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New Day

Hospitals Overrun with Mostly Unvaccinated Coronavirus Patients; Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) Fights Vaccine Mandates Citing Papers for Basic Activities; Shadow War Intensifies Between Israel and Iran. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired August 06, 2021 - 07:00   ET

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


VICTOR MATOS, FOUNDER, MATTERS OF SPORTS ATHLETIC LEAGUE: Difference, and we might have pushed that child in a positive direction is every award in the world.

[07:00:05]

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Brynn Gingras, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN NEW DAY: An amazing of what a difference one person can make there.

New Day continues right now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. It is Friday, August 6th.

And we are learning that today, the governor of New Jersey plans to announce that all students K through 12 will be required to wear masks in schools in that state.

Now, this is a big change from where he was just one week ago. He was with us here on New Day and said, no, there would be no statewide order. He would let local school boards decide for themselves, but that's just how fast things are changing with the delta variant.

In some states, mostly the south, ICUs are overrun, medical staff pushed to the brink. But the governors in Florida and Texas won't let businesses, towns or school boards address the crisis the way some of them want, even though Florida is now seeing record hospitalizations. This morning, more COVID patients are in the hospital in Florida than any other state in the nation.

Phil Murphy, the governor of New Jersey we're just speaking about and other elected officials, are losing their patience with the unvaccinated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. PHIL MURPHY (D-NJ): These folks back there have lost their mind -- you've lost your minds. You are the ultimate knuckleheads. And because of what you are saying and standing for, people are losing their life. People are losing their life.

GOV. LARRY HOGAN (R-MD): Those of you who refuse to get vaccinated at this point are willfully and unnecessarily putting yourself and others at risk of hospitalization and death. You are the ones threatening the freedoms of all the rest of us.

Please, just get the damn vaccine.

MAYOR JOHN DENNIS (R-WEST LAFAYETTE, IN): There are people that still think this is something we have made up.

I lost my temper at a council meeting recently and referenced them as unvaccinated assholes. And, unfortunately, that sometimes is accurate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: You heard from a Democratic governor there, a Republican governor, and then that was the Republican mayor of West Lafayette in Indiana. He has since apologized for his bad language, but he says he fears he may have to shut his city down again.

KEILAR: There are signs that the public vaccination campaign is working. The White House says daily new vaccinations over the past 24 hours are at their highest level in more than a month. And overnight, CNN learned that talks are underway in the Biden administration to accelerate the pace of vaccinations. One possibility is withholding federal funds from places like nursing homes until vaccination requirements are met.

We have reporters covering this and all of the major developments in states around the country.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I'm Jeremy Diamond at the White House, where the Biden administration is having preliminary discussions about ways it can use the federal government's powers to leverage more vaccinations in the United States.

Now, these discussions, while preliminary, they do include, we're told, initial discussions about ways to withhold federal funds from nursing homes and other institutions unless they require vaccinations among their staff.

Now, these steps would mark a significant step towards a much more muscular federal vaccination campaign, but a White House official stressing that there are no imminent policy decisions at this time.

LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Leyla Santiago in Miami. Florida now leading the nation when it comes to COVID-19 hospitalization, the Florida Hospital Association warning that 60 percent of hospitals will face critical staff shortages in the next seven days.

So, we're seeing additional measures being taken by places, like Jackson Health System, now announcing that it will have a vaccine mandate for all of its health care workers and Miami-Dade County also announcing that it will require testing of all county employees.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Miguel Marquez in Birmingham, Alabama, where a lot of the numbers here are not pointing in the right direction. Infections are up, hospitalizations are up, the delta variant, highly infectious, highly contagious taking hold here in the Cotton State.

But there is a glimmer of hope. Some vaccinations are up. People are getting vaccinated slightly higher level in Alabama today than they were, say, a month ago. In part it's because things are opening back up again.

As masks go away, as social distancing goes away and as the wider economy opens up and schools get going, parents, young people, others, there's a hard group -- hard core group that will not ever get vaccinated here, but there are a lot of people who are now making decision to get the shot.

[07:05:00]

NADIA ROMERO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Nadia Romero in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. And here, the numbers for COVID-19 here keep getting worse and worse, yet another record-breaking day for hospitalizations, the state going in the wrong direction. Cases are up as well.

But when I talk to people about why they're not getting vaccinated, here we are on the north side of the Baton Rouge, and they tell us it's access to care is a big barrier. It can take them 30 minutes to an hour to get to the closest hospital.

KEILAR: You know, it should have been one of the most joyful experiences of her life, but for one Texas mom, giving birth to her newborn son in the same hospital system where her husband had died of COVID-19 just two months before brought back feelings of loss and heartbreak, seeing the same uniforms, hearing the beeping machines, the drip of the I.V.

Joining me is Maria Garza. Her husband, Jason, died in May when she was seven months pregnant. Maria, I want to thank you so much for joining us. I think we're at a critical point right now in this pandemic. And I think when people hear your story, they can really grasp just how much this pandemic has taken from people and has taken from you.

Can you start just by telling us about Jason and just how blindsided you were and unexpected it was to lose him?

MARIA GARZA, HUSBAND DIED OF COVID WHILE SHE WAS PREGNANT: Absolutely. Jason was the happiest person ever. It was his mission to make people laugh and to have a good time. And if anybody was having a bad day, he would try his hardest to turn it around for them.

When he got sick, we were expecting it to be like how I had it. I had a very mild case a year ago, but his was so different from the very beginning. And like you said, we were blindsided. About a week after he tested positive, I had to take him to the hospital because he couldn't take two steps from the restroom to the room without being so out of breath. And it was unbelievable how quickly he deteriorated and just unbelievable.

KEILAR: Yes. I mean, you say he had no co-morbidities, so that's why you expected this to be mild. He ended up intubated in the ICU. He spent months on a ventilator. What was that like for you as you were hoping that, you know, he was going to make a comeback at some point?

GARZA: That's right. It was stressful, to say the least. Like you said, I was pregnant at the time as well. So, taking it day by day, trying not to think too far into the future about treatments or when he was going to make it out of it, but it was just heartbreaking seeing him on a ventilator and his condition was changing day by day. So, it was the hardest thing I have ever had to go through.

KEILAR: You recently, like a few weeks ago, you gave birth. You and Jason have a toddler, three-year-old Isabella, but you gave birth to J.T., who is named after your husband, three weeks old, which is amazing. It's amazing that you have this beautiful gift. But I know it's a double-edge sword, as you are going through this and missing Jason.

What was that like when you were in the same hospital system where you had spent so much time where you lost your husband?

GARZA: Yes. It was difficult. I tried to focus on the reason that I was there, which was to welcome my son. But I couldn't ignore the similarities between -- they're all wearing the same uniforms, the gowns were all the same.

So, even though I tried to stay positive and tried to enjoy the moment of bringing my son into the world, it was bittersweet because it just brought back so many memories of Jason in the ICU.

KEILAR: I know that you, in his final moments -- he was listening to music, right? He was a musician. He was very into music. Can you tell us about that?

GARZA: Sure. Since he was 15 or younger than 15 years old, he played guitar, he played bass, he played drums.

[07:10:00]

It was his escape. He started so many different bands. That's how I met him, actually, it was through my brother. My brother and him started a band together.

And I would visit him in the ICU and I would play music for him. Rush and Black Sabbath were his favorites. And his brother helped me as well. His brother he came down from Kentucky. And If I can't visit him in the hospital, then his brother would be there playing music, playing videos of Isabella playing so he could have some familiar sounds. Even though he was in a coma on a ventilator, I think that us playing music for him sort of, I hope, settled him down a little bit if he could hear us. KEILAR: I know it's been hard, Maria, that he missed the vaccine so narrowly, right? You were vaccinated while you were pregnant. What is your -- there are a lot of people who are not getting the vaccine. What do you say to them?

GARZA: I say that if you are hesitant, please speak with your doctor. Do your research. We have to protect not only ourselves but kids that can't get vaccinated and our communities. The vaccine is the way to do that. I would still have my husband and my kids would still have their father if we had been able to get the vaccine before he got sick. It is so, so important to get the vaccine now more than ever with the variants.

I understand people's hesitance, but at the same time it's just so important to get the vaccine. I would hate for somebody else's family to go through what we went through. I don't wish it on anybody. And it's more scary not having the vaccine than getting it, in my opinion.

KEILAR: Maria, thank you for coming on this morning. I'm so sorry that your husband was taken from you and from your children. And I hope they are a continued blessing to you of something beautiful that you guys created together. Maria, thank you so much.

GARZA: Thank you.

BERMAN: You know, I just have to say, her is a profound, direct example but there's a generation for whom COVID and the reality we have all lived through, the impact will never go away, right? I mean, there is a generation of people for whom this will have a constant, continued, eternal effect on it, obviously. Maria, that's really as direct and as bad as it gets what happened to her and her family, but this will be with us in different ways emotionally and otherwise forever.

KEILAR: Yes. I think of Maria, her kids, Jason's family, her family and just this kind of this ripple effect of the pain and loss of losing one person, then you of over 600,000 people who are lost. I guess what I don't understand is some of the polls, Berman, they show that some people are worried more about the vaccine than getting COVID.

You know, there are 600,000-plus people who have stories like Maria's. It's not -- we're not interviewing people who have those stories because of the vaccine because they're not there. That is not the issue. Just look at these people. And it's heartbreaking.

BERMAN: It's a shame.

KEILAR: It is a shame.

Coming up, a former adviser to President Trump talks about just how close he came to an attempted coup.

BERMAN: Plus, the bizarre argument from Senator Ted Cruz about vaccine requirements.

And the MyPillow guy, Mike Lindell, pushing what could be his most bizarre election conspiracy yet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But if you're wrong, isn't that very dangerous?

MIKE LINDELL, CEO, MYPILLOW: But -- yes. But I'm not wrong. I've checked it out. I've spent millions. You need to trust me and come there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:15:00]

KEILAR: There's a debate across America over whether to mandate vaccines from inside the government to the workplace. And this is a serious issue, so, naturally, Senator Ted Cruz politicized it and laid the hyperbole on thick.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): We should have no COVID mandates. What does that mean? That means no mask mandates, no vaccine mandates, that means no vaccine passports. We shouldn't step into a regime where the government says, show us your papers if you want to do the basic activities of life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So, Cruz argues you shouldn't have to show papers, which I imagine would include a license, a permit, a proof of I.D. for the, quote, basic activities of life. Except, here is a list, you need papers to drive, to fish, to hunt, to buy booze, to buy cigarettes.

KEILAR: You need papers to purchase a home, to file taxes if you want to rent a car, an apartment, if you want to take home a library book, you need papers for car insurance, for car registration.

BERMAN: To dance at a nightclub, to open a bank account, to get a job, to literally walk into the building of said job, to go to the doctor, to book a hotel room.

KEILAR: You need papers to get your kids into school, to get married, to do bench presses the gym, to see an R-rated movie, to get a credit card.

[07:20:04]

BERMAN: Also, this is nothing new or extraordinary or unprecedented. Here's a brief list of the current vaccines required to go to some schools, measles, mumps, chickenpox, polio.

KEILAR: We also should point out, Berman, that Cruz is staunchly anti-papers except for when he's not.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRUZ: 29 states require voter I.D. It's a very reasonable common sense provision.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me go back to -- and what they really don't want is voter I.D. What they really don't want is signature verification. But you need an I.D. to buy a six-pack, for crying out loud, or to get in the Capitol or get in the White House.

CRUZ: Yes.

General, the photo I.D. laws help protect the integrity of elections?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely.

CRUZ: Solicitor General of Texas, I led a coalition of states defending Indiana's photo I.D. law before the United States Supreme Court.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Papers. So it is worth noting things are not good in Texas with coronavirus. Nearly 8,500 people right now in the hospital, that's the highest number since February, the second highest in the U.S. behind Florida.

KEILAR: The state is averaging 12,000 new cases a day, the highest since February, before the vaccine was, of course, widely available. Houston's Texas Medical Center just admitted 300 COVID patients in a single day and top official in that county says they're heading toward a public health catastrophe, yet, Senator Cruz also says this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRUZ: I've taken the vaccine. I believe in vaccines. I'm encouraging people to voluntarily take it. But if somebody doesn't take the vaccine, they pose relatively little threat to me. They pose relatively little threat to someone who has chosen to take the vaccine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So, Cruz, is cool if he is safe. Good for him. But what about the economy, young kids, schools, the immunocompromised? And the words of Maria Antoinette, let them eat COVID?

One more thing on documents to put it in terms Ted Cruz might understand, you need papers to fly anywhere, domestically or internationally. Even, for instance, and I'm just spit balling here, Cancun.

So this morning, tensions between Iran and Israel are reaching a breaking point. We are live on the ground in both countries.

KEILAR: Plus, it is clear this morning that former President Trump attempted to orchestrate a coup after losing the election. We will break down all of the damning new evidence in a CNN special report.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:25:00]

BERMAN: Developing this morning, Hezbollah has just claimed responsibility for rockets fired into Israel overnight from Lebanon. It comes as Israel and Iran trade threats following a deadly attack on an Israeli-managed oil tanker. We have reporters in both countries.

First, I want to go to CNN's Hadas Gold, who joins us on route from Jerusalem to the Israel/Lebanon border. A lot going on where you are, Hadas.

HADAS GOLD, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: John, a lot going on. 19 rockets, according to the Israeli military, were fired from Lebanon into Israel just a few hours ago. Ten were intercepted by the Iron Dome System. Right now, we have no reports of casualty and the Israeli military saying they're responding by firing toward where the rockets came from.

But this is a very serious escalation because Hezbollah, the Iran- backed militant group that essentially controls Southern Lebanon, has taken responsibility. They have not taken responsibility for attacks into Israel in at least two years and they have not taken responsibility for rocket attacks since at least 2006.

Now, the Israeli military spokesperson saying that they do not want this to escalate into a full-scale war but they are prepared to do so.

It's also important to note the Israel military does not think that this attack was necessarily directed by Iran. However, of course, Iran backs Hezbollah. This comes just one day after the Israeli minister of defense, Benny Gantz, was asked directly is Israel ready to militarily strike Iran. This is in a television interview. And he gave a one-word answer, he said yes.

When he was pressed further whether that would be imminent, he hedged a little bit. He said that it's clear after recent events, especially on the attack on the Mercer ship that killed a British and a Romanian crew member, that Iran is not just an Israeli problem, that Israel and the world need to work diplomatically and strategically in order to try to thwart off any sort of threat from Iran.

But this is all coming at a very sensitive time. While rhetoric about Israel being able to attack Iran, it's not necessarily new, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would make such threats in the past, but this is such a sensitive time. Of course, we have rockets this morning. We have a new hard line president in Iran, a relatively new government in Israel as well, all of this a very sensitive moment while the Iran nuclear talks are potentially on hold. Very sensitive, very volatile and we'll continue to watch it. John?

BERMAN: Hadas Gold, thank you very much.

KEILAR: And let's head to Iran where a spokesman for the foreign ministry responded to Israel overnight. CNN's Fred Pleitgen is in Tehran joining us now. Catch us up here, Fred.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Brianna. Well, the Iranians certainly very angry at some of the things that the Israelis have been saying and also throwing some threats right back at the Israelis. In fact, one of the things that happened a day ago was that the head of Iran's very powerful Revolutionary Guard Corps, the general, Hossein Salami, he went down to that area to the Persian Gulf, where some of those maritime incidents had been taking place. And he said that Iran was ready for anything if the Israelis chose to attack.

He said the Iranian forces that are down there, which are massive, they have navy forces, they have surface-to-air missile forces, which, in 2019, shot down an American drone, he said all of those are fully combat-ready.

[07:30:02]

And he also said that if the Israelis tried any moves, that the Iranian response would be militarily and would not be a diplomatic response.