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Tarrant City Councilwoman Veronica Freeman Discusses Racial Slur Said by Another Councilmember; Large American Corporations Requiring Employees Get COVID-19 Vaccine; Broward County Public Schools Requiring Masks When Teachers and Students Return Next Month; Rate of Vaccination in U.S. Recently Increasing; Nurse Discusses Treating Patients for COVID-19. Aired 8-8:30 ET

Aired July 29, 2021 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: So what do you think about that? The mayor denies this. What do you think?

VERONICA FREEMAN, TARRANT CITY COUNCILWOMAN: Well, the mayor is blatantly lying, because there were the ones that I spoke of earlier there. And you can ask them what he said, because they have no reason to lie.

KEILAR: And they say that he said it? They say the mayor said it?

FREEMAN: Yes, ma'am.

KEILAR: And what do you, what do you want to happen to the mayor? And what do you want to happen to Councilman Bryant, who actually, let me just -- I want to show something that he said to our viewers, and then I want to ask you what action you want taken. This is what Bryant said after the meeting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you a racist?

TOMMY BRYANT, TARRANT CITY COUNCILMAN: A racist? That's according to what your definition of the word "racist" is. What the public's definition is, I might be a racist. But according to what the true meaning of a racist is, absolutely not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Councilwoman, what do you think the action should be against that man, who is a councilmember, Bryant, but also Mayor Wayman Newton who denies saying what was allegedly repeated, but that you think is lying about that? What should happen to these gentlemen?

FREEMAN: Well, they both should resign from their position, because we don't need that in our city. It brings a bad light on our city because we are one, and we will not have this any longer, because there is a problem. There is division in the city because the mayor always says he is the mayor, and he's going to do what he want to do regardless of what.

I feel as though I have been used a pawn between Mayor Newton and Tommy, and it's got to stop. All I want to do is try to make change for our city. That's all I want to do, because when I was elected, I was elected by 61 percent of the vote to make it better. And at the rate we're going, it's not going to happen with division.

KEILAR: Well, this moment we witnessed, councilwoman, was despicable. And as you described how it made you feel, I don't think anyone would expect otherwise just seeing what we saw in this moment. And we really appreciate you, Councilwoman Veronica Freeman, also your attorney Bryan Winter being with us this morning. Thanks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you. Thank you for having us today.

KEILAR: And NEW DAY continues right now.

Good morning to viewers here in the United States and around the world. I am Brianna Keilar alongside John Berman. And it is Thursday, July 29th.

Get vaccinated or get out. That is the message from corporate America this morning. Many companies are not just recommending that employees get the COVID vaccine, they're mandating it for those who are returning to the office as the un-vaxxed in America threaten to derail the economic recovery. Silicon Valley really leading the way here. Facebook and Google both announcing that all employees returning to the office have to be vaccinated. And NetFlix is also mandating vaccines for all actors who star in the streaming giant's programming, and also the employees who come into contact with them, that makes them the first major studio to do so.

The financial sector as well starting to say get vaxxed or find a new job. Major companies like BlackRock, Morgan Stanley, announcing all employees must be vaccinated to return to the office. There's Saks Fifth Avenue, "The Washington Post", Ascension Health, Lyft, also requiring the shot to work. And today President Biden preparing to announce that all federal workers have to be vaccinated or they must face strict protocols, including regular testing and masking.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Overnight as cases surge in the U.S., Disney announced that starting tomorrow, all guests, regardless of vaccination status, will be required to wear masks indoors. Apple is returning to its mask mandate for customers and staff in most U.S. stores. Twitter announced it is closing its San Francisco and New York offices. That's just two weeks after reopening them. A CNN analysis of CDC data found that 71 percent of Americans now live in counties with high or substantial COVID transmission. Some of the messages about vaccinations might be getting through. The pace has increased about 35 percent since last week.

Now, masks will now be required in Broward County public schools when teachers and students return next month. That decision by the school board is setting up a potential showdown with the Florida Governor Ron DeSantis who is threatening to call a special legislative session to stop districts from mandating masks. [08:05:08]

Leyla Santiago in Fort Lauderdale with the latest on this. What are you hearing, Leyla?

LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, the governor says masking children in schools should be a parents' choice, not the government. And, yes, he is very much flexing muscles, saying that he will do what he has to do, even if that is call a special session of the legislature to make sure that masks remain optional for the upcoming school year.

Here in Broward County, I can tell you I was watching as the board listened to parents and experts on very different side of the mask issue. Some protesters just the day before had even burned masks and interrupted the meeting that had to be postponed. But ultimately the vice chair of the board said for her, it is in-person learning that is the priority, and that is why she voted for masks. Listen to what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONNA P. KORN, VICE CHAIR, BROWARD COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS: I want to talk about the unvaccinated and the consequences. The reason we're here is because of people not getting vaccinated. If we want to get out of this, and we don't want masks on our children, people have to get vaccinated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANTIAGO: She felt she had no choice but to vote for the mandate on masks. And I've got to tell you, I talked to about a handful of school districts across Florida, asked them the same thing, if they will be reconsidering how they will approach masks for the upcoming school year. And it seems that many school districts right now are just trying to make sense of the new CDC guidelines, what the governor is saying, and then what is best for children in moving forward, trying to weigh all of that as we approach the upcoming school year, John.

BERMAN: It's happening. Leyla Santiago, thank you so much for all of us. A lot of decisions to be made.

Let's talk about where vaccinations are in the United States this morning. Joining us, CNN's senior data reporter Harry Enten. Harry, I only wish I could be there standing next to you. But there is some good news, a little bit of good news in terms of the direction the vaccinations are going.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICS WRITER AND ANALYST: That's exactly right, John. I wish you were here with me as well. This is the seven- day average of new people getting vaccinated, and what do we see? Look at this. You don't have to be a genius to see that the number is going up. In fact, we're going up by 100,000 new people getting vaccinated per day right now compared to where we were three weeks ago. So this is good news, yes. We're not at the levels that we were, say, in April. But compared to where we were at the beginning of July, middle of July, we're certainly up.

BERMAN: You don't have to be a genius, Harry, but thankfully you are. And we're glad you are.

(LAUGHTER)

BERMAN: Listen, let's talk about who exactly is unvaccinated.

ENTEN: Yes, so we're going to first take it by age, and then we'll take it by race, and then we'll have a nice little discussion about it. Lookk at this, received at least one vaccine dose by age -- again, don't have to be a genius. Older folks are much more likely to get vaccinated. Look at that. About 90 percent of 65 and older have been vaccinated. Just about 41 percent of 12 to 17. Even when you get into the 18 to 39 bracket, only about 55 percent. So we see this large age curve when it comes to vaccination, with older folks being much more likely.

When it comes to race, there is a split. It's not as wide as it is by age. But you can see here that African Americans are less likely to get vaccinated among adults. I should point that out, among adults. Only about 56 percent of them have been if you look at an average of polls. White adults, 68 percent. Interestingly enough, the group that is most likely to get vaccinated is this other category which includes American Indian, Asian, or two or more races. So we do see it split by race, but it's not as large as it is by age.

BERMAN: So there's a split by race, there's a split by age, and also just a big partisan divide, particularly among white Americans, Harry.

ENTEN: Yes. We point out that 68 percent of whites being vaccinated among adults. Look at this, among whites, look at the partisan divide. White Democrats, 93 percent of white Democratic adults have been vaccinated versus just about 54 percent of white Republicans. This gap is about nearly as large as the gap is by age. And right now we're seeing this large partisan divide. We've spoken about it so often, John, but that is why it's so important for these Republican legislators to get out there and tell their own voters to get vaccinated. I'm not sure it will necessarily help, but something's got to move here, because this is just a very, very bad number among white Republicans. It shouldn't be a partisan issue. We're all Americans. We should all go out there and get vaccinated.

BERMAN: That's a chasm right there, Harry. Talk about the resistance and the plans of people. I think you have got some real enlightening data there.

ENTEN: Look, this says it to me all, right. Have you gotten a vaccine? And 69 percent of adults have already.

[08:10:00]

But then we have the rest of this 31 percent who have not. And we see about nine percent of them say, no, we haven't, but I want to get one as soon as possible. I'll wait or see. I'm not necessarily sure. That's nine percent. That gets us up to 78 percent. But this is really interesting. The no, not likely, only a force, the

vaccine mandates may in fact get to this group. This is another seven percent. Only about 15 percent are no, definitely not. That group is probably not reachable no matter what. And when we look at sort of the breakdown of will you get a vaccine among adults who haven't, the groups that really haven't so far, black adults, for example, they possibly may, black adults who have not gotten the vaccine, just 36 percent say definitely not. The age 18 to 39, again, a majority, 53 percent say, yes, it's possible.

But again, it's the white Republicans down here. Look at this -- 65 percent of them say, no, I definitely won't get it. That group is going to be the toughest to get, but especially in those minority neighborhoods, these outreach efforts, the vaccine mandates may, in fact, get a lot of them vaccinated. And these two groups are the two that I'll really be watching as we sort of get that effort to get folks vaccinated.

BERMAN: If you can put the previous slide just up, Harry, as we close out here.

ENTEN: Sure.

BERMAN: As I look at that, and I see the seven percent who might do it if forced, and the nine percent who are waiting and seeing, that's the group, 16 percent of Americans unvaccinated right now who seem very reachable and might be reachable as the federal government starts to lean in to some of these requirements and corporations do. So maybe there is hope that over the next few weeks that we can get a lot more Americans vaccinated. Thank you very much for laying this out, Harry.

ENTEN: My pleasure, sir. Have a good one.

KEILAR: The experts have repeatedly said that the only way out of this pandemic is through vaccinations. You see that in the numbers. But some Americans still aren't getting the message, and the doctors and nurses who are bearing the brunt of recent spikes in cases are taking to social media to express their frustration. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUNNY BROOKE, NURSE WHO TREATS COVID-19 PATIENTS: Once again, folks, there are no ICU beds in the state of Arkansas and many of the surrounding states. Let me tell you what that means. If your mom gets sick and needs a bed or a critical care room, we don't have one. If your teenager gets in a car wreck and needs a critical care bed, we don't have one. If your 40-year-old husband has a stroke and needs a critical care bed, we don't have one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: And that is the reality. Joining us now is the nurse who posted that video, Sunny Brooke. She has worked on a COVID floor in a western Arkansas hospital since the height of the pandemic. So, Sunny, you've seen this. You've seen the entire trajectory of this. And just give us a sense, as you do in that video, of how bad things are on the ground where you work.

SUNNY BROOKE, NURSE WHO TREATS COVID-19 PATIENTS: It's pretty significant. We're seeing a huge influx of COVID patients. The day that I posted that video -- I work at two separate facilities. My one facility we couldn't send patients out who really needed higher levels of care. And the other facility had over 30 people waiting in E.R. that needed ICU beds or even just a regular bed. There was nowhere for them to go.

KEILAR: And most of them are unvaccinated, right?

BROOKE: As far as we can see right now, but, of course, I don't have actual data on that. But from personal experience, the majority that we're seeing are unvaccinated.

KEILAR: So, people, do patients say anything when they come in and they are having severe symptoms? They're worried they're going to die, and they didn't get the vaccine? What are you seeing?

BROOKE: We've seen some people that regret it. Some people have no regrets. I know that I've talked to a lot who were just about to get it, and then they caught COVID at church, and then they just weren't able to make it. A lot of people were kind of borderline and said, I probably should have, but it's too late now. It's kind of all over the place. There is, of course, that one -- those people that wouldn't have got it no matter what you did. It doesn't matter how sick they got. They say that was just their time or God's time for them.

KEILAR: Those people who you say were borderline, not the ones who adamantly say there's no way they're going to get it, nothing can make them get it, but the ones who are thinking about it when they came down with COVID, do you think that if the state government or a business where they worked or even the federal government required vaccines, that that would convince those people to get it?

BROOKE: I think that it would help with the younger group of people, people in their 30s and 40s. It might convince the elderly who are on the border. I really think all it would have taken to convince them was for the FDA, the full FDA approval instead of the emergency, because a lot of people were upset about that.

[08:15:00]

KEILAR: Sunny, I wonder -- you're sending out messages to people in your community. You're in Arkansas where the numbers -- they're not good. Only about a third of Arkansans are fully vaccinated.

How are people reacting to your social media posts as you try to reach the unvaccinated?

BROCKE: They are very unhappy about it. That particular post that you played, the comment section is awful. There's a lot of accusations being thrown around that any -- any nurse or health care worker , it is just a crisis actor.

We are awful people. We're making it up. We're getting paid for it. It's not -- you know, nothing is real, or that it's just the flu, and a lot of other horrible misconceptions.

It's very negative. People don't want to even discuss the option of the vaccine. You bring it up, they automatically assume that you're part of this big conspiracy theory.

KEILAR: I mean, I can't even imagine how frustrating that is as you were just trying to reach people. And as you said in there, keep them out of the ICU and allow those beds to be there for the things they're normally there for.

Sunny, thanks for being with us.

Sunny Brocke joining us from Arkansas.

BROCKE: Thanks so much.

KEILAR: Just ahead, Mitch McConnell bets on bipartisanship, advancing a big part of President Biden's agenda. But what does that say about Donald Trump's hold on the Republican Party?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, some Republicans revolting over the new mask mandate in the House as COVID cases surge.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:20:26]

KEILAR: Seventeen Republican senators including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have voted to advance President Biden's $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill to a debate.

That's a mouthful. It's a test vote, but this is key. This is a big deal that they took this vote. And that they went forward with it.

This is legislation that still has a way to go before it is passed into law, but this represents a key step in perhaps loosening the stronghold of Donald Trump that he has on the Republican Party, or does it?

Let's talk about this now with CNN chief national correspondent and the anchor of "INSIDE POLITICS," John King.

OK. Look, first things first, this bill, 17 Republicans.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: For now.

KEILAR: For now. That's good. You see that, you see that shrinking?

KING: I don't want to be the skunk at the garden party. This is both a big deal and a giant who knows? It is a big deal in a town that is almost completely broken do see something work, to see people of goodwill go into a room, negotiate differences, come up with a bipartisan plan that would help you at home -- roads, bridges, broadband, actually create jobs and help average Americans. That's a big deal for Washington to try that. However -- however, there's no guarantee those Republican senators,

even at the end of the Senate vote, and let's assume they keep this together and pass something in the senate. It goes over to the House, progressives are lined up to say, we want to change this. We're not going to let the Senate write this bill.

If there are significant changes in to this bill in the House, you can't count on it coming back to the Senate. So, this is like the second lap of the Indy 500. It's great to see cars back on the track again. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

BERMAN: Can I take the glass half-full interpretation of this first though? Because at least as we sit here this morning, we saw two things.

We saw an actual compromise, right? The compromise the likes of which you don't see that much any more in Washington, where as Joe Biden says, there's parts of this both sides don't like, which only means we found somewhere in the middle. That's one part.

The other part of it is as of this morning, John, Bernie Sanders and Mitch McConnell are on the same side of this.

KING: The Bernie Sanders story here is under reported even though it's getting more attention, yes. He is -- his campaign slogan is revolution. He is now a deal maker.

He likes Joe Biden. They have a good relationship and he is working the Senate like never before. That is a big deal. I'm not discounting that.

The question is what happens in the House. You have only 85 of the House Democrats who have been in office with a Democratic president who are forced to sometimes eat their peas. These progressives, we went through this with the Tea Party. We used to say, why are they voting no on spending bills? They campaigned saying they would vote no on spending bills.

These progressives campaigned on big, bold, climate, spend, health care. Now they're being asked eat your peas. Can Joe Biden, yes, the old way worked. The president said this, there was a lot of skepticism. Joe, that Senate is gone, that's 20 years ago.

So, the president has every reason to pound his chest. The question is, can he work the same thing with the House Democrats?

BERMAN: Can he?

KING: That is to me the giant question. Speaker Pelosi as of now says they're not going to just pass the Senate bill. The House Democrats want to change it. How much do they change it?

If they change it a lot, those 17 Republicans forget about it when it comes back. And let's also acknowledge the politics here. This is smart on the Republicans to a degree. I know you want to bring the Trump factor on this. Mitch McConnell says if this collapses, we tried, we tried. And then

they flip over in the liberal socialist, blah, blah, blah, insert talking points here and the House made a big giant spending plan and then we walked away after we tried. So, again, early chapter -- important chapter, but early.

KEILAR: You know, it seems like we are -- certainly we can make this about Trump, right? And if his influence is maybe waning, I think that's an open question.

I want -- I want to ask you about, you know, what we've seen here in the last day or so when it comes to the commission or the committee on what happened January 6th and just the fact that we're living in almost this post-truth era. We actually have some sound from Elise Stefanik who is in Republican leadership. Let's listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ELISE STEFANIK (R-NY): It is a fact that on -- that in December of 2020, Nancy Pelosi was made aware of potential security threats to the Capitol, and she failed to act. It is a fact that the U.S. Capitol Police raised concerns, and rather than providing them with the support and resources they needed and they deserved, she prioritized her partisan political optics over their safety.

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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Now, Stefanik there is kind of just passing the blame. That seems a little more traditional in her approach.

[08:25:04]

But there are Republicans who were just flat-out acting like this didn't happen.

KING: Most of the House Republicans right now live in a parallel universe, and that is' the what-aboutism. You ask them about Trump, you ask them about what happened that day. They want to talk about something else.

Guess what, participate in the committee. It's important oversight. It's your constitutional duty. It's why politicians allegedly run for office to deal with big issues.

January 6 was a big issue. The country was attacked, our democracy was attacked. Our presidential election was threatened about an angry pro- Trump mob.

Are there questions to be asked about what happened before him? Sure. If Nancy Pelosi has some questions to answer about, did you miss some clues? OK, bring them up at the hearing. So does Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, right? He's the leader in the other chamber. So, don't forget about him.

They should have those questions. Ask the tough questions like the 9/11 Commission did, which cast a lot of blame on agencies. At least, you know, blindness. Look, connect the dots.

However, however, the person standing behind her, Jim Jordan, spoke to Donald Trump that day.

BERMAN: Um-hmm.

KING: Spoke to Donald Trump that day. Her Leader Kevin McCarthy spoke to Donald Trump that day. Let's air it all out.

But the Republicans -- they may well regret this. They decided to boycott the committee. If the committee gets substantive witnesses, they will not be there to question them.

BERMAN: That was my next question to you. Who or what are you looking for in terms of subpoenas here?

KING: Look, if you listen to the chairman, Bennie Thompson, and the Republican Liz Cheney, they talk about everybody.

Now, first, they want to build this minute by minute log. Who called into the White House at what time? What was the president doing?

To me, the key player -- you know that Mark Meadows, former president of chief of staff, is going to say no. You know Trump if they ask him either to come in person is likely to say no.

There may be a part of Trump that tries to at least leans in. But he always does this, sure I'll play, then he pulls back. To me, the attorney general at the time, Jeffrey Rosen, is going to be critical here. If he and other officials at the Justice Department or the Pentagon are willing to supply a timeline and their own personal recollections of who called them asking for help, what was the response at the White House? Were they slow walked by the White House?

And all indications are that Rosen wants to testify. Do not be surprised if Secretary Esper, the defense secretary at the time, gets called into this. I think there are people who are not Kool-Aid drinking Trump people who are absolutely critical to this.

BERMAN: "The Washington Post" reports today that Trump was calling Jeffrey Rosen when he was acting attorney general, like every day from the 14th to the 6th, trying to stir up the big election lie here.

If Rosen wants to talk, that's a big deal.

KING: That would be a huge deal.

BERMAN: John King, great to see you.

KING: Good morning.

BERMAN: Go Red Sox. KING: Inside the park home run.

BERMAN: We'll see you at noon, "INSIDE POLITICS."

KEILAR: That's what John really -- John really wanted to talk about.

BERMAN: Inside the park home run at the Red Sox game yesterday --

KING: That's all Brianna wants to talk about.

KEILAR: Like in the commercial break I didn't exist. They were so into talking about this. I'm just a bobble head.

BERMAN: Coming up next, the inside the park home run and the Boston Red Sox game last night. That and the partisan deal just reached on infrastructure. What's in it and what's the plan to pay for it. We're going to speak to a senator involved in the talks.

KEILAR: And Simone Biles thanking supporters after her decision to withdraw from Olympic events.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)