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New Day
Frustration Among The Vaccinated As COVID Rules Return; How Schools Should Handle Coronavirus Outbreaks; Biden's Headwinds: COVID, Border, Evictions, Liberal Infighting. Aired 7:30-8a ET
Aired August 03, 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]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: You've been a prominent voice on this, Michael -- you really have been -- that people who are vaccinated shouldn't be paying the price.
MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, CNN HOST, "SMERCONISH" (via Skype): Well, good morning -- and you're right, I have. I mean, I fully recognize that masks prevent transmission, but vaccination is what prevents hospitalization and death. And I think that needs to continue to be the focus.
And we've got these two pockets of individuals in the country -- one, who tend to be some stereotypical Republican version of white evangelical and rural. But another group -- admittedly, probably smaller based on polling data -- that are more urban and young and often Black, and they're refuseniks. You know, they're refusing to get vaccinated.
And the question is how do we reach them. And I've advocated for employer mandate, much like we have at CNN, much like we have at the law firm where I'm affiliated.
I think that the president came up short. That he should have absolutely required all federal employees to absolutely be vaccinated as a condition of employment, including all members of the military and government at all levels. Governors and mayors need to do likewise and set the tone for the private sector, which says we've now all got to be vaccinated. It's the only way out.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And right now, they have an exception. Most of these places that are instituting vaccine requirements are creating an exception that you can test out of. If you want to take onerous weekly tests you can get out of the vaccine requirements.
Michael, you have these Republican governors -- you have Greg Abbott, you have Ron DeSantis, who are not nearly not going the way of requiring public employees to vaccinate, they are making it impossible for stores, for instance, to require vaccines for customers.
And then in Florida, tangentially but not at all unrelated, DeSantis is telling schools you can't mandate masks in schools. And Broward County just crumbled and said OK, we're not going to do it even though we want to because we're afraid of losing school funding.
So what do you make of this?
SMERCONISH: So, you know, John, it's interesting because in that prior example where they're saying to the private sector you can't -- even the ship industry, which is such a critical part of that Florida infrastructure -- the tourism industry -- you can't go ahead and require that people be wearing masks. It seems antithetical to that private sector notion among Republicans that we're going to stay out of the way of business.
The issue with regard to Broward County and the masks is really troublesome to me for this reason. We're a couple of months away, probably, from those under the age of 12 being able to get a vaccination. If the argument today is well, it's a parental choice -- and that's what Abbott says in Texas and that's what DeSantis says in Florida -- it's a parental choice as to whether children should have to wear a mask in a school setting. It's not something that should be mandated by the schools.
Well, what are they going to say days, weeks from now when we all want kids under 12 to be vaccinated? Will that, too, be regarded as a parental choice? Because I can tell you in order to begin school in those states there are a certain number of vaccinations that students need to have. So are we going to say you don't need to be vaccinated in order to go to school when we reach a point that vaccination for those under 12 is appropriate?
I'm really worried about that even more than the mask issue. This is just a sign of what's to come.
BERMAN: Let me give you a preview. Yes -- yes, of course, DeSantis and Abbott are going to block any kind of local vaccine mandates for kids to go to school.
SMERCONISH: Well, I think that's outrageous. I mean -- I mean, how can you distinguish that which is now raving the country from all those that are required? I think that hypocrisy is going to be a problem.
Are they playing to their respective bases? Surely, they are. It's the sort of issue that may guarantee someone nomination in a Republican primary but doom them in a general election.
KEILAR: Look, some -- you mentioned -- we're talking about Republicans here. We should also talk for sure about Democrats. As you mentioned, you think the Biden administration should do more.
And then when we look at New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said when it comes to teachers, he wants them vaccinated, right, but they can also do the testing. And that is what the teachers union has seized on. At the same time, he wants private business to mandate the vaccine. So there's clearly a calculation going on here.
How do you see politicians on the left making this calculation of not going as far as you think they should go? SMERCONISH: Well, I'm an equal opportunity offender -- at least I seek to be. And I look at those governors, those mayors, and the president as all being chief executives. You are employers, so that which you are asking of the private sector is something you need to lead on. And the resistance that they have to taking on the unions is something they've got to get over because I think that leadership now requires that large employers do exactly what our employer is doing.
[07:35:16]
BERMAN: Michael Smerconish, I happen to agree you are generous in your offensiveness.
(Laughter)
I think that's what you were saying there.
SMERCONISH: Yes.
BERMAN: Thanks so much for being with us. It was great to talk to you. And I think you raise serious issues here and I think people, in some ways, are -- you were very early in this, saying hey, look, you have to stick up for the vaccinated.
SMERCONISH: Right.
KEILAR: Michael, great to see you. Thank you so much.
SMERCONISH: See you, guys.
KEILAR: So what happens when there is an outbreak inside schools this month? That's going to happen. That's what doctors are saying. We'll have some new details on what will happen.
BERMAN: Plus, President Biden facing several headwinds, including a new record of unaccompanied children showing up at the border.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:40:11]
BERMAN: Millions of families across the country are preparing to send their children back to school and worrying about what happens if there is a COVID outbreak. Health experts say cases in schools really are inevitable.
Jacqueline Howard joins us now live from Atlanta with steps a school district should follow, Jacqueline, if and when that happens.
JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: That's right, John. Most schools are scrambling to get their plans in place, especially with the Delta variant circulating.
But most schools do seem to be following these steps that are recommended by the CDC. So if there is a COVID-19 case, they should isolate that case, trace the contacts, test the contacts, and quarantine those contacts who may have been exposed until their test results come in.
Now, different school districts I've talked to -- Denver Public Schools say they're working with local health officials to get their plans in place. Nashville Public Schools say they have school nurses on deck ready to identify cases. And then over in Seattle Public Schools, they have COVID-19 site supervisors on deck ready to address an outbreak.
But as much as having these plans in place is important, John, health officials also say prevention is important. CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said masks are now more important than ever. Have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: Everyone who is in a K through 12 school in the fall should be masked. Everyone across the country -- adults, children, vaccinated or unvaccinated -- everyone should be masked.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOWARD: And along with masks, John, we're also hearing school officials. Some are considering requiring vaccines for staff.
A White House coordinator -- COVID-19 coordinator, Jeff Zients -- he said that this is becoming a growing trend.
BERMAN: Jacqueline Howard, understandable why. Thanks so much for being with us this morning.
HOWARD: Thank you.
BERMAN: The White House under fire after a federal moratorium on evictions expired. What President Biden is doing with millions of renters now at risk of losing their homes.
KEILAR: Plus, new numbers show a troubling trend at the U.S.-Mexico border is far from over. We are going to break this down, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:46:31]
KEILAR: President Biden is facing headwinds right now, multiple. The COVID outbreak and the messaging around it. There's a blame game over the expiration of the eviction moratorium. Liberal infighting over his spending plans. And we also just got word there is a new record of children flocking to the border.
Let's talk about this now with CNN reporter Priscilla Alvarez and CNN White House correspondent John Harwood.
Priscilla, first off, it's been, with a lot of other headlines, easy to take your eye off of the border, but this is serious. Tell us what we're seeing with this new influx. PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN REPORTER: The Biden administration is still grappling with the growing number of minors at the U.S.-Mexico border. We learned last night that in July, more than 19,000 unaccompanied children were encountered. That already surpasses the record in March when we were talking about more than 18,000 in overcrowded border facilities.
Now, what the court finally noted is that this is one slice of an overall figure. So in July, DHS is anticipating 210,000 arrests. Now, this does include repeat crossers. It includes all migrants -- families, single adults, and children. But it is remarkably high, especially in the summer months. This is the time of year where we usually see a decline because of the summer heat.
So the Biden administration facing criticism here from the left saying they need to ditch a Trump-era border policy that allows border authorities to turn away migrants, and from the right that says this is a crisis of their own making.
KEILAR: There's also the issue of how are they housing, right, these young migrants who are coming? They've come under a lot of criticism.
Where does that stand? Have they improved facilities?
ALVAREZ: So, recall in the spring they opened up a lot of temporary facilities, and five of those remain open. And so, the administration is in a better position to start to locate these children -- two facilities run by the Health and Human Services Department, which is charged with their care.
So we're seeing less of the overcrowding of children at these facilities. But the filing said last night that generally speaking across populations, the majority of their facilities are actually overcapacity in the COVID capacity. So that is just very worrisome according to this filing.
KEILAR: Yes, that -- what are we going to see going forward.
And I wonder, you know, this is -- the administration always tries to avoid talking about how big of a deal what is happening at the border -- what it really is. This isn't the only crisis they're facing right now, though, John.
JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Look, everything looks worse for the Biden administration when you have a resurgence of the virus. So the Delta virus has kind of changed the filter through which the country is looking at the -- how the administration is doing.
For much of the year, they've had the wind at their back in terms of making progress against the pandemic and economic recovery. And when the Supreme Court ruled in June that the eviction moratorium was going to lapse at the end of July, it looked as if that was going to happen in the context of much better times on the pandemic and economically.
Now, all of a sudden, the Delta variant has changed that picture -- created a sense of crisis -- which it looked like it snuck up on the administration and Congress. It didn't, really. They knew it was happening, it's just the context changed.
And so, there's increasing pressure from the left for the administration to act and that happens right as they're trying to navigate this infrastructure debate where the left wants more spending than they can get through Congress right now. And so, the -- it's a huge governing challenge for the Biden administration to keep their coalition together and continue making progress.
KEILAR: What are they doing on evictions because this is at a critical time, as you mentioned, affecting so many Americans?
[07:50:02]
HARWOOD: Well, as you know, the liberals in Congress want them just to unilaterally extend it and dare the Supreme Court to stop them. They said they can't do that and that risks a bad precedent for future emergency actions.
So what Joe Biden has done -- he said yesterday he asked the CDC to see if they could find authority -- couldn't find it. So he's asking state and local governments to use money that's already been allocated to relieve the stress on landlords and renters. He's asking landlords to go slower and seek that money before they evict people, and asking state and local courts to slow down this process.
It's a very imperfect solution. There are a lot of people at risk. But it's the best the Biden administration thinks they could do.
There is a lot of money out there but again, it's sort of like these extended federal unemployment benefits, which are also due to expire, and that looks different now with the Delta variant. Biden was content to have that happen but now you're going to get pressure to extend those. And some of the state governors who had not wanted to spend that money to relieve landlords and tenants who are under stress -- he's tried to light a fire under them.
KEILAR: Yes, because some of them will say no. So we'll see if they do comply with the --
HARWOOD: They are saying that. Some of them are saying that.
KEILAR: We'll see if they comply with him.
Harwood, Priscilla, thank you so much to both of you.
Coming up, a NEW DAY special report on this new phase of the pandemic that we're in. We're going to talk about what you need to know about the Delta variant, the fast-changing rules on masks in schools and businesses, and whether a booster shot is on the horizon.
BERMAN: Our team of experts and doctors standing by to answer your questions when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:55:21] BERMAN: A Texas town with a high vaccination rate is still seeing a major spike in COVID cases and hospitalizations. City officials are scrambling to come up with creative strategies to get more shots into the arms of people, going anywhere they can to administer them that includes mobile vet clinics, recreation centers, and churches.
Ed Lavandera has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ten point two. (Speaking foreign language)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You're probably wondering what this pop-up veterinary clinic just outside of Austin, Texas has to do with controlling the latest surge of the coronavirus.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're out here doing COVID vaccinations today. Have you all been vaccinated or interested?
LAVANDERA (voice-over): This is what it means when you hear health officials say they're working to meet unvaccinated people wherever they might be.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you change your mind we're right under there under the red tent.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Austin public health teams partnered with a group called Emancipet, which provides veterinary care in underserved neighborhoods. These healthcare workers are looking for people like Camila Fortuna.
LAVANDERA (on camera): Did you know that today you might be getting the vaccine shot?
CAMILA FORTUNA, 8TH GRADE STUDENT: No. I was supposed to get it next week. This was a very unexpected surprise -- like, unexpected.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Camila's mother wants her vaccinated before she returns to in-person school.
At the same time, another mother and her two daughters sign up for vaccines.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did it hurt?
FORTUNA: No.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): The race to vaccinate is urgent. Nearly 44 percent of all Texans are fully vaccinated.
Coronavirus cases and hospitalizations across the state are quickly spiking. In the last month, hospitalizations have nearly quadrupled to levels not seen since the end of February. And Johns Hopkins University data shows the seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases has jumped from about 1,500 on July first to more than 7,800 in less than a month.
Despite the troubling trends, Gov. Greg Abbott is advocating a hands- off approach.
GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R), TEXAS: Well, there's no more time for government mandates. This is time for individual responsibility, period.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): The Republican governor issued executive orders prohibiting government agencies from requiring vaccines and banning mask mandates, even in school.
Austin Mayor Steve Adler says the governor is making it harder to fight the virus resurgence.
MAYOR STEVE ADLER (D), AUSTIN, TEXAS: You know, I fear that the politicization of this issue has rendered it something that we can't recover from.
LAVANDERA (on camera): I can't imagine you were thinking that you'd be facing this tragedy.
PATRICIA GARCIA, AUNT OF COVID-19 VICTIM: Absolutely not. Coronavirus wrecked my nephew.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Anthony Garcia was 28 years old, a former high school athlete in El Paso, Texas. His aunt, Patricia Garcia, says he was never vaccinated, got sick with COVID-19 at the end of May, and two weeks later he was dead.
LAVANDERA (on camera): I mean, what you're describing just sounds awful.
GARCIA: Absolutely. I -- my biggest fear was that he was scared.
LAVANDERA (on camera): Do you want Anthony's story to be a wake-up call for people hearing it?
GARCIA: If he had gotten the vaccine he would still be here.
FORTUNA: I'm a very nervous person. Like, very nervous.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Camila Fortuna overcame her nervousness and got the vaccine shot.
The 13-year-old middle-schooler says the vaccine will help her get back to school safely so she can keep chasing her dream of joining the Army and becoming a pilot so she can travel around the world.
FORTUNA: That's why I want to get vaccinated so, like, you know, that I can help the world that the world could get better and we can go back to normal life. And I also want to be safe and -- yes, that's why I want to get the vaccine.
LAVANDERA (on camera): I hear you.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Ed Lavandera, CNN, Austin, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We desperately want to be done with this pandemic. COVID-19 is clearly not done with us.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: COVID does not discriminate and everybody is vulnerable.
FRANCIS COLLINS, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: We're pushing up towards 100,000 cases a day now and particularly so in those hotspots where vaccination rates are still quite low.
DR. VIVEK MURTHY, U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: The Delta variant is the latest curveball. What we have to be ready to do is increase our vaccination rates while we are using mitigation measures, including wearing masks.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are no more beds left. These are the darkest days of this pandemic.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was a way to prevent this. There is a vaccine. It's like thinking you've walked out of a war and being told you have to go back in.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are still about 90 million eligible Americans who are unvaccinated.
DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: You don't screw around with this virus. This variant can kill you.
