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NHTSA is Investigating Tesla; California's Endemic Covid Plan; Massive Storm Moves Across U.S.; Comparing Johnson and Biden's Sweeping Agendas; Eileen Gu Makes History at Olympics; Education Shaping American Votes. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired February 18, 2022 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: To an endemic approach to coronavirus. What's his strategy and will other states follow?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: And, ahead, he found out his wife went into labor just moments after winning the Super Bowl. Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Van Jefferson is going to join us live. And you'll never guess what he plans to name his baby.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: This morning, government safety regulators are investigating Tesla cars after reports of sudden and unexpected braking while the vehicle's autopilot was engaged.

CNN's Pete Muntean live with the details here.

What are they looking at, Pete?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, this is the latest government investigation in the reported issues with Teslas. First, there was concern about cars on Tesla's full self-drive, driving into emergency scenes along the side of the road. And now the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is starting a probe into why Tesla Model 3's and Model Y's are doing what's called fantom braking according to drivers.

[06:35:09]

NHTSA says this is happening while features of adaptive cruise control, or the driver assistance system, is engaged. Drivers report that the system is applying the breaks while their Tesla is driving at highway speeds. In some cases, repeatedly and at random over long trips. NHTSA says this could impact about 416,000 Teslas.

Now, the agency says it's received about 350 reports of this issue from drives. It's important to note here, there are no reports of deaths or serious injuries because of this. But just read some of these reports.

One driver says, quote, I was driving on cruise control at the posted speed limit of 80 miles an hour. The conditions were dry and sunny. And without warning, the car braked hard and decelerated from 80 miles an hour to 69 miles an hour in less than a second. The braking was so violent, this driver says, my head snapped forward and I almost lost control of the car.

Another driver says, since purchasing the car less than a month ago, there have been over 100 phantom braking events while using cruise control. It is incredibly dangerous.

One more complaint here. This driver says, quote, I have contacted Tesla service and they're stating that the car functions normally, and that this is normal behave. If this is normal behavior, this driver says, it is definitely unsafe. I have been almost rear-ended several times.

Now, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it's committed to holding manufacturers accountable in assuring they meet requirements to initiate a recall. In this case, a recall has not been issued just yet, John.

Maybe a bit of good news, though. Since Teslas are pretty advanced, any update could be sent over the air to fix this problem.

BERMAN: Look, if your car is braking and you're driving at highway speeds, you can understand why that would be a problem.

MUNTEAN: Yes.

BERMAN: Pete Muntean, thank you so much.

KEILAR: California is becoming the first state with a plan to shift from the pandemic to an endemic phase of living with Covid. And this is a plan that includes stockpiling masks and building up testing supplies, along with other things.

And CNN's Elizabeth Cohen is here to explain this to us.

This is something a lot of folks, a lot of other states are going to be looking at to see, is this something we should adopt?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, I think so. And the way that California put this all together is really great. They made it in a very simple way that you can see exactly what they're doing. They came up with a clever acronym, which is always a good idea, right? It helps people remember things. So, let's take a look at what their acronym is.

So it's SMARTER. So the "S" is for shots. And that's obvious, vaccines, get vaccinated. The "M" is for masks. And they're saying we're going to still require them in schools but by the end of the month we might reassess. Awareness. They're going to get really good at variant surveillance. And also communicating what those variants mean. And the communication part is so incredibly crucial. Readiness. Stock more ventilators, stock more masks, more tests. Testing. Increase the distribution. Education, expand vaccination sites at schools. And RX is -- stands for connect patients with medicines, which seems really obvious, like duh, but we're having real problems connecting patients with Covid medicines.

So, my first thought when I saw this was how wonderful that they put it together like this, which is true. My second thought, Brianna, was, this is what everybody should have been doing from the beginning, right? I mean this is public health 101. My third thought is, it's great to have a clever acronym. Now they need to act on it.

All of these things are hard to do, right? This is a lot of stuff. They need to act on it. They need to make it happen.

KEILAR: And so time will tell, right, how they're doing on that.

COHEN: Yes. If they really are SMARTER, right.

KEILAR: So, then we're hearing about this omicron subvariant. What is this? How bad is it? Should we be worried?

COHEN: You know, it really depends on how severe it is. So let's talk about what we know.

This is BA.2, which is actually a subvariant of omicron. It doesn't have its own Greek letter. At least not yet. We hope it doesn't gets one because it only gets one if it's bad, basically. So, it's more communicable and possibly more severe than omicron. But I want to -- the original. But I want to -- and I can see your face when I said the word severe.

KEILAR: Like, really? I thought -- well, I thought it was supposed to get less severe over time. So, it didn't get the memo.

COHEN: Well, it's possibly more severe. It didn't get the memo.

KEILAR: OK.

COHEN: But that's unclear. And we're hoping it turns out, of course, not to be more severe. It's been found in 47 -- I'm sorry, 74 countries and 47 states.

This is sort of the concerning things. It's become dominant in 10 of those countries. Like that's how communicable it is, that it's already dominant in 10 out of those 74 countries. But if it's not more severe, then it's just kind of another omicron.

The concern is that it's more severe. And they're continue to study that. But all you can do right now is do all the things that you should be doing, get vaccinated, get boosted, in the appropriate circumstance, wear a mask.

KEILAR: All right, so -- well, that's an open question and we know you'll keep following it so we can answer that as the science comes in.

COHEN: Yes.

KEILAR: Elizabeth, thank you so much.

COHEN: Thanks.

KEILAR: And it's great to see you here in Washington.

COHEN: Great to be here.

KEILAR: Up next, LBJ signed major legislation, like the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. But his decision to escalate the war in Vietnam overshadowed his legacy.

[06:40:05]

A new CNN series takes a look at his captivating presidency.

BERMAN: Like mother, like son. How this Olympic medalist surprised his mom who won gold 50 years ago.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: A massive winter storm making life wet and miserable for a huge section of the U.S. The National Weather Service confirming two tornados touched down Thursday in Alabama, where thousands are still without power.

So, let's go now to Chad Myers, our meteorologist.

And, Chad, I mean, I was just looking here in Washington, D.C., in the course of this show, it's going to drop 17 degrees.

[06:45:05]

That is how quickly things are moving and changing.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I know. It's 63 on the mall right now. By the time you get out of this show, it's going to be like in the 40s.

KEILAR: Yes.

MYERS: So, yes, this is the cold air. This is the cold air that made so much miserable driving across the Midwest yesterday as well. Tornados, severe wind reports and large hail as well.

This weather brought to you by the Jamaica Tourist Board, plan your vacation at visitjamaica.com.

So, let's get to it now. The storm is pulling away, but this is the cold front where the rain is right now. That's where the cold air behind it is, obviously, changing some of this water to ice. Be careful out there. There is some black ice reported around. Very still windy across parts of the east and the Midwest. And we already have the next storm system on tap for the Dakotas. Blizzard warnings already posted.

Now, that storm's going to be more like a clipper and come through with just a few inches of snow. Going through the UP of Michigan, across parts of Ontario and Quebec where, by the way, Ontario and Quebec picked up an awful lot more snow than all of us down here in the lower 48.

There's the snow forecast for tomorrow. Really only four to six inches. But temperatures right now are the warmest you're going to get in New York, D.C., even Atlanta. Temperatures go down all day.

Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes, yesterday was awesome. But today, not so much.

Chad, thank you.

MYERS: You're welcome.

BERMAN: So, the all-new CNN original series "LBJ: Triumph and Tragedy" provides a captivating look how President Lyndon Johnson managed to usher in one of the most sweeping domestic policy agendas in history. At the start of his first term of office, many wondered whether President Biden might have the opportunity to do the same thing.

Our Laura Jarrett's been looking into just that.

What did you find?

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR, "EARLY START": So, it turns out, John, that once in a generation changes to American life only happen once in a generation for a reason, whether it's on Build Back Better, voting rights, the climate crisis, or policing. If you don't have the votes in Congress, it's nearly impossible to get anything done. Something President Biden has found out the hard way.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JARRETT (voice over): Two presidents, skilled in negotiations of the Senate, promising bold action.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: To every American watching, help is here, and we will not stop working for you.

JARRETT: With a decisive win in 1964, President Lyndon Johnson swung for the fences with his plan for a great society. It's a history President Biden knows well, and a playbook he hoped to follow.

BIDEN: This bill puts working people in this nation first.

JARRETT: But legislative wins have been harder to come by.

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, there was a lot of talk of transformative legislation, of historic legislation. There was talk of FDR. There was talk of LBJ. And it was a trap for him because given the current set of circumstances, there's a limit to what he can get done.

JARRETT: Unlike Biden, President Johnson had basic math working in his favor.

JULIAN ZELIZER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Johnson has 295 Democrats in the House, 68 Democrats in the Senate. So, he had large majorities. President Biden has never had that.

JARRETT: And, unlike now --

AXELROD: LBJ also had people he could work with on the Republican side to compensate for the Democratic votes that he was losing from the south.

JARRETT: It's a harsh reality that has led to disappointment for Democrats on everything from Biden's sweeping plan to remake America's social safety net, to even modest attempts at police reform.

AXELROD: There's so much about having a 50/50 Senate and a closely divided House that makes it excruciating for a president because you have no margin for error.

JARRETT: Those fault lines in Congress exposed most recently as President Biden urged lawmakers to shore up voting rights. Some of the very protections signed into law by President Johnson.

BIDEN: I've been having these quiet conversations with members of Congress for the last two months. I'm tired of being quiet!

JARRETT: But Biden didn't have the votes for a new bill on voting. Plus, he didn't have this.

ZELIZER: When "Bloody Sunday" happens and Americans turn on the TV and see peaceful protesters, like John Lewis, getting beaten, it changes the temperature nationally.

JARRETT: While President Johnson's legacy may ultimately have been marred by the war in Vietnam, President Biden's first year in office has been dominated by the battle against Covid-19 and other woes. The question now is whether he can turn things around in time for the midterms in November and beyond.

AXELROD: The hope that he has is that the virus will recede, inflation will be tamed, and come summer, which is when people will really formulate their views, that people's attitudes will change. The problem that he has is that so much of that is out of his hands.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JARRETT: President Biden would say that he's not going to let the stalemate in Washington derail his agenda. He's looking to executive orders to get things done where he can and he's trying to highlight achievements, like the bipartisan infrastructure bill.

[06:50:06]

Later this month, he's also expected to name his pick for U.S. Supreme Court, hoping to cement his legacy with the first black woman appointed to the high court, as LBJ did in 1967 with the first black justice, Thurgood Marshall

BERMAN: Laura Jarrett, what an interesting look. Thank you so much.

JARRETT: Sure.

BERMAN: And you can watch the premiere of "LBJ: Triumph and Tragedy," this Sunday night at 9:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific only here on CNN.

So, China's Olympic sensation, Eileen Gu, making history at the games.

KEILAR: And school battles take center stage ahead of midterms. So, how will this shape how Americans vote. Harry Enten has our numbers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:55:01]

KEILAR: Superstar Eileen Gu made history at the Olympics overnight.

Coy Wire was there to see it, and he has more in this morning's "Bleacher Report."

Tell us about it.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Brianna.

Just 18 years old, Eileen Gu has just become the first free skier ever to win three medals at a single games. Gold in freeski halfpipe about seven hours ago, adding to her gold in big air and silver in slopestyle. Born and raised in San Francisco, competing for her mother's homeland, China, years of dedication, support from mom paying off. Two-time Olympic champ, model for Louis Vuitton and many others, model student, enrolling at Stanford soon. Eileen Gu doing exactly what she wanted to do at these games, and that's set a positive example for the next generation.

And Team USA figure skaters Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue, competing in their final Olympics, told me they're disheartened by the Russian doping controversy rocking their sport right now. But they also showed compassion for 15-year-old Kamila Valieva and her teammates who were in tears after that individual competition. Hubbell and Donohue, they will take home a bronze medal from their ice dance competition, but they were also part of the team event, Brianna, in which the Americans won silver. And they feel for those going home without any medal while Valieva's investigation continues. Here's part of our talk.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MADISON HUBBELL, 2-TIME OLYMPIC MEDALIST: It's hard to go home empty handed. We have our empty medal box waiting in our room. And we have no answer as to what the timeline could be for that issue to be resolved. So, it is really tough. And my heart goes out to everyone on all the teams.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Team USA's Hubbell and Donahue both showing compassion, understanding and concern, Brianna, for the integrity of their sport and for the Olympic spirit. It's a powerful perspective shared by a lot of the athletes I'm speaking to her at these Beijing games.

KEILAR: Yes, and the ripple effects of this controversy just hitting so many of them, it's really just a shame, Coy. Thank you so much for bringing that to us.

BERMAN: So, with midterms looming, Hillary Clinton addressed the New York State Democratic Party Convention with a rousing speech and some pointed words toward Democrats.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: But, as I said, don't get distracted. Don't let the extremes of any or either side throw us off course. Focus on the solutions that matter to voters, not the slogans that only matter on Twitter. Let's offer an alternative vision that inspires and motivates. Let's show that democracy works, that it delivers results for people and makes life better, fairer and more prosperous for everyone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: One of the issues highlighted, education. She went on the attack against Republicans, an area they've been trying to claim as their own.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: They will do nothing to invest in our schools or make college more affordable. They'll ban books, but do nothing about guns

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Again, education has become an issue where Republicans have made inroads. How much so? Senior data reporter Harry Enten here with me now to talk about that.

We saw this school board recall in San Francisco. What have we learned?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: I mean, look, San Francisco is a very blue place. I mean Donald Trump just got 13 percent of the vote. But look at the recall of the three school board members, 79 percent, 75 percent, 72 percent. All for the recall. So this isn't just in red areas. This is in blue areas too.

And when we take it back and look nationally, so this is the choice for Congress in 2022, among those voters who are extremely enthusiastic and say that education is extremely important to their vote, look at the choice for Congress, 59 percent for the Republican candidate, just 39 percent for the Democratic candidate. That is a very unusual split because education is usually an issue that helps Democrats.

And you get a pretty good idea why. Because why is education extremely important in your vote among those who are extremely enthusiastic? The number one concern is the curriculum. You hear Republicans saying it over and over again, we don't want CRT in our schools. Thirty percent say curriculum. That's actually ahead of the societal benefit of education at just 15 percent. And rounding out that top five, administration issues, which, of course, is something Republicans have really hit on.

BERMAN: We've got about 30 seconds left, Harry.

The Super Bowl's over, which means -- supposed to mean pitchers and catchers, baseball, but baseball ain't happening.

ENTEN: Baseball ain't happening, and nobody cares. Because baseball, the favorite sport to watch, just 11 percent say that now. Compare that to 1960 when it was 34 percent. This continual trend downward.

And look at youth in baseball. Favorite sport to watch in 2021 among those under the age of 30, baseball at just 7 percent. Football leads it. And look at soccer, even above baseball, at 10.

And, you know what, this is your favorite slide, so we're going to talk about it. Stars on Instagram. Baseball doesn't have stars. Look at that, Mike Trout, with just 1.9 million Instagram followers. Look at Lebron James, 112 million. Even Odell Beckham Jr. at 15.5 million. Baseball is just behind the times right now.

[07:00:01]

We were talking beforehand, people just don't seem to care.

BERMAN: No. And especially if they're not going to play.

ENTEN: Yes.

BERMAN: Harry Enten, thank you very much.

ENTEN: Thank you, sir.

BERMAN: NEW DAY continues right now.