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New Day Saturday

Police Grapple With Uptick In Crime And Trend Of Violent Weekends; Police Arrests Suspect In Connection With Multiple Shootings Near Phoenix; About 50 Portland Officers Leave Rapid Response Team But Remain On Force; Record-Shattering Heat Wave Bakes Western U.S. Raising Drought And Fire Concerns; Iran Elects New President As Biden Works To Secure Nuclear Deal; Israeli Military Launches New Attacks In Gaza This Week, Responding To Incendiary Balloons Launched; McConnell Slams Manchin's Proposed Changes To Voting Bill; Former Congresswoman Tells New York Times The Democratic Party Has "Lost Touch With Our Electorate. Aired 7-8a ET

Aired June 19, 2021 - 07:00   ET

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


[07:00:00]

COY WIRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The team to help them win gold.

AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: Incredible.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: No doubt in my mind he's going to get there. That is powerful stuff. Coy, thank you so much for bringing that to us this morning.

The next hour of NEW DAY starts right now.

WALKER: Good morning everyone and welcome to your NEW DAY. I'm Amara Walker, in for Christi Paul.

SANCHEZ: And I'm Boris Sanchez knew worries that we could be facing the start of a violent summer as police search for two men who tried to gun someone down as they were standing next to two kids.

Plus, why dozens of Portland Police officers are walking away from a special rapid response team.

WALKER: Also, much of the West Coast faces major drought and historic low levels of water, which is only expected to get worse. And should people who support abortion, like President Biden receive the Eucharist? U.S. Catholic bishops are about to weigh in.

SANCHEZ: Good morning and welcome to your NEW DAY. We're thrilled that you are with us. It is Saturday, June 19th. The Juneteenth, Amara.

WALKER: That is right. Good morning to you, Boris. How you doing this morning?

SANCHEZ: I'm doing good. Your coffee going well. I don't have any apple juice this morning to be honest with you. I'm running on water and beef jerky. WALKER: Beef jerky. Your, your morning routine is quite interesting, I have to say: apple juice, beef jerky. I'm just a coffee girl. But hey, whatever keeps us awake.

SANCHEZ: Got to get the protein in there, yes.

WALKER: That's right.

SANCHEZ: We begin this hour with police departments across the country hoping that there will not be a repeat of some of the gun violence that we've seen spiking over recent days. Already this year, there have been more than 280 mass shootings in America. That's according to data compiled by CNN and the Gun Violence Archive.

WALKER: Now, CNN defines a mass shooting as incidents in which four or more people are shot not counting the shooter. And data show, a roughly 40 percent increase compared to this time last year and around 65 percent more mass shootings compared to this point in 2019. There's also a concern about how brazen the violence is getting. In this morning, we're getting a look at a shocking attack in New York. A young man and two children, you see, struggling to avoid the gunfire of a shooter, opening fire in broad daylight in the Bronx. In this case, all are expected to be OK. Amazingly. CNNs Polo Sandoval is following this from New York. It is terrifying to see these children take cover. Polo, walk us through what we see in that video.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's incredible that these children actually, actually have to do that in broad daylight while walking down the sidewalk here. Now, CNN is reaching out to the NYPD to try to find out more about why this individual was targeted. But again, we should clarify here, again, that those two children were not hurt, at less, at least not physically. And as for the individual who was apparently the target of this, he is currently in stable condition.

Now, as we walk viewers through this video that the NYPD did release to try to turn up some leads, you can see a mass gunman approaches individual broad daylight on Thursday evening and then open fire on the individual in the red top here. He shot several times in the leg, taken to the hospital. The word we're getting he's in stable condition. And before we pull out of this video, it's also important to point out the incredible actions of that little girl.

That is a 10-year-old little girl and a 5-year-old little boy, her quick-witted actions here, and incredible to see she pulls that little boy back onto the ground and then uses her body to shield him, possibly obviously saving his life here. So, it's just incredible, and it really does speak to this the remarkable nature of this, of this story here. Certainly not a mass shooting, but nonetheless shocking as investigators try to get to the bottom of it. They're trying to track down that masked gunman and also the individual that was apparently driving the scooter that was used as the getaway vehicle. Guys.

WALKER: It is heartbreaking that those children had to go through that along with the other victim. Polo Sandoval, thank you so much.

In Arizona, police are trying to pin down a motive behind a series of eight separate shootings all allegedly carried out by a 19-year-old.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SGT. BRANDON SCHEFFERT: We don't know the nexus. We don't know what the motive was. We don't have an idea of what this person was thinking when he went on and did this. Obviously, we want to figure that out, because there's a lot of scared people a lot of people who this affected.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: CNN's Josh Campbell has been following the latest he filed this report.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Police in Arizona have identified the suspect they believe is responsible for Thursday's shooting that killed one person and injured 13 others. 19 year old, Ashin Tricarico of Surprise, Arizona was taken into custody by officers following a shooting spree that lasted over an hour. Authorities say they have not yet identified a motive, but the suspect has been booked on first degree murder, multiple counts of aggravated assault, multiple counts of engaging in a drive by shooting, as well as endangerment.

[07:05:02]

Now, CNN is attempting to locate attorney information for the defendant. We're also learning new information about the victims in this shooting. They range in age from 19 to 56, men and women of various races, police tell us. The person who was shot and killed was a 56-year-old man who police have not yet identified. They also tell us that in one of the cars that was targeted, there was a 3-year-old child who was thankfully not hit.

To recap this horrifying violent scene. Thursday near Phoenix Police say that at least four people were shot, one fatally, as a gunman went on a shooting spree in the city's Northwest suburbs. Nine other people were hurt by shrapnel and debris during the rampage, authority said, noting they were tracking a total of at least eight separate incidents.

Police described the sheer chaos that ensued as officers arrived on the scene of one of the shootings realizing very quickly that there were other incidents being reported around the area. Witnesses were able to get a vehicle description which was broadcast out to neighboring jurisdictions. It was a firefighter who spotted the suspect's vehicle as officers to send it on that location. They took the suspect into custody without incident.

Authorities believe the suspect was acting alone. They don't believe that there's any ongoing threat to the community. But obviously, several cities impacted by this tragedy. And yet another incident of a shooting in the United States says it surge that we have seen from coast to coast. Josh Campbell, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Josh, thanks for that. Dozens of police officers in Portland that have left a special team in protest after a fellow officer was indicted for allegedly excessive use of force.

WALKER: A video posted on social media shows the officer shoving a photojournalist to the ground and using a baton against her head during a protest last August. CNN's Dan Simon has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The encounter caught on camera.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Officers are taking lawful action. Stay on the sidewalk.

SIMON: A Portland police officer seen using his baton and shoving a woman to the ground, and then using the baton a second time, pushing her in the face.

TERI JACOBS, HIT WITH BATON BY POLICE OFFICER: I wasn't really aware of what was happening or like the pain that I was in until I was on the sidewalk.

SIMON: This August 18th incident is what led officer Corey Budworth to being indicted this week on misdemeanor assault charges. The district attorney emphasizing the need for consequences.

MIKE SCHMIDT, DISTRICT ATTORNEY, MULTNOMAH COUNTY, OREGON: The integrity of our criminal justice system requires that we as prosecutors act as a mechanism for accountability. Public trust requires nothing less.

SIMON: In response, about 50 members of the police bureau's rapid response team resigned in solidarity. They'll still remain on the force to serve in other areas.

CHRIS DAVIS, ACTING CHIEF OF POLICE, PORTLAND: You know if you put a human being through what they were put through, that takes a toll. I have to honor their perspective in this situation.

SIMON: Portland Police had an extremely difficult job last summer. Nowhere across the country did we see a sustained level of protesting against police misconduct as we saw in Oregon. Those officers part of a voluntary team that specializes in crowd control. Frequently encountering verbal taunts, but oftentimes rocks, Molotov cocktails and other dangerous objects hurled at them. These videos posted from the police perspective last July. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler sympathizing with the resigning officers in a statement writing, "I want to acknowledge the toll this past year has taken on them and their families. They have worked long hours under difficult conditions."

PETER MOSKOS, PROFESSOR, JOHN JAY COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE: It could happen again in these types of situations. Protests have been allowed to continue night after night after night. So, there's a there's a great series of events here where eventually Yes, the officers say we're not punching bags.

SIMON: A similar mass resignation took place last year in Buffalo, New York. 57 officers of its Police Department emergency response team resigned after two officers were suspended after this disturbing video surfaced showing a 75-year-old protester being shoved to the ground.

Now, we reached out to the police officer's lawyer but did not hear back. In the meantime, the Police Association is putting out a strong statement in support of the officer, it reads, "The location of officer Budworth last baton push was accidental criminal. He faced a violent and chaotic, rapidly evolving situation."

Now, what happens next isn't clear. But the mayor says he has the resources and personnel in place to deal with any community safety situation. Dan Simon, CNN, San Francisco.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Dan Simon, thanks so much for that. Ahead, this hour extreme weather from coast to coast. The West experiencing a brutal heat wave, some of the hottest temperatures ever recorded. We're tracking it off for you.

[07:09:35]

WALKER: Did I really see 130 degrees?

SANCHEZ: Oh, yes.

WALKER: My goodness. Plus, the fight in Washington over voting rights, what Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is saying about a compromise bill.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Listen to this, 100 degrees by 8:00 am. That is the reality many Americans are going to be waking up to across the western U.S.

WALKER: That is brutal. A record-breaking heat wave has left more than 40 million people under heat alerts and temperatures are expected to stay unusually high all weekend.

Meteorologist Allison Chinchar joining us now live from the CNN Weather Center with more and it's really read on that map there.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It is. Yes, it's actually 95 right now in Phoenix as we speak. It's only 4:00 am in the morning there, but it's 95 degrees. Again, think about just waking up already that warm. Yes, we've got the heat out to the west and some dry thunderstorm. So, we've got a ton of heavy rain in the southeast from the tropical storm but where we need the rain is out to the west.

Unfortunately, while they will get thunderstorms the vast majority of them will be dry, meaning they're not going to get much rain but they will get the lightning. And the concern there is that that could trigger some additional wildfires across much of the region here where you see the elevated and critical fire threat. In addition to very dry conditions, yes, you have the heat.

Take a look at some of these temperatures from yesterday: Death Valley getting up to 124 degrees that tied the record. Phoenix topped out at 117 yesterday. Fresno and Sacramento both breaking records by over four degrees yesterday. You have the excessive heat warnings and heat advisories in place for over half a dozen states out in the western portion of the country. And it's not just for today, this is going to be for the next several days.

[07:15:25]

You have the potential for 20 additional possible record highs, not only today, but also tomorrow. The vast majority of them are in California, but it's not alone. Look at Las Vegas, it really hasn't been cool. But maybe for a couple of days last week, they didn't make it to 90, one day last week. Otherwise, it's been incredibly hot, especially this week, topping out at 116 on Wednesday, likely to hit 115. Today, their all-time high temperature is 117. So, we're going to be very, very close to that in the coming days.

Now one thing to note is once we get to Monday, and especially Tuesday, you do start to see these temperatures come back down. And I get it, it's the Southwest when you think of hot places do you think of these regions. But even for the desert, these are very hot temperatures: Palm Springs, Las Vegas, Phoenix, these are all areas averaging about 10 degrees above where they normally are. And one of the contributing factors is when you have that intense heat mixed with the very dry conditions.

Again, you've got very bad drought conditions out there as well to take into account and those combining factors unfortunately, are what's leading to a lot of the wildfire concerns that are out there. Because you have the very dry conditions even some dry thunderstorms guys, but also those warm temperatures and that also makes it very difficult for the firefighters that are out there fighting the fires to deal with such intense heat.

WALKER: Wow. Allison Chinchar, appreciate you. Thanks so much for that. So, record heat and drought is draining the country's largest reservoir, Lake Mead. It is currently only 37 percent full.

SANCHEZ: Yes, and experts are afraid that capacity is going to drop low enough that it will limit the hydro power production at the Hoover Dam. CNN's Stephanie Elam as more.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Living in Southern Utah, cattle rancher T.J. Atkin is used to dry conditions.

T.J. ATKIN, CATTLE RANCHER: I can't control mother nature.

ELAM: But the current dryness is more punishing than anything he's ever seen.

How long has it been since you've had any meaningful rain here? ATKIN: In the last 15 months? Combined were, we're barely at three inches of precip in 15 months.

ELAM: And what would you normally see? Our annual for 12 months is nine inches.

For generations. His family has raised cattle on the same 210,000 acres in Northwestern Arizona.

ATKIN: By either got to haul water or I've got to take him to town and, and feed them for the next three months.

ELAM: Atkin drove us out to the rugged arid terrain of his ranch with temperatures well above 100 degrees, there were just a few signs of life until some of his cows came into view. But just some because there's not enough water out here to sustain them all.

ATKIN: I've relocated 80 percent already. I've sold some of them.

ELAM: Atkin water woes aren't his alone. Take a look at this U.S. drought monitor map. The darker the color, the worst the drought. Atkin ranch lies deep within that crimson red.

ATKIN: We have about 200 reservoirs, and every one of them is dry right now.

ELAM: Like dry.

ATKIN: Dry.

ELAM: Nothing.

ATKIN: We don't have a drop in any one of them, and we've never done that in 85 years, never once.

ELAM: Atkin' operation is in the Colorado River Basin, which is primarily fed by melting snowpack from the Western Rocky Mountains. The river then winds down to the Gulf of California, supplying water to seven states along the way. But the basin is now in its 22nd year of drought. This is clearly evident further down river at the end of the Nevada-Arizona border where the river flows into Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the nation, which 25 million people depend on for water.

Has it ever been this low before?

MIKE BERNARDO, LOWER COLORADO BASIN RIVER OPERATIONS MANAGER: It hasn't, not since filling in 1937. So, we are anticipating the lower basin to be in the first ever shortage condition in history.

ELAM: In fact, Lake Mead is 143 feet below full capacity and has shed a mind boggling 5.5 trillion gallons of water in the last 20 years.

Those low water levels mean power generation at the Hoover Dam is down 25 percent

BERNARDO: No one can really tell with any certainty, but we can all hope that the future will be wetter.

ELAM: For his part, Atkin is hoping for a wet monsoon season this summer to replenish his dry ponds and keep his cattle business afloat.

ATKIN: Record judge more water in one week than we've caught in three years.

ELAM: But if not, he predicts the entire country will be impacted by this unprecedented Western drought.

ATKIN: Is such a large area. I mean it's almost half of the United States now. If this goes one more year, it'll have a huge effect on everyone.

[07:20:10]

ELAM: And scientists say that climate change is part of the problem here that these punishing temperatures are causing the drought and that the drought is then leading to more of these super high temperatures. Stephanie Elam, CNN, in the Colorado River Basin.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: It's a bad cyclical event, really concerning. All right, coming up, a historic summit: President Biden needs Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the White House and Republicans offer sharply different views of how that meeting went. Was it a success? We'll discuss.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is moving forward with a plan that could deny communion to public figures who support abortion rights.

WALKER: Yes, the bishop's voted on a document to receive the Eucharist, a move which could set up a potential rebuke of President Joe Biden who has advocated for women's reproductive rights. Joining us now from Rome is CNN Senior Vatican Analyst, John Allen. Hi there, John. So, what more do we know about this move?

[07:25:21]

JOHN ALLEN, CNN SENIOR VATICAN ANALYST: Hi there, Boris and Amara. Yes, so this came in a vote of the U.S. Bishops Conference this week. But it is important to remember the bishops were not actually asked to vote on whether or not to deny communion to President Joe Biden. They were asked to vote on whether they want to draft a document on the Eucharist, which is the sacrament in which the Church teaches Catholics received the body and blood of Christ.

This at a time when polls show lots of American Catholics don't believe what the Church teaches about the Eucharist. So, lots of those bishops actually could have voted for this document without taking any position on the Biden question. We won't know where they actually stand on that until November when an actual draft of this document is put before them.

SANCHEZ: So, John, help us understand exactly how that might look. What are what sort of parameters are there for this document that would essentially lead to a question of whether Joe Biden can receive communion?

ALLEN: Well, there apparently is going to be a section of this document about the rules for Catholics to receive communion which will probably say something like a Catholic before they receive communion should make sure that they are in sync with church teaching. And it is possible to draw a line from that in the position of President Biden and other Catholic politicians who support abortion rights and say they shouldn't be getting it.

However, that's not really a matter that a Bishops Conference can resolve. That's a question for individual bishops to resolve. President Biden happens to be in Washington, D.C., where the Bishop (INAUDIBLE) or Wilton Gregory has said that there will be no communion bands. So, hard to know exactly Boris and Amara, what the real world implications of this might be.

SANCHEZ: All right. We'll find out in November. John Allen, thanks so much for the report.

WALKER: Well, hours after the polls closed, Iran has elected a new president potentially adding a new challenge to President Biden's efforts to re-enter the Iran nuclear deal. Joining me now is Max Boot, Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a Columnist at the Washington Post. Long time, Max, good to see you this morning.

Yes, so first off, you know, this is a man, Abraham Raisi, who has been sanctioned by the U.S. and I know he's been seen as a potential successor to the Supreme Leader. This is an ultra-conservative, a hardliner. So, what does his election mean for the U.S.?

MAX BOOT, SENIOR FELLOW, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: I'm not sure it means that much because fundamentally, Iran's foreign policy and its national security policy in general, is under the control of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khomeini, who is the one who chose Raisi to be the president by essentially disqualifying all of his more moderate challengers. Now, Raisi is a very bad guy, he is responsible for terrible repression in Iran. As a judge, he is somebody who is considered to be very close to the hardliner, and who has expressed skepticism of nuclear talks with the United States.

But ultimately, at the end of the day, it's not going to be his call, and I think there's a general feeling that the supreme leader does want to get a deal done, if possible, because Iran would like some relaxation of sanctions, but it won't be easy in any case, and this just adds another burden to the rucksack that has been carried by the negotiators in Vienna.

WALKER: I'd imagine, though, for Iranians. I mean, they will see some changes, will they be experiencing more of a closed society, less freedoms in that country as a result? BOOT: Definitely, I mean, Iran is already a pretty repressive society, but this was just for closing any possibility of reform. And there's kind of a general sense that the Iranian political system is closing up and cracking down. And I think there's a lot of concern about what happens when Ali Khomeini, the grand, the Grand Ayatollah, he's 82 years old and, and said not to be in good health. So, that gives a lot of concern about what happens when he dies. And there is some expectation that Raisi could be being groomed to be his replacement. But in any case, this is bad news for Iranians who want some degree of freedom because clearly it's not going to be offered.

[07:29:37]

WALKER: The other big news this week was the Putin and Biden summit. And a lot of people wondering, you know, what was achieved as a result of the three-hour meeting. I want to first play for you, Max, rare praise that we hear from Putin during a video conference call with some recent graduates of a government management school. We don't have that sound bite, but he basically said that look, you know, "Biden is a shrewd and savvy negotiator." What do you make of what Putin has been saying and what this summit achieved if anything at all?

MAX BOOT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, It's hard to take anything that Putin says at face value because he knows how to play games. But, you know, I did read his body language in the press conference he gave after the summit, the things that he said, and he was relatively subdued. There was not a sense of that, that, that Putin was being triumphalist as he was in 2018 when he clearly had Donald Trump's number in Helsinki, which was a low point of the Trump presidency.

I think there's a clear sense that, in Geneva, Putin met a U.S. president who actually stood up to him and talked to him about issues that he doesn't want to talk about like human rights. And you saw that in Putin's press conference when he was asked very uncomfortable questions about, you know, jailing Alexei Navalny and other human rights violations. He kind of stumbled around in an answer, and I'm sure he probably stumbled around in an answer with Biden as well. But these are very important issues for a U.S. president to raise.

And in general, I think, you know, based on what we know from the summit, Biden laid out some red lines on Russian cyber-attacks and other types of misbehavior, while holding out some hope of cooperation on other issues like the Iranian nuclear program. And I think that's the right message to send.

It's not going to transform U.S.-Russian relations, and you know, Biden to his credit didn't have any illusions about a reset with Putin, but I think there is something to be said for communicating directly what your expectations are with Putin. And that -- and letting them know there will be repercussions for violating those expectations.

And so, you know, I don't think that the summit was a dramatic change in U.S.-Russian relations. But I think it was a very small step forward and we'll see what the consequences are based not on what Putin says but on how he acts. WALKER: Yes, what comes next? Right. When it comes to, at least, this working relationship between Putin and Biden.

I want to switch gears to Israel and Gaza, and we just saw Israel carrying out these airstrikes in Gaza after the Palestinians launched these incendiary balloons, and then, we saw the fires being sparked in Israel.

These the first time airstrikes have been launched under the new Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. We know he is a right-wing like Netanyahu, but he has a very diverse coalition, Max.

So, what, what does this new government under Naftali Bennett mean for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?

BOOT: It's a -- it's, you know, very hard to know for sure because it is such a diverse coalition with so many different viewpoints from the far-right to the very middle of the Israeli spectrum.

It probably doesn't mean any dramatic changes because there is not a consensus to do anything dramatic like offering land for peace or trying to restart in a serious way peace negotiation that seems unlikely.

But, I think maybe some degree of restraint, I think it's significant that at the same time that this new government was launching an airstrike. And I would point out, it was an airstrike on apparently an unoccupied building.

So, it was -- it was more symbolic than anything else. So, it wasn't really designed to kill a lot of people, just to send a message that this government can also respond militarily. But at the same time that this was happening, the government was also offering more than a million doses of COVID vaccine to the Palestinians.

Now, it's clear -- it's not clear whether that offers going to be accepted, but I think that was a message of reconciliation and goodwill, which I think suggests that it will not -- this new government will not be as hardline as the one that it replaces.

WALKER: Perhaps a positive sign. Max Boot, appreciate you joining us this morning. Thanks so much.

BOOT: Thank you.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Up next, Senator Joe Manchin's dream of bipartisanship waking up to a rude reality, as Mitch McConnell vows to block his compromise on voting rights.

So, what's the plan moving forward? We'll take you live to Capitol Hill for the latest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:38:34] SANCHEZ: There is a new battle over vote -- voting rights on Capitol Hill. Democratic Senator Joe Manchin desperately trying to find 10 Republicans to support his compromise on an elections overhaul bill. That's the magic number that he needs to defeat a Republican filibuster.

WALKER: And voting rights advocate Stacey Abrams actually praised his proposal, but minority leader Mitch McConnell is vowing to block it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): Equally unacceptable, totally inappropriate. All Republicans, I think will oppose that as well if that were to be surfaced on the floor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: OK, no mincing words there.

CNN's Daniella Diaz is live on Capitol Hill. Daniella, what more can you tell us?

DANIELLA DIAZ, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Well, everything you all said was exactly correct leading up to this. You know, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer is forcing a vote on this sweeping voting rights package this Tuesday; really emphasizing that this is a priority for Democrats.

But look, it's going to fail as it stands right now. This vote will not pass through the senate.

So, why is Chuck Schumer doing this in the first place? Well, it's to send a message to the American people on where Democrats and Republicans stand on this issue of voting rights.

You know, there was a back and forth even within the Democratic Party on this issue. You all mentioned Senator Joe Manchin, a moderate from West Virginia, who -- a moderate Democrat from West Virginia who was not behind this legislation at first, and then, proposed his own changes to this legislation that you said, as you mentioned, Stacey Abrams, arguably the leading Democratic voice on this issue of voting rights, backed his changes to the proposal.

[07:40:13]

DIAZ: You know, some of these changes included, you know, things like Election Day -- making Election Day a federal holiday, banning gerrymandering, and a voter I.D. requirement that requires a utility bill as an alternative.

But look, even as Joe Manchin backs this legislation and is trying to get Republicans behind it, it still virtually guarantee to lack the Republican support needed for this legislation to pass through the Senate.

And even Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (INAUDIBLE) that sound you played, is against this legislation and rallying Republicans to not back this. Saying that it -- this -- even with Manchin's proposals, it contains the same rotten core, his quote, as the original For the People Act.

So, the bottom line here is that Republicans and Democrats are so split on where the federal government stands on trying to change any issues on voting rights through the country, that it's unlikely they'll ever be able to meet in the middle on this issue. Amara, Boris.

WALKER: So much for any optimism regarding Manchin's compromise proposal.

Daniella Diaz, thank you so much.

SANCHEZ: Joining us now to discuss voting rights and a slew of other issues is former Florida Congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel-Powell. Thank you so much for joining us this morning, Debbie. Great to have you on.

I want to get straight to that reporting from Daniella on Capitol Hill. Republicans expected to filibuster this voting bill that Manchin had a hand in crafting. Some Democrats are hoping that this is going to spur him to move forward with ending the filibuster, he has vowed that he will not do that. What's your message to Joe Manchin?

DEBBIE MUCARSEL-POWELL, FORMER CONGRESSMAN, FLORIDA: Good morning, Boris, and happy Juneteenth to everyone. Look, I think that the definition of crazy is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

We know that Mitch McConnell is going to block any attempt to bring a bill that's going to protect voting rights. He has been very clear from the beginning, he's been blocking Democrats' attempt to bipartisanship, has been for the last decade.

And what is the consequence? He gets elected last year in the election. So, they will block the attempt by Senator Manchin. We are running out of time. I think that right now, our democracy is hanging on by a thread, and this is the opportunity that we have, to make sure we pass legislation that's going to protect our voting rights, individual rights, pass legislation that's also going to protect us from the violence that we've seen, especially after January 6th.

SACHEZ: So, I want to point out, you're not only concerned about access to the voting booth, but also your party standing with people of color, and specifically Latino voters. When you narrowly lost your congressional seat last November, you listed, "A national party that thinks racial identity is how we vote," on Twitter as one reason.

You also told The New York Times that you think that your party has, "in some ways lost touch with our electorate." Spell it out for us, what is it exactly that concerns you?

MUCARSEL-POWELL: Look, we've made the assumption -- the Democratic Party has made the assumption that people of color are going to vote for us, because the reality is that our party votes and works for the values that are important to the Hispanic community, but we have failed to communicate that in the way that we need to.

And so, what we saw in 2020 is a Latino community that really started to split and vote for Republicans, because they had been present, they had been communicating with them. But also, because they had been spreading misinformation, targeting Latino communities.

And so, we need to make sure that we're combatting misinformation, we need to make sure we get back in touch with our Latinos, Latinas all over the country. I can tell you that the Hispanic community here in South Florida don't have a party allegiance. They've come fleeing violence from countries like Venezuela. They've only been here 10, 15 years.

But the values that are important to them like education, family values, making sure that they have the opportunity to make it are the values that we fight for.

So, the Democratic Party needs to make sure that we are present that we're communicating hardly. But most importantly, Boris, we need to combat the misinformation that continues in Spanish media.

Just to give you the example, they continue to spread the lies that there was election fraud. They are talking about the voter counts on Maricopa County, and they are being also spread by the Republican- elected officials here in South Florida like Maria Elvira Salazar and Carlos Gimenez.

So, we need to do a better job with communicating with our communities here in Florida and all over the country.

SANCHEZ: A couple of things I want to dig into, before I get to the question of misinformation, I did want to ask you, because I'm from South Florida.

[07:45:01]

SANCHEZ: And when I talk to a lot of my friends and their families, there's real concern, there's fear that the Democratic Party is moving in a direction that they do not like.

You mentioned people fleeing violence in other countries, progressives are pitching socialist policies. So, how would you bring someone into your tent, people who in my family who fled their homeland, who risked their lives in many cases to escape socialism, to escape communist regimes?

MUCARSEL-POWELL: Well, first of all, let's start by saying there's no socialism in this country. They will -- there will never be socialism in this country. We are based on a capitalist economy, free-market economy, but what we do as Democrats is fight for economic policies that are going to provide opportunities for everyone.

And Boris, my story is a testament on what is possible in this country. I'm an immigrant, I came here from Ecuador, and then I was elected as the first South American to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. That's the story that we need to make sure that the Democrats tell over and over again that regardless of who you are, where you come from, we are going to make sure that you have the opportunity to be whoever you want to be here.

And I am in agreement with you. I think that some members of our party are losing touch with what's important to the Latino community here and in America. And the message maybe is not being portrayed in the right manner.

But at the end of the day, the policy, let's go back to what we do. We passed the American Rescue Plan, Republicans voted against it. But we are the ones that are making sure that they have the pay that is going to give them a fair and just living here, we are investing in education, we are investing in child care, but we have to be present.

Republicans are doing that well here in Florida, it's all over Spanish media. What you hear in Fox News, you hear in Spanish radio stations here as well. And they have used Florida as a testing ground, and they're doing it all over the country; in Texas, in California, in Arizona.

So, we have to do a better job of communicating. We can't lose touch with our voters.

SANCHEZ: Debbie, I want to make sure we get in a question about misinformation. Very quickly, you wrote a letter to the FBI last fall, asking for an investigation of disinformation campaigns targeting Latinos. Have you heard back?

MUCARSEL-POWELL: I have not, and I have actually been in communication with my former colleague and good friend, Representative Joaquin Castro. We cannot allow the FBI to just ignore this. Because like I said, after the January 6th insurrection, Boris, they have dug in, they continue to spread lies, they are refusing to accept the fact that we had an attempted coup in our Capitol, and this was incited by Donald Trump and his followers.

And we have to investigate and understand where all of this comes from, where the funding came from to not only incite this violence, but to continue to spread the lies that it wasn't Donald Trump inciting this, and that there wasn't an attempted coup.

So, I encourage my friend, Representative Castro to follow up with the FBI and make sure that we understand where all this missing information is coming from.

SANCHEZ: All right, we have to leave it there. Debbie Mucarsel Powell, thank you so much for all the time.

MUCARSEL-POWELLL: Thank you, Boris.

WALKER: All right, up next, the Biden administration races to meet its July 4th vaccination goal and the pressure is on as fears of the more contagious delta variant is growing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:52:39]

WALKER: President Biden marked a milestone yesterday. 300 million COVID-19 shots in 150 days for the U.S.

SANCHEZ: Yes, though Biden did warn unvaccinated Americans that they are still at grave risk of contracting the virus. CNN White House reporter Jasmine Wright is traveling with the president in Wilmington, Delaware this morning.

Good morning, Jasmine. What is Biden saying about trying to hit that July 4th goal of having 70 percent of the country vaccinated?

JASMINE WRIGHT, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: That's right. And look, what he announced yesterday, as you said, it's a major milestone Amara and Boris, but the president's message wasn't all positive yesterday.

As you said, he tried to balance out celebrating the progress as this country has made with warning Americans that haven't yet got their shot. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And the truth is that deaths and hospitalizations are drastically down in places where people are getting vaccinated. But unfortunately, cases and hospitalizations are not going down to many places in the lower vaccination rate states.

The science and the data are clear. The best way to protect yourself against these variants are to get fully vaccinated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WRIGHT: So, the president spoke as his administration is trying to convince more Americans to get their shots in their arms so they can meet that goal of July 4th.

They want 70 percent of U.S. adults to have at least one dose of their vaccine, 160 million to be fully vaccinated by then.

But as it stands right now, Amara and Boris, they are a bit of a way away. As of Friday, 65 percent of U.S. adults have had one shot, nearly 143 million adults are fully vaccinated, and only 15 U.S. states have hit their president's marker. And the U.S. is administering only 1.3 million doses a day.

So, less and less people are getting their vaccine. So, we'll be watching to see -- watching to see exactly what this administration does to get those people to get their shots.

Of course, we saw the vice president wrap up a week-long tour trying to get people -- trying to defeat vaccine hesitancy, get people with those shots in their arms. But one unknown that we don't exactly know is that delta variant. That's more contagious dominant in the U.K., and people over here are concerned about it.

[07:54:59]

WRIGHT: President Biden said that he did not think that it would cause the country to have major shutdowns because so many people at this point have been vaccinated.

Amara, Boris?

SANCHEZ: Jasmine Wright reporting from Wilmington, Delaware. Thank you so much.

Hey, stay with NEW DAY. We'll be right back after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALKER: There is new research that reveals just how many fruits and veggies you'd need to eat each day to stay healthy. In today's "FOOD AS FUEL", CNN health reporter Jacqueline Howard has more.

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: Five is your lucky number. That's how many servings of fruits and vegetables you need each day to help lift your longest life.