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U.S. Gymnast Simone Biles Pulls Out of Competition in Olympic Summer Games Citing Mental Health Concerns; CDC Issues New Guidelines that Those Vaccinated for COVID-19 Should Still Wear Masks Indoors Sometimes Due to Fears of Delta Variant Spread. Aired 8-8:30a ET.

Aired July 28, 2021 - 08:00   ET

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

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[08:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm John Berman alongside Brianna Keilar. On this NEW DAY, breaking news overnight. Simone Biles pulling out of the highest profile Olympic event, taking the stand for her mental health.

Plus, the CDC's new change to mask guidelines, what's the science behind the decision? Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us in just a moment.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: And a mother who lost her son to COVID is now speaking out in the hopes of helping others. We'll have more on her struggle and her biggest regret when she joins us live.

Also, a police officer who defended the U.S. Capitol not backing down in the face of the abuse that he is now enduring after testifying at the first January 6th hearing. He will respond right here live.

BERMAN: All right, good morning to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. It is Wednesday, July 28th. And the breaking news this morning, Simone Biles, who may be the greatest gymnast of all time, will not compete in tomorrow's all around gymnastics competition for team USA. USA Gymnastics says she is withdrawing for her mental health, and they say they are behind her.

KEILAR: It is incredibly stunning, isn't it, to see what's happened here. This move coming one day after Biles pulled out of the team competition after she stumbled on a landing on a vault. And here is what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SIMONE BILES, U.S. OLYMPIC GYMNAST: I was just like shaking, could barely nap. I 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: Let's discuss this now with seven-time Olympic medalist Shannon Miller, who you, of course, remember from the 96 games where she led the magnificent seven to the U.S. women's first team gold, beginning quite a legacy. Shannon, we're so pleased to have you here this morning to talk about what is -- this is an unprecedented moment in Olympic sports, in gymnastics. And I wonder what your thoughts are as you watch all of this happening.

SHANNON MILLER, SEVEN-TIME OLYMPIC MEDALIST: Well, I think it is stunning. Thank you for having me on today. It is a stunning move. I think as a gymnast, you can understand the idea that you're flying through the air at 10, 15 feet, maybe more in the case of Simone Biles. And if you're getting lost in the air, if you are not kind of mentally aware of where you are, that's a really big problem and can have devastating results.

So I think it's really important for athletes to know their body physically, but mentally as well in a sport like gymnastics, or any sport where there can be severe consequence if you lose your place in the air.

BERMAN: It could be fatal. Let's say it. She's going so fast, so high, I can't imagine what could happen there.

Shannon, first of all, it's an honor to speak with you. One of the things we hear from critics of this -- and there are critics, amazingly -- is that she should just tough it out. Why can't she tough it out? But talk to me about the toughness it must have taken for someone in the middle of the Olympic Games to stand up before the whole world and say, I can't do this right now.

MILLER: It's very interesting. When we talk about sports, a lot of times we're talking about the physical aspect and going out there and competing. But any athlete, especially elite athletes, they are going to tell you the mental aspect is just if not more important than the physical.

And you have to be aware of your body. So if you have ankle injury or something, then you know whether you can push through, dig deep, get the job done, or if you need to sit out because it's not going to be safe for you to perform that next skill. So, you have to do the same thing with your mental.

And what it looks like we're dealing with here is something that gymnasts happen upon very often. Any young gymnast will tell you they have come to mental blocks. And a mental block could be you suddenly not wanting to go backward on a skill, suddenly not wanting to legality got go of a bar on a release move, suddenly losing your spot in the air. And again, it just comes back to the importance of knowing your body and knowing where you need to draw that line and step away so that you're not putting yourself in more danger.

MILLER: You mentioned the judgment if, say, you injure your ankle. And of course, the team that you led to Olympic gold in Atlanta had this moment that we will never forget from Kerri Strug where she famously completed a vault on an injured ankle to help win gold for Team USA.

[08:05:01] Some of the criticism that we've heard -- there have been people who have said, look, Kerri Strug did that. Why can't Simone Biles do this? And I wonder what you say to that comparison, and if you think anything of that is apples to apples?

MILLER: It's really not just from, again a very gymnastics perspective. It's not a great comparison, because a physical injury is something that you as an athlete in the moment can decide, I can push this, or, this is not going to work today. Mental is a lot more challenging. And I've been through that where I've gotten a mental block, and I could not will my body to let go of the bar on a release move that I had been doing for seven years. It is a lot harder to get over than I think sometimes the physical. The mental is so much more powerful sometimes.

BERMAN: Women's gymnastics has really become the premiere event of the Summer Olympics. I think we can all say it just is. Talk to us about what the pressure is like to be part of the most-watched Olympic event, the most-watched team at the Olympic event, and for Simone Biles, the most watched athlete at the most watched team at this Olympic event?

MILLER: I think any athlete that goes into an Olympic Games, it doesn't matter who you are. You want to go out there and you want to perform. I remember thinking before my final beam routine after a rocky road at the 96 games, that I just didn't want to fall or fail or let anyone down. I wanted to go out there and compete like I had trained so many times. So no one could have put more pressure on myself than I could have.

And I think all of these athletes bear that kind of responsibility and that pressure going in. It is -- kind of gets to a point of how you handle what matters most. And a lot of times I think it's hard these days to get away from it. You've got the 24/7 cycle. You've got social media. You've got everything right there, everyone's constantly asking questions, and all of that. So it's hard to sometimes escape that.

I think back in my day I probably had it a little bit easier. There's no cellphones or social media or basically any Internet. I'm that old. But I think sometimes to just be able to get away from it all and really just focus on, hey, this is a sport I love doing. I'm going to go out, I'm going to do the very best I can, and whatever happens, happens. I think getting into that headspace is a challenge. But I think that's kind of what I personally had to do is get to that point where I said, hey, I've done all the work. Now whatever's going to happen is going to happen.

KEILAR: And I hear you on the social media being a challenge. But I remember reading, going into those games, about how much pressure you were under at obviously such a young age. Few people have experienced that, Shannon. You are very much the person to talk to about this, and we really are thankful to be with you here this morning. Shannon Miller, thanks.

MILLER: Thank you. BERMAN: All right, moments ago right here on NEW DAY, CDC Director

Rochelle Walensky expressed concerned over the new data that suggests vaccinated people are transmitting the Delta variant as cases surge across the United States.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: With the Delta variant, we now see in our outbreak investigations that have been occurring in the last couple of weeks, in those outbreak investigations, we have been seeing that if you happen to have one of those breakthrough infections, that you can actually now pass it to somebody else.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, joining us now is CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. And, Sanjay, just to be clear, Dr. Walensky is saying this is new. This is something they are seeing that is new with the Delta variant, that people who have been vaccinated and are infected, they may not be getting sick or seriously ill, but they are transmitting the virus, which is part of the reason the CDC is now recommending people mask up again in these highly impacted areas. She also did say, though, that almost most of the transmission is happening from unvaccinated to unvaccinated. Still, what's your reaction to what you heard?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, I thought that was really good interview, John. I think the fundamental problem -- we just have to state the fundamental problem is exactly what you said. Everything else left aside for a second, the fundamental problem is still in this country, unvaccinated people are transmitting the virus to unvaccinated people, and that's who is getting sick. That is who the doctor you interviewed from Louisiana was talking about. That is still the fundamental problem.

What Dr. Walensky is referring to seems to be a much rarer sort of thing that they say is driving the decision now about masks, which is to -- which is that vaccinated people who develop these so-called breakthrough infections, could carry the same amount of virus as an unvaccinated person who is infected. So they could potentially be transmitting as well, although, as you elicited from her and she said before, that that is not the fundamental problem. The fundamental problem is that unvaccinated people transmitting to unvaccinated people.

[08:10:02]

People aren't wearing masks because there was no proof of vaccination to wear a mask or not, and the problem has gotten worse over time. Add onto that that we're still, like where I live, for example, 40 percent vaccinated. So we're very much in the red at this point here in July.

KEILAR: Kids, right, this is a big issue right now because if you're under 12, there is not even an option to get vaccinated, and this is what Walensky said about children.

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DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: I think it's really important for people to understand that this is not a benign disease in kids compared to other diseases that our kids see. So if you look at the mortality rate of COVID, just this past year for children, it's more than twice the mortality rate that we see in influenza in a given year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: What is the takeaway there for parents?

GUPTA: This is a tough one. We clearly -- I think the message for kids who can get vaccinated, kids over the age of 12, is that they should get vaccinated if for no other reason they will start to obviate some of these other problems, like the need for masks universally in schools.

The message for parents I think is that it's going to be a year -- another year that their kids are likely going to be wearing a mask. Maybe not the whole year, but at least several months, we'll see how it goes, and that it can be done safely, as schools even before vaccines could open safely, and really reduce viral transmission, have some of the lowest viral transmission in the community could be within the school, and I'm talking about even pre-vaccines.

But, despite the fact that we have vaccines now, despite the fact that we've made all this progress, schools are going to feel in a position where, though it's going to be in-person, they are largely going to need to wear masks. And depending on how much of a burden they think that is, people are going to respond differently. We know certain school districts in the country, I think we have a list of them, have basically said there's no way they're going to do mask mandates again. We know even since yesterday, there are school districts such as Gwinnett County here in Georgia that said, OK, we'll do masks now. Three largest school districts in the country, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, said they will do masks. But there's going to be a lot of heated discussion about this, I think.

BERMAN: Sanjay, you're nicer than I am. That's a statement of fact. Dr. Walensky is nicer than I am. That's a statement of fact. I have forgiveness issues. I will stipulate that right now. But I asked her whether or not we should be blaming unvaccinated people for this. Take the word "blame" out of it, Sanjay. Isn't it just a statement of fact that this is happening right now, that kids are going to have to wear masks in schools again now, that these communities are going to have to mask up again now because people chose not to get the vaccine? It just seems to be a statement of fact.

GUPTA: I think it's absolutely right, John. I think -- what is the problem, I think is what you're asking here, what is the problem you're trying to solve? The problem fundamentally, and again, you elicited this from her, is that unvaccinated people, which is still way too many in too many counties around the country, are largely spreading this to other unvaccinated people. They are also not wearing masks because once the mask recommendations were lifted, unvaccinated people sort of took this as well to say, hey, look, we don't need to wear masks either. Understandably, I'm not forgiving that, but I'm saying you could have expected that to happen, right? If there were no proof of vaccinations required, people weren't going to wear masks who were not vaccinated because they weren't getting vaccinated, they weren't going to wear masks. Those two behaviors were going together. That is where we are in this country.

I just returned from Tokyo where they have a significant supply issue. They can't get enough vaccines into people, and they're in a state of emergency as a result of that. Here we have plenty of vaccines and people simply aren't taking them, and that is the fundamental problem. It is true, Delta is more contagious. And I can show you quickly back in May, May 13th, when the mask recommendations first changed, Delta was around 1.4 percent of circulating virus. Now it's up to 82 percent of circulating virus, and that is a more contagious virus, that is true. But if you are vaccinated, you are largely protected from getting sick, from developing these symptoms.

One other thing I just want to say, John, and you got at this with her. But what is rare? We keep saying rare breakthrough infection. What does that mean? If you look at the original data, 95 percent of people were protected against serious disease. That means one in 20 still got serious disease. It's probably closer to one in 15, one in 12 maybe, that develop any kind of symptoms whatsoever.

My point is that, OK, call that rare, however you want to sort of define that, but there may be a lot of vaccinated people out there who still develop symptoms, may potentially spread it. Not nearly as much as the proportion of unvaccinated to unvaccinated, but that is a possibility as well.

BERMAN: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, I appreciate you being with us.

[08:15:00]

I do appreciate your kindness as always. This is something that has been created because people won't get vaccinated. This is a situation that exists now because of the unvaccinated in the United States. It just is. Appreciate you being with us.

So, a police officer who just testified about the January 6th attack is now being targeted with vulgar threats.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

VOICEMAIL SENT TO OFFICER FANONE: I wish they would have killed all of you scum bags. You people are scum.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BERMAN: That's not even the worst of it.

Officer Brian Fanone -- Officer Michael Fanone not hiding behind voice mail. He will respond to that and more, next.

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OFFICER MICHAEL FANONE, DC METROPOLITAN POLICE: What makes the struggle harder and more painful is to know so many of my fellow citizens, including so many of the people I put my life at risk to defend, are down playing or outright denying what happened. I feel like I went to hell and back to protect them and the people in this room. But too many are now telling me that hell doesn't exist, or that hell actually wasn't that bad. The indifference shown to my colleagues is disgraceful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: That's Officer Michael Fanone who is sitting with us right now, and will talk to us in just a moment about his testimony yesterday.

[08:20:06]

First, new this morning right wing hosts and many Republican lawmakers are refusing to acknowledge or in some cases refusing to even watch that raw emotional testimony from Officer Fanone and three other officers who defended the U.S. Capitol during the insurrection on January 6.

The hearing also featured this new harrowing video of the violence that day. The video we are going to show you again right now, violence, though, that some would like you to believe never happened.

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DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT: It was zero threat -- look, they went in and they shouldn't have done it. Some of them went in and 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 peaceful patriots across the country. 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 6, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit.

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

TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS HOST: They were gentle people waving American flags, they like the country.

REP. LOUIE GOHMERT (R-TX): There is no evidence, as has been said, on January 7, that this was an armed insurrection.

SEN. RON JOHNSON (R-WI): To say there were thousands of armed insurrectionists breaching the capitol intent on overthrowing the government is simply false narrative. By and large, it was peaceful protest, except for -- there were a number of people basically agitators with the crowd, and breached the Capitol and, you know, that's really the truth of what's happening here.

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

MEGYN KELLY, TV HOST: There's no question the media represented this as so much worse than it actually was. Lawmakers were understandably afraid, not like AOC, I need therapy the rest of my life afraid.

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

CARLSON: January 6 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 6.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: Nancy Pelosi's January 6 commission and literally it has one mission and one mission only. Let's see if we can impeach and smear and slander 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 action logic and facts be damned. It is with that knowledge we have the Angle awards for today's best performances. First, best use of tears and dramatic pauses in a leading role, we have a tie. It's between Congressman Kinzinger and Schiff.

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

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: And joining us now is someone with a realistic perspective of what happened that day, Mike Fanone. He is an officer with the D.C. Metropolitan Police who you are probably familiar with at this point honestly if you've been watching this program.

Mike, thanks so much for being with us. Your testimony yesterday was so emotional, and I just wonder, what was that like for you? And did you feel that Congress was listening?

FANONE: I mean, I felt like I had the attention of the members that were there in the committee room. Whether or not other members of Congress were paying attention or not, I've heard reports that many purported that they were not watching my testimony or that of my colleagues. I find that very telling.

BERMAN: How so?

FANONE: Well, I mean, if you have people like Kevin McCarthy whose members of his party have been downplaying or denying the events of that day, I think it's, you know, not politically advantageous for him to continue to have to answer questions about the January 6th insurrection, which was at least in part incited by the leader at the time of his political party. So, with that understanding, I do understand why they wouldn't want to watch that.

[08:25:04]

KEILAR: I wonder, you know, Lauren Fox, who is one of our reporters who covers Congress at CNN was talking about what it was like just being at the Capitol yesterday, not in the hearing room. But watching officers who are all over the Capitol doing their jobs, but also keeping tabs of what was happening during that testimony.

Obviously, they're invested in this and I just wonder what it means for officers, for police officers to have members of Congress they're protecting that are just not even watching or paying attention or they're downplaying what you are saying.

FANONE: Yeah, I mean, I would imagine that's incredibly difficult. I mean, there's been plenty of times in my law enforcement career that I did not feel supported by the community that I was charged with keeping safe.

But nevertheless, I took an oath and I continue to do my job to ensure that, you know, all people, regardless of their political affiliation, race, creed, what have you, were safe under my watch. And I'm quite certain that those capitol police officers are doing the same thing even as we speak.

BERMAN: What is it like? I was watching you watching that montage of either lawmakers, entertainment hosts commenting on the hearings. Laura Ingraham giving out performance awards for your testimony about the beatings that you suffered on January 6th.

You know, what's it like to hear that from the likes of Laura Ingraham?

FANONE: Well, first of all, I spent quite a bit of time in my career testifying in court, and I always felt most comfortable when defense attorneys resorted to theatrical tactics because I knew that they no longer had facts to support their argument, and so they had to insult me, insult my appearance, or, you know, try to chip away at my credibility.

But in this case, the facts are the facts. They were supported by hundreds of hours of videotape, evidence, eyewitness testimony, they're undisputable. So if they want to disparage me or call me a member of Antifa or talk about my neck tattoos, I couldn't care less.

What I do -- what does concern me is the fact that, you know, those entertainers had an audience, and that audience takes their words and, you know, the rhetoric that they use as more than just entertainment. They think it's real.

And that thought process has real-life consequence, and we saw the result of that on January 6th.

BERMAN: Has a real-life consequence indeed. And when we come back, one of those real-life consequence, because you've got a voice mail that someone left for you, a threatening, harassing voice mail, deeply offensive. We're going to play it so people know what you've been going through when we come back.

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