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New Day Saturday

U.S. Now Leading The World With Highest Rate Of New COVID Infections; Moderate Dems Threaten To Derail Pelosi Strategy For $3.5T Budget Plan; Taliban Controls Half Of Afghanistan's Provincial Capitals. Aired 8-9aET

Aired August 14, 2021 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Well, good morning and welcome to your New Day. he wealthy. I'm Christi Paul.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Boris Sanchez. As the Delta Variant pushes hospitals to the brink officials approving a third dose of the Coronavirus Vaccine for people with immune system issues. We'll break down what you need to know.

PAUL: Also keeping up the fight. Texas Democrats are still refusing to return to work all in an effort to thwart restrictive voting bills from becoming law. In fact, they're now facing arrest. We are joined live by one of those Democrats coming up.

SANCHEZ: Plus interfering again. New intelligence shows that Russia is actively working to meddle in the upcoming 2022 elections. The new tactics security officials are seeing despite President Biden's warning to Russia just a few weeks ago.

SANCHEZ: And pushed to the limit. Nurses across the country are so overwhelmed by what they're seeing in hospitals that some are walking off the job, just to protect their mental health. One nurse is with us live. Talking about why he decided it was just time to step away.

Take a nice deep breath. You made it to the weekend. Saturday, August 14. Thank you so much for waking up for this. Hey, Boris.

PAUL: Hey. Good morning Christi always great to be with you. We do start with some somber news though. The United States now leading the world with the highest rate of new COVID cases. Just in the month of August alone, the country reported more than 1.5 million new cases of COVID-19.

PAUL: And we're seeing more severe cases of COVID-19 in this latest wave. We have to point out it's predominantly in the south. Eight States, you see them there now, account for more than half of the COVID hospitalizations nationwide. States such as Alabama and Mississippi have fewer than 100 beds available, which means if any non-COVID related emergencies should happen, hospitals will eventually have to turn people away. And this time, we're seeing more cases among children. In fact, here's

what Dr. Fauci had to say about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, CHIEF MEDICAL ADVISER TO PRESIDENT BIDEN: The Delta variant is much more highly transmissible than was alpha. So given that you will see more children likely get infected. And since you have a certain percentage of children, even though the percentage is small, certain percentage of children will require hospitalization. So quantitatively, you will see more children in the hospital.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: We should point out that the overwhelming majority of these new cases of those who are sick with COVID are people that are unvaccinated. So this is largely preventable. CNN's Polo Sandoval joins us now live. Polo, there is some good news. People are seeing these numbers they likely have seen loved ones get ill and reality is setting in because the number of new vaccinations is on the rise.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And add to that too a new opportunity for some of those who are immunocompromised to perhaps secure yet another layer of protection with a third dose here. We're going to get to that in just a second. But first another sobering statistics that's coming from the White House right now that says both Texas and Florida alone right now accounting for roughly 40 percent of new hospitalizations, as Dr. Peter Hotez, our health experts said from Texas yesterday, when you look at the situation in Southeast, it is looking very ominous.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: For the first time some Americans with compromised immune systems will be able to get a third dose of COVID-19 Vaccine. The vote by the CDC's Advisory Panel on Friday was unanimous. The FDA is revised emergency use authorization only meant for people with moderate severe immunosuppression.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: They put a list out, the CDC did on their website of the types of conditions that would sort of fall into this category. And we can show you some of that there. I mean, people who, for example, have received organ transplants, and they're taking medications to prevent rejection of their - their transplanted organs.

People who've recently been through chemotherapy, people who may have autoimmune disease and take medications to tamp down their immune system for that reason. It's an exhaustive list.

SANDOVAL: It's on the honor system. So no prescription or doctor's note will be needed, though some experts saying eventually we could see others getting a third dose of the vaccine.

DR. PETER HOTEZ, CO-DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR VACCINE DEVELOPMENT AT TEXAS CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: I think it's going to broaden over time similar to Israel. We've seen now information from the Mayo Clinic this month that we are seeing a decline in the ability of more of the Pfizer Vaccine than Moderna to protect against infection.

SANDOVAL: Meanwhile, ICUs are filling up mostly with the unvaccinated. Florida reported more COVID-19 cases over the past week than any other seven-day period of the Pandemic. That's according to the latest data from Florida's health department. In Broward County, Florida, three teachers in the same school district died in a span of 24 hours and two more are hospitalized.

Broward county also ground zero for the fight against the state Governor's attempt to ban mask mandates in schools. School Board has defied governor DeSantis as he continues to threaten to cut funding and salaries.

[08:05:00]

The district keeping the masks mandate in place.

Anna Fusco, president, Broward Teachers Union: Hearing of three of our educators in one day and two of our other community members that passed away, it was - it was really a really strong blow. So I'm extremely happy that our school board and our superintendent are going to enforce the masks mandate. I am thrilled to hear that our president of the United States is backing all of Florida school boards and superintendents that are going to take that position.

SANDOVAL: At least three schools in Mississippi have temporarily closed following an outbreak of COVID 19 cases and in Gwinnet County, Georgia 679 positive cases between students and staff since the start of school on August 4. Even States that have traditionally done well against the virus are getting hammered by the Delta variant with Oregon and Hawaii, both setting records for new cases on Friday.

GOV. DAVID IGE (D-HI): Friday 13 has never been so frightening. It is real, it is terrifying. And tragically, it's preventable.

SANDOVAL: Vaccine providers CVS Health says that it is already prepared to actually begin administering those third doses to those people who actually qualify those as soon as today. Now, we do also understand that there are multiple protocols in place to try to prevent so called sort of triple dosing from actually happening for those who are not right now, for those who it's not recommended, because ultimately, Boris and Christi, it's going to boil down to honesty to make sure that those third doses go to some of those folks who have not been able to secure that adequate antibody protection for themselves.

SANCHEZ: Yes, an important moment in the fight to eradicate COVID. Polo Sandoval, thank you so much.

SANCHEZ: Dr. Peter Hotez with us now. He's director at the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine development and author of the book, 'Preventing the Next Pandemic.' You saw him in Polo's piece there, talking about Doctor, the decline of the Pfizer Vaccine to protect against the variant. I just want to make sure that we have clarity on that. What does that tell you about the effectiveness or the efficacy of the vaccines?

HOTEZ: Well, you know, the other piece to that last night was I said, it's still working really well against preventing hospitalizations and deaths. So that's - that's perhaps the most important piece that there's no reason to panic at this point. People are, at this point not being hospitalized and - and dying, who are vaccinated and, and it's overwhelmingly the unvaccinated who are at highest risk.

But what we are seeing is possibly some decline in the ability of the vaccines to protect against asymptomatic infection and some symptomatic infections. And we've seen this now in the Mayo Clinic study and studies from Israel and - and others. And that being the case, the big question that we don't know, is just the tip of the spear. And will we see further declines in the ability to protect particularly against Delta moving forward. So it wouldn't surprise me if down the line, the recommendation to give a third dose might broaden beyond immunocompromised populations.

Right now in Israel, they're vaccinating over the age of 50, before it was over the age of 60. So we might see some broadening over time and, and ultimately, I think we're going to need a third dose for every one of the mRNA vaccines as well as a second dose of the J&J because of all the variants that have been allowed to accelerate globally, because we're not vaccinating Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia.

PAUL: He wrote a really interesting article about the third doses asking questions. You were asking questions such as do we need boosters because of the true waning immunity? You asked would the third immunization better protect against the Delta variant? And you asked, would this be a third shot of the same vaccines or a new product tailored specifically for new variants? Do you have answers to any of those questions at this point?

HOTEZ: Well, you know, the problem Christi is everything's happening at once. So we - it's likely we're seeing declining, waning immunity, but also we have the Delta variant which is partially resistant. So it's hard to really start out which is which. I think right now, the homologous boosters, meaning that the booster with the same, or the third immunization with the same vaccine that everybody got before are available, at least in the United States.

And we might in time, I think both Pfizer and Moderna are looking at tweaking that that vaccine to look at specifically new variants. We're doing the same with our recombinant protein Vaccine that's now accelerating in Asia. So I think the key is just to keep situational awareness on what's going on. No reason to get upset or panic right now. We're not seeing an uptick in hospitalizations significantly among vaccinated individuals, but it's an evolving situation.

[08:10:00]

PAUL: So local governments in Texas in Florida, they're major hotspots for new infections. They're defying state bans on mask mandates. It's a political fight, it could potentially as they cost people's lives, in your opinion, are there other ways these localities could mitigate the spread?

HOTEZ: Well, you know, it's really tough I mean, when you look at the numbers, Christi, I mean, as was said, in the beginning, the US is now the epicenter of COVID-19 in the world, we've got the highest rate of COVID-19 in the world, and the southern part of the U.S. from Texas to Florida is the epicenter of the epicenter. So this is about a screaming level of virus transmission, as we've seen, and it's very tough when you've got that kind of aggressive pathogen, without using every single tool that you have at our disposal, and I'm worried now that the schools are opening and in this setting, and it's going to be really tough to keep transmission down.

We're already seeing schools open up and then shutter and close in Arkansas and Mississippi because of this. So we have to be adults and we have to take a step back and say, hmm, what do we want to really do? What's our goal here, and if our goal is to get our kids through the school semester, the reality is, every single person who walks into a school has to be masked, you know, with a couple of exceptions, maybe some of the special needs kids who can't wear a mask, and every person over the age of 12, who walks into that school has to be vaccinated, and that means masks and vaccine mandates.

And Christi, what we're seeing now is this is not staying in the south where this force of infection is so strong that we're now seeing it move up into the Midwest, we're seeing this going into Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, it's going west across Texas, even into New Mexico. I think I see what's going on here. I think this could this could be a national problem very quickly, not - not a regional problem.

I think the President on Monday or early next week needs to really make this statement that you know, this is not business as usual, folks, this is - this is a grave crisis. And we're really going to have to revisit vaccine mandates and masks mandates for the nation. And certainly for the schools and nobody likes it. It's - it's people will say it's an overreach of federal control. I don't even know if there's a legality to it, whether it's even possible.

But we've got to really decide as a country, how important is it to protect our kids? Is it important or is it not? And if it is, then that's what we're going to have to do.

PAUL: Yes, we remember where we were last fall. Nobody wants to see a repeat of that by any means. Dr. Peter Hotez, thank you so much for your expertise. We appreciate you.

HOTEZ: Thank you, Christi.

PAUL: Thank you. And coming up later this hour, we're talking to an ICU nurse who says he's taking a break on his career to focus on his mental health after working overtime to help with the latest surge in cases. It's just been so much for them. We're going to hear from him in about 15 minutes, so stay close.

SANCHEZ: The Biden Administration is not backing down from the fight against governors who are trying to ban school mask mandates. The Education Department sent letters to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Friday, saying the administration is quote deeply concerned as schools reopen and the Delta variant continues to spread.

So far, several schools in both States have defied the governor's mask bans. And Education Secretary Cardona says the department stands with the school's decision. Ahead on New Day, we are also talking about a bill that overhauls voting penalties and restrictions heading to the House in Texas. You'll hear from one of the state representatives who left the state risking arrest to try and stop the passage of that bill. We're back after a quick break.

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[08:15:00]

PAUL: 18 minutes past the hour right now. Good morning to you. Well, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's two-track strategy to pass President Biden's agenda. It could be in jeopardy. Nine moderate Democrats sent her a letter threatening to withhold their support for the sweeping $3.5 trillion budget resolution. The only way they'll get behind it they say is if the Speaker first allows the House to vote on the trillion dollar infrastructure bill that was just passed by the Senate.

So far, the Speaker has held firm saying she will not take up one plan without the other. CNN's Daniella Diaz is live on Capitol Hill this morning. So Daniella, walk us through what more we know at this hour and good morning.

DANIELLA DIAZ, CNN REPORTER: Good morning, Christi. Look, these House moderates are making very clear that they will withhold their support for the budget resolution that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has reiterated, she wants to pass first before the bipartisan infrastructure proposal unless she switches the order of these bills on the House floor. They have said in a letter that we obtained yesterday that they will withhold their support unless the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi puts the bipartisan - bipartisan infrastructure proposal first for vote.

Since it's already passed the Senate. That's all this proposal needs is to pass the House and then it goes to Biden's desk but look, a senior Democratic aide told me yesterday in response to this letter, quote, there are not sufficient votes to pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill this month. This aide said this is only nine House moderate Democrats. There are dozens upon dozens who will vote against the bipartisan infrastructure proposal unless it's after the Senate passes reconciliation.

So this is very tricky for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She has to navigate these relationships in her own caucus. You know, these progressive who want to see the budget resolution passed and then these moderates who want to see the bipartisan infrastructure proposal pass but she's reiterated over and over again.

[08:20:00] She will not pass the bipartisan infrastructure proposal until the budget resolution is passed, and the Senate passes but the budget reconciliation bill. Now a little bit on that. This is the sweeping $3.5 trillion bill that progressives and Democratic leaders have promised Americans they will pass that is filled with so called, quote, human infrastructure proposals.

Of course, it will be filled with funding to combat climate change, paid family and medical leave, expanding the child tax credit, among other policy issues, social policy issues that the Biden Administration has promised to try to pass this Congress. And this matters because Pelosi only has three votes she can lose in the House with these proposals. And these are nine House moderate Democrats that are threatening to withhold their vote on this bill. So if they don't vote for this, if they don't vote for this budget resolution, this bill could not pass.

So the math does not add up. And the bottom line here is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi really has to figure out how she can unite all corners of her caucus so that she can pass these bills because she cannot afford to lose more than three votes. Christi.

PAUL: Very true. All right. Daniella Diaz, thank you so much.

SANCHEZ: Democratic legislatures - legislators, I should say in Texas are trying to stop the passage of an election bill that would add restrictions and criminal penalties to the voting system there. SB 1 passed the Senate on Thursday after a 15 hour filibuster from state Senator Carol Alvarado. It was an effort that she knew would not stop the bill, but one that she felt was needed to raise awareness over what it does.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CAROL ALVARADO (D-TX): Let's be clear, instead of making it easier to vote, this bill makes it easier to intimidate. Instead of making it harder to cheat, it makes it harder to vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: The bill now goes to the Texas House and you may recall dozens of Texas House Democrats left home and risked arrest in their efforts to stop the election overhaul. Our next guest is one of those legislators, Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who is back in Texas now and joins us from Dallas. Representative Crockett, thank you for sharing part of your morning with us. You're one of more than 50 Texas Democrats who has a warrant out for your arrest. It's largely symbolic, you likely wouldn't face serious legal trouble. I still want to get your reaction, though, to this tweet from Governor Greg Abbott about the warrants.

He tweeted out in part, "Time for them Democrats to get to the Capitol and do the job they were elected to do." What's your response?

REP. JASMINE CROCKETT (D-TX): My - First of all, good morning. My response is that I'm doing exactly what I was elected to do. If you had an opportunity to go through my inbox, you'd see that my district is very proud of the fact that I've decided to stand up against the tyranny in this state.

My governor is currently being sued, not just by us, legislators, but also by elected officials on the county level, on the city level, school districts parents. The problem isn't us the problem is Governor Greg Abbott.

SANCHEZ: And Rep. Crockett, when you say, preventing tyranny, or stopping tyranny, set the table for us. What specific restrictions and this bill, would you argue is disenfranchising voters and how?

CROCKETT: Yes, so you know, what's interesting is that there has been maybe a little bit of talk about it, but not enough about this partisan poll watcher issue. Even as we have been fighting against this bill, we have been threatened by the likes of insurrectionists and Proud Boys. In fact, there was a bounty put on the heads of multiple legislators that said, basically, hey, we will give you law enforcement an extra $200 if you go out and find them.

These are the types of people that are itching to get to the polls, especially in diverse communities, and threaten them and intimidate them. And that's what Senator Alvarado was speaking about is this level of intimidation that we absolutely anticipate that we will see at the polls. In fact, these guys are allowed to commit crimes and are told that they should be given a pass, that we should not be allowed to call law enforcement, at least not the first time.

They should be able to get away with at least one felony. And then you can have an election judge then call law enforcement to try to help you out. What kind of sense does that make? We know what this is about? In addition to that, when you look at counties the size of Dallas County or Harris County, the fact that they only want one Dropbox when it comes to ballots that are cast by mail, that just doesn't make logical sense unless you're trying to minimize the number of people that have access to the Ballot box.

[08:25:00]

And finally, when we talk about the fact that most legislatures do not have a maximum number of hours to vote, they usually just instill a minimum in code. Instead, they've instilled a maximum, because they know the numbers, they saw that diversity range and when it came to those after-hours voting, those that were working third shift, were able to finally go vote without having to stand in line, you know, during normal working hours.

So I'm really excited that my colleagues have decided that this was a fight that was worth fighting. And right now we are still fighting it.

SANCHEZ: And I'm curious about next steps, because at this point, isn't it virtually guaranteed that this bill is going to become law.

CROCKETT: So long as we go back, the quorum break is still on. So they still don't have a quorum. Senator was tweeting upset about that. Republican House members have tweeted, upset about that. They're only upset that we won't sit there and allow them to continually abuse us and our constituency.

SANCHEZ: There's still some 20ish days left in the special session, and the governor could just call for another one. So to some degree, are you just going to avoid going back into the State House?

CROCKETT: He can absolutely call for another one. But let me tell you, number one on his priority list is redistricting. Number two is voting. The combination of the two obviously seeks to disenfranchise and with us just getting our numbers, Texas grew over the last decade, 95 percent of the growth has been people of color. And so they definitely want new lines. And that's what we've got to get done.

So I don't anticipate that the governor would try to deal with these other issues again, until he at least got his new lines and that is going to be a fight in and of itself.

SANCHEZ: All right, we will keep an eye on this story. Keep us updated on your efforts. And we'll be watching. Texas State Representative Jasmine Crockett, thank you so much for joining us today.

CROCKETT: Thank you.

PL So coming up, it appears that Russia is testing President Biden's effort to double down with Intel reports showing new efforts to interfere in the 2022 election. We'll tell you what we're learning.

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[08:30:00]

PAUL: COVID-19 hospitalizations in the U.S. are rising and they're doing it so, so fast right now approaching numbers last seen in January during the dangerous deadly winter surge. With so many older Americans choosing to get vaccinated, patients hospitalized with COVID-19 this summer, tend to be younger than what we've seen in earlier surges. And with those vaccines widely available, they're primarily preventable.

Our next guest is an ICU nurse who says for his own mental health, he has to take a break. Christopher Hayes is his name. He's a registered ICU nurse. Christopher, thank you so much for being with us. And thank you for the work that you've done. We cannot imagine what this has been like for you. As I understand it, you know, we keep hearing about hospitals and ICU units that are overrun, that the Bed Availability is just not there like it had been for a while and that it's not just those things that are missing, the staff is needed as well.

And - and you're overworked and you're worn out as I understand it and it's not just a physical exhaustion, it's mental. At what point did you realize you needed to take a break?

CHRISTOPHER HAYES, ICU NURSE: Actually, I had a friend, my last assignment was in Oklahoma and I had a friend running, we were talking about a shift that I went through and he was like, you typically don't act like that. And that's when I realized I was like, I'm not even acting like the person I normally am at work. So it's probably best if I just take a break, and actually left that assignment early. This is just working COVID can be a lot. It is a handful.

PAUL: So help us understand what that is. I mean, what are you feeling emotionally?

HAYES: Emotionally, it's a lot of depression, you see a lot of young people as well as older people who sometimes they get COVID, we have to put a breathing tube down them. So they can't speak at all. We talk to their family and their family, like just send some oxygen and send them back home. And they don't realize it's not that simple.

So we have some families where now that person kids have to go to someone else in their family. One guy goes from having no kids to four kids, because it's that person is no longer with us.

PAUL: So we know that the patients in the ICU are getting younger, that nearly all of them are unvaccinated. Talk to us about what it's like for you, particularly being somebody you're in a unique situation where you travel, you're a travel nurse, so you get to pick and choose where you go. What is it like now to see these - these people who are younger as opposed to what you saw first at the beginning of the Pandemic.

HAYES: It's very rough because I'm 27 so sometimes I'll see people as the youngest 22 in there and I'm like, this could have been me. I could have been laying right here in the same bed fighting for my life.

[08:35:00]

And often they don't make it. And that's such a young age, you still have so much life left, it's very depressing.

PAUL: Are you getting some psychological help and some emotional support and are your colleagues doing the same?

HAYES: So I am, as far as psychological help, I've not been to a counselor, I've actually took some time off. And a lot of time, my therapy is music, my family, my friends, my girlfriend, that's kind of how I calm down, I relax. A lot of times, I don't think some of my co- workers are actually seeking help. I've seen people throwing up on the shift. I've seen people crying on the shift, just because it's hard for them to see what we're going through as well as they're neglecting to take care of themselves physically and mentally.

PAUL: So there's a hopelessness your feeling, is that accurate?

HAYES: Very, very helpless.

PAUL: And what do you think is your most urgent need or the most urgent needs of you and your - your colleagues who are there on the front lines? Is there anything we can do for you?

HAYES: Honestly, I don't believe there's anything that you know, normal people can do, because there's so many - normally nurses work three shifts a week, and now we're having to work four and five, just to - just so that there's someone there to actually take care of these patients. So we - we need more nurses, we need more relief, but with everyone traveling or people don't want to go to certain facilities. It's - it's just, it's just hopeless. It's nothing we can do.

PAUL: Christopher Hayes, you know, I just want you to know and take, take to, you know, the people that you work with how much you are appreciated, and - and you are our hope a lot of times when you talk about being hopeless, we can't have you being hopeless, if our hope is in you, so - so please take good care of yourself and take the time that you need. We want all of you to be OK. And thank you so much for what you do.

HAYES: Thank you. That means a lot.

PAUL: We mean it. We mean it. Take good care, Christopher. We'll be right back.

HAYES: Thank you.

PAUL: You're welcome.

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[08:40:00]

SANCHEZ: Now to the worsening situation in Afghanistan where the government is teetering on the brink of collapse. This morning, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani told his people he's focused on avoiding, 'further instability, aggression and displacement.'

PAUL: Now one intelligence assessment indicates the capital, Kabul could be isolated by the Taliban within the week, possibly within the next 72 hours. The Taliban have already taken control of Kandahar, the country's second largest city, and they now control more than half of Afghanistan's provincial capitals. The Biden Administration is now deploying 3000 U.S. troops to evacuate embassy personnel.

SANCHEZ: And CNN's Oren Liebermann has more.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: 3000 troops should be on the ground in Kabul in Hamid Karzai International Airport, the International gateway into Kabul by the end of the weekend, and the speed with which they move in underscores the rapidly deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan as the Taliban has taken control of at least 17 different provincial capitals, including the second and third largest city in the country.

As of right now, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby says Kabul itself is not in an imminent threat environment, it is not under threat. But he emphasized right now we've seen across the country as the Taliban has gone from surrounding a city to isolating it to capturing it and taking over that city. And that, of course, is the fear when it comes to Kabul.

One diplomatic source says there is one intelligence assessment that Kabul itself could be isolated within 72 hours to one week. And the window there underscores the uncertainty with which this is all unfolding, and how quickly it is all unfolding. One of the key questions has been given the advantage the Afghan Military has in manpower, in technology, in strength, in its Air Force, why are they still falling so quickly to the Taliban?

JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON SECRETARY: They are using the Air Force gym. In fact, they're flying more airstrikes than we are on a daily basis. But you can't you know, Money can't buy will. Now will has to be there. The ability to exert leadership and exude leadership on the field that has to be there.

LIEBERMANN: The U.S. and the international community are pushing for some sort of negotiations to a peaceful end to this fighting. But that right now watching the Taliban's advances simply seems very unlikely. And because of that, the U.S. putting some 3500 to 4000 troops in Kuwait on standby to move into the country, if needed for some sort of security mission or if needed, because of the rapidly and continually deteriorating security situation. Where does this go from here?

The U.S. is monitoring everything closely. Of course Kabul as well. The partial drawdown of the Embassy will begin down to just core diplomatic staff that is the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, as well as the evacuation of Afghan interpreters and their families who helped the United States. As part of this drawdown of the Embassy moves forward, diplomatic staff in Kabul have been instructed to begin destroying sensitive materials and anything that can be construed or used as propaganda to include embassy logos and American flags. Oren Liebermann, CNN, in the Pentagon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[08:45:00]

PAUL: Well, new intelligence reports indicate Russia is stepping up its effort to interfere in the 2022 midterm elections. CNN's Senior National Correspondent Alex Marquardt has more.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: There is new intelligence that has been briefed to President Joe Biden about Russia's ongoing and evolving efforts to sow divisions in American society and then target the 2022 midterm elections. Current and former officials tell CNN that Russia has never in fact stopped its influence and disinformation campaign but they are coming up with new and more sophisticated ways to cause chaos and to deepen divides.

The intelligence on the evolving Russian tactics is significant enough to have made its way to President Biden's desk, something which he recently referenced in his speech to the intelligence community.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think we also need to take on the rapid disinformation that is making it harder and harder for people to access, assess the facts, be able to make decisions. In today's PDB you all prepared for me, look what Russia is doing already about the 2022 elections and misinformation. It's a pure violation of our sovereignty.

MARQUARDT: Back in April, the Biden ministration sanctioned Russian groups and individuals for their attempts to influence the 2020 election. And then in June at a summit in Geneva, President Biden warned President Putin about interfering in U.S. elections. Clearly that message has not stuck. Not a surprise according to a top former intelligence official who I spoke with who said that Russia will double down using the same strategy they've been using, but changing their tactics to further divide Americans.

They seize on new subjects like the January 6 Insurrection of the Capitol, mask mandates and the debate over the COVID-19 vaccine. Experts and officials say that anything that is divisive, the Russians try to amplify and fan the flames. Alex Marquardt, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Alex, thanks so much. There's still much more head on New Day. But first, be sure to catch an all new episode of History of the Sitcom tomorrow on CNN, here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAURA MOROWTIZ, PROFESSOR OF ART HISTORY, WAGNER COLLEGE: You're really beginning to get this backlash to the shows in the 50s like Leave it to Beaver or father knows Best.

JAMES ACKERMAN, SON OF BEWITCHED PRODUCER HARRY ACKERMAN: The boomers are now coming to age. And they're not interested in the culture in which they grew up in. They want change. Feminism is rising. And Bewitched captured that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wish I had a drink and a straw.

ACKERMAN: The premise of Bewitched is this nerdy ad executive from New York City, ends up falling madly in love with a woman who can do magic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: History of the sitcom airs tomorrow night at 9 pm, Eastern right here on CNN. We'll be right back.

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[08:50:00]

PAUL: Do we have enough money to pay the bills? It's a question I know a lot of us have asked along with the virus itself because it's been one of the biggest fears during this pandemic, right? Even financial expert and best-selling author Rachel Cruze felt it.

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RACHEL CRUZE, AUTHOR, KNOW YOURSELF, KNOW YOUR MONEY: I had a moment during that Pandemic at the beginning where I remember thinking and telling my husband like, are we going to be OK, because I think it was a wakeup call for a lot of people financially.

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PAUL: So she told me fear can actually be a gift. And the beauty of it is this, we don't have to be economists to get our money straight.

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CRUZE: What I've learned about money is that it's really 80 percent behavior. It's only 20 percent head knowledge. So just like the health section of life, we know, eat less exercise more, we know we should probably live on less than we make. We know if we don't have the money we probably shouldn't buy it. Fear in a way can show you hey, here's a deficit in my life that I actually probably should put some intentionality towards.

It's your behavior. It's to say, no, we're not going to go on vacation because we don't have the money. No, we're going to eat at home right now. Because we don't have the money to go out to eat.

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PAUL: In her new book, 'Know yourself, Know your Money' walks us through where she says we really need to start the process of taking control of the money, or the lack of it. And she says the first step is just getting really honest with ourselves and asking what is my motivation when I make a purchase?

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CRUZE: One of the scales, are you a spender or are you a saver? And a lot of people think well, spenders, obviously are the irresponsible ones when it comes to money, when in fact, that's not always true. I'm a natural spender. And so I'm a spender that has learned to save. A saver can be very unhealthy. And they can just grab on and hold on to the security of money to the point that it just - they become cheap. They don't do anything with it. They don't give. They're not generous.

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PAUL: And she points out social media and comparison. We know it doesn't help, right? Listen to this question, she always asks herself now though, before she buys something.

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CRUZE: There was years of my spending that really filtered through OK, am I going to get a compliment on this? Or if somebody sees this post on Instagram, what are they going to say? Am I going to get a lot of you know, affirmation in that way. And so this filter for my spending as if nobody sees this purchase, do I still want it? I think we live in a country that applauds success and all this which is great, right? I'm all about that.

But when that becomes the only thing in your life and the moment that starts to shake that foundation, it's almost like you have nothing tangible to grab on to so I would just say like on a higher sense whether it's a spiritual walk that you had or there's something else in your family, relationships, these things that money can't buy, is where I've realized to put my time and my effort.

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PAUL: And listen, we know that this has been a struggle for so many people because there have been job losses and - and so much that's happened in the last - last year and a half, but she has some really great ideas about how maybe we can rethink the way that we look at money and I'm doing it now.

[08:55:00]

Do I care if anybody sees this? Do I still like it? Makes sense to me.

SANCHEZ: That works. It's a great Guiding Light, especially when we have to consider just how much outside of money is so important in times like these. Thank you so much for spending part of your morning with us. We really appreciate it. We'll be back in just about an hour.

PAUL: Yes, Smerconish is up next. We're going to see you at 10 am, Eastern for the CNN newsroom.

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