chorus of critics taking aim.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's probably the greatest gymnast of all time. She's also very selfish. She's immature, and she is a shame to the country. She's totally a sociopath. Of course she's a sociopath.

DOUG GOTTLIEB, SPORTS ANALYST: If we're OK with Simone Biles saying, hey, couldn't go tonight, mental health, we can be OK if LeBron says the same thing? She's the greatest gymnast going. He's the greatest basketball player going. Why do we have sympathy for Simone Biles, but we wouldn't have sympathy or empathy for LeBron James? It's called a double standard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[06:05:03]

KEILAR: On Twitter, Piers Morgan, whose only athletic claim to fame is that he ran off the set of his former TV show simply because another host questioned his criticism of Meghan Markle, complained, quote, "Are 'mental health issues' now the go-to excuse for any poor performance in elite sport? What a joke. Just admit you did badly, made mistakes, and will strive to do better next time. Kids need strong role models, not this nonsense."

Yes, maybe a role model like a 24-year-old who slays competition after competition and mentors the younger members of her team, who between the last Olympics and this one, came out as one of the more than 150 athletes who have said publicly that they were sexually assaulted by former team doctor, Larry Nassar, right under the nose of USA Gymnastics.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILES: I remember asking one of my friends, Hey, if I've been touched here, have I been sexually assaulted? And I thought I was being dramatic at first. And she's like, No, absolutely.

And I remember telling my mom and my agent that I slept all the time, and it's because sleeping was basically better than, like, offing myself. It was, like, my way to escape reality.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Sleeping was better than offing herself, she said. So she slept.

And then she trained as Nassar began serving a 175-year prison sentence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm just fine through (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Biles is now in Tokyo, the only survivor of Nassar's campaign of abuse representing for Team USA.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILES: I had to come back to the sport to be a voice, to have change happen, because I feel like if there weren't a remaining survivor in the sport, they would have just brushed it to the side.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: To be clear, Biles didn't say that that factored into her decision to sit out the all-around competition or the individual competition, but how could her critics not consider this burden, in addition to all the usual pressure that comes along with being the face of the Olympics?

Biles is the second recent athlete at peak performance facing criticism for pulling out of competition because of her mental health. The other, of course, is Naomi Osaka, the No. 2 women's tennis player in the world, who pulled out of the French Open.

It was a move that was championed by athletes who know a thing or two about pressure and about being the best in the world. Like Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time, who has been advocating that mental health be given the same weight as physical health.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL PHELPS, OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST: I think back to the struggles that I went through when I was competing. And -- and I don't know if I would have been able to -- to take, you know, my own words and put them on a platform for everybody to see. We think of everything we've gone through the last year. This is something that -- that I think really could help a lot of people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: That's because a lot of people are struggling right now compared to before the pandemic. This past February and March, suicide-related visits to the emergency room for girls aged 12 to 17 jumped 50 percent during the same time period in 2019.

The mental health epidemic is real. And it's life-threatening. And these critics of Simone Biles, they're not just picking on a 24-year- old woman, who let's be honest, has a thing or two to teach them about mental toughness. They're sending a message to people who are struggling, that if they're really tough, they won't prioritize their mental health.

These critics of Simone Biles don't know what they're talking about. They are witnessing strength, even as they condemn it as weakness.

And if you are in crisis, or you are having suicidal thoughts, know that there is help. Please call 1-800-273-TALK.

BERMAN: Talk about mental toughness, how tough do you have to be to, at the Olympics, with the whole world watching, with a country, you know, clinging to hopes that you will repeat as gold medal, how tough do you have to be to say, I'm not well enough to do this? Incredibly tough. I think it's the pinnacle of mental toughness.

And Michael Phelps, who I'm so glad that you played that clip from him, Michael Phelps told us that -- that he thinks this focus on mental health will save lives. Save lives.

KEILAR: That's right. He thinks that Naomi Osaka saved her own life by speaking out. And truly, I think, you know, and you're listening to Michael Phelps. We heard one of those commentators say there's a double standard for LeBron James. Maybe he has one. I certainly don't have one.

I don't have a standard for Michael Phelps that I have for -- that I do not have for Simone Biles. I think there is one standard. I think we're seeing a shift towards that, even as there's controversy over it. And that's a good place to be.

BERMAN: Again, Phelps told us that he is as proud of the work he's doing now on mental health as he is for any of his 76,000 gold medals. And I imagine Simone Biles might end up feeling the same way. I'm sure she's so proud of all her achievements, her Olympic golds. But I think she'll also be proud of the fact that she may have just saved her life and countless other young women, as well.

[06:10:04]

KEILAR: Yes. I think it's a very good point.

BERMAN: All right. Developing overnight, CNN has learned that President Biden plans to announce tomorrow that all federal employees and contractors must be vaccinated or get regularly tested.

It comes as the CDC changes its mask guidance for vaccinated Americans with the Delta variant spreading rapidly.

Here is what the map looks like this morning. Nearly the entire country is seeing a rise in cases. Everywhere in red there is seeing a rise in cases. The deep red, more than a 50 percent rise in cases week to week.

CNN's Elizabeth Cohen joins us now. And Elizabeth, the news here, the real news, is on the changing mask guidance. Right? Including for vaccinated Americans in these areas with high case counts and for all kids in schools K to 12. They need to wear masks now again. ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John. And

you know, there are two reasons, sort of two -- there's a confluence of two things that went on here.

One is this development of the Delta variant in the past month or two that is more transmissible. And also that the vaccine rates never got up to what anybody wanted them to be. When you don't have enough vaccinated people, you have to start requiring masks.

So, for all the people who are complaining, Oh my gosh, the CDC, they're so annoying. They're telling us to wear masks again. Well, that's because you and others did not get vaccinated. You can blame the unvaccinated for this squarely. They are responsible for the spread of the Delta variant.

Now, the mask mandate also is because something surprising happened with this Delta variant. One of the reasons it's more transmissible, is that vaccinated people when they do get infected -- and usually they don't -- but when they do get infected, they might feel fine, but they actually have quite a bit of virus in their nose. So in other words, they're quite contagious.

So they might feel fine, but they're actually, you know, relatively able to spread it, and that makes things much worse.

BERMAN: And is that what happened in Provincetown in Massachusetts out in Cape Cod? Because there's this big outbreak there. They're still counting, I think, after the fact how many people were infected, and most of the people there were fully vaccinated.

COHEN: Right. Most of the people were fully vaccinated. The vast majority. All but just a few of the large groups that got infected, were feeling just fine. But again, they were fully vaccinated. They were feeling fine. But they were capable of spreading the virus. That really speaks volumes.

And that's one of the reasons why the CDC is saying, you know what? In these high transmission areas, people need to put their masks back on.

But again, I can't emphasize this enough, if more people were vaccinated, we wouldn't be having these problems. It would just tamp everything down if more people were vaccinated, because very few vaccinated people are getting infected. But because of the unvaccinated people, the virus is just able to spread like wildfire in some areas.

BERMAN: All right. Elizabeth Cohen, much more on this throughout the show.

COHEN: Thanks.

KEILAR: An Atlanta restaurant instituted a new rule. If you are not vaccinated, you won't be served, after the owner and three employees were infected with COVID despite being vaccinated.

Since instituting the rule, the restaurant has been the target of a number of attacks, including from Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.

The owner of that restaurant, Argosy, is with us now, Armando Celentano.

Armando, thank you so much for being with us this morning to talk about this. This is a tough situation that a lot of restauranteurs and their employees are in. And you're facing this. You and three other employees tested positive, despite being vaccinated. Can you tell us how you all are faring today?

ARMANDO CELENTANO, RESTAURANT OWNER: We're all on the mend. Thankfully. We're trying to get our business back open and back up to -- up and running as normal. Thanks.

KEILAR: OK. So you -- tell us about putting this rule in place. Tell us how you decided to do that.

CELENTANO: Well, we decided to do this to offer our staff a better quality of life and a safer work environment. Specifically with the lower risk of infection of COVID.

As a small business owner, I feel I have the right to offer that, regardless of any Washington politician using their own version of cancel culture to intimidate us and possibly shut us down. You know, our goal is to protect our employee -- our employees first.

KEILAR: I assume that Washington politician you're talking about, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who of course, represents congressional District 14, which is in northwest Georgia.

And she tweeted that this is called segregation. Will you be testing everyone at the door for the flu, strep throat, stomach bugs, colds, meningitis, AIDS, venereal diseases, Hep A, Hep C, staph infections, athlete's foot, pinkeye, croup, bronchitis, ringworm, scabies, or any other contagions?"

[06:15:06]

You know, tell us what that response has meant for you?

CELENTANO: Well, first of all -- first of all, I'd like to say everyone is entitled to their own opinion. And I've certainly been guilty of not-so-civil discourse regarding this.

Really, we're only trying to put our people back to work. Hard-working Georgians who are looking forward to re-entering society and being able to make an honest living.

Unfortunately, that -- this particular tweet is hindering that -- their ability to do that by putting them under unnecessary stress of infection and threat.

KEILAR: And how are you going to enforce this rule, Armando?

CELENTANO: Well, to be honest, the sign does a lot of the heavy lifting for us. I don't do -- I don't have the staff to check every vax card at the door. And I hope it really never comes to that.

What we are asking, and being very honest about, is we reserve the right to see everyone's vaccine card, especially if they are up moving around our bar and main seating area without a mask. The goal here is to protect staff and our guests from -- from possible COVID infection.

KEILAR: I mean, Armando, you're in a tough spot, having been infected and your staffers being infected. We appreciate you being with us this morning to talk about it.

CELENTANO: Thank you so much.

KEILAR: Four officers who defended the Capitol on January 6th, giving raw emotional testimony that Republicans refused to watch.

BERMAN: Plus, how right-wing media played this hearing, including FOX hosts who gave out acting awards to these officers.

And what Jim Jordan suddenly admitted that could make him a witness in this investigation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:21:21]

BERMAN: New this morning, right-wing entertainment hosts and many Republican lawmakers are refusing to acknowledge or in some cases refusing to even watch the raw, emotional testimony from four officers who defended the U.S. Capitol during the insurrection on January 6th.

The hearing, the first hearing of the House Select Committee investigating what happened, also featured new, harrowing video of the violence that day, violence that some would like you to believe never happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FL): Some of the people who breached the Capitol today were not Trump supporters. They were masquerading as Trump supporters and, in fact, were members of the violent terrorist group Antifa.

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): I don't believe he provoked if you listen to what he said at the rally.

GRAPHIC: There's an officer in the crowd!

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (via phone): It was zero threat. Look, they went in, they shouldn't have done it. Some of them went in and they're -- they're hugging and kissing the police and the guards. You know, they had great relationships.

REP. PAUL GOSAR (R-AZ): The truth is being censored and covered up. As a result, the DOJ is harassing -- harassing peaceful patriots across the country.

GRAPHIC: Officer - This is now effectively a riot. Dispatch - 1349 hours. Declaring it a riot.

GOSAR: Without accurate answers, conspiracies continue to form.

REP. ANDREW CLYDE (R-GA): You know, if you didn't know the TV footage was a video from January the 6th, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit.

REP. RALPH NORMAN (R-SC): I don't know who did the poll to say that they had -- were Trump supporters.

SEN. RON JOHNSON (R-WI): Even calling insurrection, it wasn't. I condemn the breach. I condemn the violence. But to say there were thousands of armed insurrectionists, you know, breaching the Capitol, intent on overthrowing the government, is just simply false narrative.

REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): I have no problem saying that these January 6th defendants are being treated like political prisoners of war.

REP. LOUIE GOHMERT (R-TX): So if there were federal agents that were involved on January 6th, we really need to know what the FBI knew and when they knew it.

REP. JIM JORDAN (D-OH): We know what this is about. This is about the Democrats attacking the president again -- President Trump again, like they've done for, what now, five years.

LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: No reasonable person thinks that what happened on January 6th was, as Biden said, the worst attack on the Capitol since the Civil War.

TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS HOST: January 6th is being used as a pretext to strip millions of disfavored Americans of their core constitutional rights. We are witnessing the most aggressive crackdown on civil liberties in our lifetime.

REP. ELISE STEFANIK (R-NY): The American people deserve to know the truth, that Nancy Pelosi bears responsibility, as speaker of the House, for the tragedy that occurred on January 6th.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: Nancy Pelosi's January 6th commission, and literally it has one mission and one mission only: Oh, let's see if we can impeach and smear and slander and -- Donald Trump one more time and, of course, the GOP one more time on national television.

INGRAHAM: The theatrics were intended to produce an emotional reaction, logic and facts be damned. It is with that knowledge that we will unveil the Angle Awards for today's best performances. First, for best use of tears and dramatic pauses in a leading role, we have a tie. It's between Congressmen Kinzinger and Schiff.

REP. JIM BANKS (R-IN): I don't know any Republicans, certainly any of the Republicans like myself who were going to serve on this committee, that have ever minimized what happened on January 6th. That's a false narrative.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: I don't know how you can watch the hearing yesterday with the testimony from those four officers, the compelling accounts of what they went through during that day and since that day, and then go on TV last night, like what's her name, Laura Ingraham did and claim it was -- was an act. There's one person acting in that scenario, and it's her.

[06:25:09]

KEILAR: Totally. I mean, look, we're going to talk to Mike Fanone, one of the officers who testified, and we've heard him talk about what he goes through now, even in the wake of this. The effects of that day. It was essentially the effects of hand-to-hand combat at the hands of a mob.

And I think when you hear what these Republicans that we just showed are saying, it just shows you that they have to be idiotic to have job security in their party. Or those hosts, they have to be idiotic to curry favor with the base of the Republican Party right now. And I think it just goes to show you how shameful that is for the party and, quite frankly, for the country.

BERMAN: And then there's the lawmaker after lawmaker after lawmaker who said they simply refuse to watch. Don't care enough, can't be bothered to watch what these officers had to say yesterday.

KEILAR: Blue lives matter until they don't, I think we would say of some of those folks.

BERMAN: A brand-new Justice Department decision has put one Republican congressman in legal jeopardy over his speech ahead of the Capitol riot.

KEILAR: Plus, did Jim Jordan just turn himself into a potential witness for congressional investigators?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)