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Texas House Advances Bill to Restrict Voting; Ex-FDA Chief Says It's Time for CDC to Lift Indoor Mask Mandates; Rocket Debris Expected to Crash Into Earth Soon. Aired 11:30-12p ET

Aired May 7, 2021 - 11:30   ET

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


[11:30:05]

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It comes as another Trump loyalist, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, seems poised to take a key position in the House Republican leadership. The New York representative is the frontrunner for the Republican conference chair position held by embattled Congresswoman Liz Cheney.

Stefanik is now a firm supporter of Trump's. Speaking to his former adviser, Steve Bannon, she endorsed a controversial partisan recount happening now in Arizona.

REP. ELISE STEFANIK (R-NY): I fully support it. Transparency is a good thing. We need to fix these election security issues going into the future.

FOX: But Stefanik was not always so in line with the former president. In 2015, she criticized Trump when he insulted Moderator Megyn Kelly after a Republican primary debate.

STEFANIK (voice over): I think he has been insulting to women. I think this may be Mr. Trump's peak moment. And I think we're going to see his numbers change, you know, and decline over the coming weeks and months as the other candidates have an opportunity to share their vision for the future of this country.

FOX: And Stefanik wrote this after the release of the Access Hollywood tape, in which Trump boasted about sexually assaulting women.

Donald Trump's inappropriate offensive comments are just wrong. No matter when he said them or whatever the context, I hope his apology is sincere.

She also criticized Trump's main campaign initiative to build a wall along the southern border, telling a local paper, quote, I think that you can use technology to have better security along the Mexican border. Far too often securing the border has been a political talking point for the past 10 to 12 years. And there hasn't been enough kind of common sense discussions about what that actually means. Once Trump took office in 2017, Stefanik held firm on her stance, saying, quote, I don't think that's realistic. I don't think the president's plan is exactly right on that. In 2015, Stefanik also disagreed with Trump's calls for a Muslim ban, saying, this is not who we are as a country. This is not according to our constitutional principle and I associate myself with Speaker Ryan's comment, just saying there is no place for what Trump said about Muslims in this country.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOX (on camera): And, Kate, of course, she evolved from that position. And during the second impeachment and the first impeachment, she became a fierce defender of the former president.

We also, of course, know that Stefanik is expected to potentially come into this new role as soon as next week. We expect a vote on Wednesday among House Republicans to replace Liz Cheney, who is now currently the number three Republican in the House of Representatives. Kate?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: It's pretty startling when you lay it out the way did you in that piece. It's important to see. Lauren, thank you very much.

Still ahead for us, any moment, we're expecting to see President Biden, his first comments on today's disappointing jobs report. We will bring that to you live.

Plus, as the summer gets closer, Americans get ready to travel and bookings are up. Why then is one major cruise line threatening to pull ships from Florida?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:35:00]

BOLDUAN: Welcome back. Any moment now, President Biden is going to be taking to the microphone. Everyone will be listening closely to what he has to say, especially after the big miss in the jobs numbers just out this morning.

Does today's report change his view on the recovery? We're going to bring that to you live as soon as the president begins.

Let's go now though to Texas, where the state took one step forward overnight to make it even harder to vote there. Despite an all night effort from Democrats to derail the legislation, Republican lawmakers advanced a controversial election overhaul bill that voting rights groups and dozens of corporations have spoken out against now.

One of the top executives of Outfitter REI was on this show yesterday talking about it, criticizing it and saying that they don't want to see it become law.

Joining me now, CNN's Ed Lavandera, who's in Austin, Texas, for us. Ed, there were changes to this overhaul bill overnight. What exactly is happening here?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, essentially, this bill sits in the Texas House of Representatives right now and lawmakers went late into the night, in fact, into early this morning, about 3:00 in the morning is when it was fully passed along party lines here. But Democrats spent much of the night and early morning hours essentially trying to strip down as much of the most of the restrictive language in that bill.

But right now, as it stands, this bill can empower partisan poll watchers, it can ban county officials from sending unsolicited mail-in ballots and there's additional restrictive amendments that could still be added to the final version. And this is far from over.

But, essentially, what you have here right now, Kate, is that you have a House version that is working off of a Senate template. You have the Senate side. All of this will eventually get kicked back over to the Texas Senate.

[11:40:00]

There will be a conference committee where both sides of the legislature will get together and try to reconcile these differences.

But there is still a great deal of concern here among voting rights advocates concerned about how the final language of this bill could very easily restrict the early voting hours and drive-in, drive- through ballot drop boxes and mail-in ballot drop boxes, all sorts of issues that are of great concern to voting rights experts.

The bottom line here though also, Kate, is that Republicans have the votes. They control both sides of the Texas legislature. The governor has signaled that he will sign this. Essentially, they're trying to point out that these measures are discriminatory and not needed at this point. But this is a long way to go here in the final days of the Texas legislature here this session. Kate?

BOLDUAN: That's right. Ed, thank you very much for the update.

Let's turn now to this. After more than a year stuck at home, Americans are more than ready to be getting away. Brand new TSA numbers were also suggesting an early start to a summer travel rebound.

CNN's Pete Muntean is joining me now. He's looking at all the numbers, new ones coming. Pete, what are you seeing?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: It's so busy, Kate, that D.C. has announced its first tourism campaign since the pandemic struck, just one of so many places hoping to cash in on the travel boom. Now, on the horizon, the TSA just said 1.64 million people passed through security at America's airports on Thursday. That is a new record of the pandemic, that number 7 percent higher than just a week ago, so maybe a sign that the summer travel boom is getting started a little bit early. The U.S. Travel Association says 72 percent of Americans will take at least one trip this summer and those numbers really not all that different from 2019, pre-pandemic. Here is what they said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROGER DOW, PRESIDENT, U.S. TRAVEL ASSOCIATION: It's very close to what we normally find. We find going into the summer, 75 to 80 percent of Americans say they're plan on taking a trip (INAUDIBLE). This summer is going to be really a comeback for travel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: Another sign this boom is just getting started, gas prices are going up. They shot up about 60 percent in one year's time due in part of the fact that demand for driving is returning. The U.S. Travel Association says this will be the summer of the road trip. Kate?

BOLDUAN: What is also going on with the cruise industry, Pete, one company now kind of laying down this threat to pull its ships from Florida.

MUNTEAN: It's so interesting, Kate, because Norwegian's CEO has said that it just can't continue to operate in Florida because of a law signed by Governor DeSantis that would prohibit vaccine passports. It really flies in the face of a CDC rule that says that 95 percent of passengers on cruiselines need to be fully vaccinated in order for them to operate. The CEO of Norwegian says they can just operate from another state in order to go to the Caribbean.

BOLDUAN: That's a threat. That's a big dollar price connected to it. It's good to see you, Pete. Thank you very much.

Coming up for us, some of these questions are easy and some of these questions are very hard. What can you do if you're vaccinated? What can you do if your kids aren't still? We have an expert coming up next on what is safe and what's not as more Americans get the shot and the country starts to open up.

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[11:45:00]

BOLDUAN: To mask or to take them off? It's a conversation in every family and every workplace at this point. Now, the former head of the FDA is saying time for the CDC to loosen up the guidance on masks. Here is Scott Gottlieb.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER: I think we should start lifting these restrictions as aggressively as we put them in. We need to preserve the credibility of public health officials to perhaps re- implement some of these provisions as we get into next winter if we start seeing outbreaks again.

I think the only way to earn public credibility is to demonstrate that you're willing to relax these provisions when pay situation improves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Joining me right now is Joseph Allen, Associate Professor and Director of the Healthy Buildings Program at Harvard School T.H. Chan School of Public Health. It's good to see you again. Thank you for coming in.

And you break this down into easy questions and hard ones, and I think it helped me. So let's do it that way. First, the easy questions, should we wear masks outdoors and what can we do after we're vaccinated? Walk me through this.

JOSEPH ALLEN, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, HARVARD T.H. CHAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Yes, thanks for having me back on, Kate. Nice to be with you again.

The easy one, sure, outdoors really is extremely low risk, extraordinarily low risk. We just don't see transmission happening with lots of space, unlimited ventilation. So, the reality is, outdoors, you really don't need to wear a mask. That's people are unvaccinated and vaccinated. If you're unvaccinated, just give yourself a little more space when you come across others.

What can you do when you're vaccinated? That answer is really easy. You can do whatever feels comfortable to you, based on your own risk tolerance. These vaccines are extraordinary. They're safe. They limit -- prevent from you spreading to others, protect you and yourself and certainly protect you from severe disease and death. So they're remarkable and we should adjust our protocols and strategies accordingly.

So I understand a lot of people are going to be anxious, and that's perfectly fine. So as you come out of this new phase of this pandemic, you should feel free to do whatever feels okay for you. But if you're vaccinated, you should feel safe.

BOLDUAN: Your clarity on this is -- I always appreciate this so much. So then the hard questions, what about masks indoors? And what about kids who are largely still not vaccinated? Take them -- let's take them one at a time, masks indoors. You're an expert on ventilation. What does the science tell you about wearing masks indoors at this point in the pandemic?

ALLEN: So, yes, this one is definitely harder and we know that masks have been a key strategy. They work, so let's be clear there. What changes then, vaccination status is driving down risk for all of us, certainly those that are vaccinated, but also driving down cases, deaths and hospitalizations. And that's going to changes the risk for all of us.

What I propose in this op-ed in The Washington Post recently is that, by July 4th, we could start to reduce the mandates for indoor masking. In that interim phase, so now and through June, we should all wear masks indoors even if we're vaccinated because this is about social trust at this point. We all need to do it. It's hard to police who is vaccinated and who is not.

But by the time July comes around, most adults, nearly everyone will have at least the opportunity to have had a vaccine.

[11:50:04]

If people don't choose that, that's unfortunate. They really should get vaccinated. But we can't have these mask mandates and top down restrictions. That's key here.

Early on in the pandemic, we had to have government restrictions on masking and distancing and what stays closed because we were at risk of overwhelming our health care systems. At this point, that risk is going away, and it now comes very much down to risk tolerance by businesses and also individuals.

BOLDUAN: And so then the hardest question is kids. Some kids will soon be starting to get vaccinated but so many will not. What about kids and masks both outdoors and in?

ALLEN: Let's start with kids and risk and what we know. And the reality is that, fortunately and mercifully, this virus does not impact kids like it does adults. The risk of kids dying from COVID-19 are one in a million. This is a new study at the New England Journal of Medicine back in November and a new study in

The Journal of the American Medical Association that looked at deaths in kids across not just the U.S., but also U.K., Spain, France, South Korea, and also affirms that under 19-year-olds, the risk is about one in a million, so extraordinarily low. Putting that in context in a typical year the number of suicides for that age group is ten times higher. So I think we need to start there.

Also look what's happening in terms of when vaccination rates go up. We can look to what's happening in Israel. Even though they have not vaccinated kids, the case counts in kids have dropped 98 percent since January. So we start to see this wide protection.

Kids are lower risk. They'll be even lower risk as case counts go down. And, therefore, I think kids should be able to -- again, this is a personal risk tolerance. I have three kids. My wife and I are vaccinated. We will be traveling this summer. I think my view is that the risk to kids are low and, for me, it's an acceptably low risk to get back to doing the things that are important to us.

BOLDUAN: I always appreciate your expertise. Thank you for coming on.

ALLEN: Thank you for having me on, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, the Pentagon is tracking space debris from a Chinese rocket still headed towards Earth, and still no one knows where or when it could land.

But, first, when 21-year-old Amanda Gorman delivered the inaugural poem, a star was born. A woman watching was a CNN hero who helped Gorman with her poetry. Now, she's making sure other girl's voices will also be heard.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Many of our girls come from environments where they're really struggling with unstable family situations, violence in their communities. Our goal is to really try and reach the most teens we can that are in the greatest need.

Nice.

Since receiving the hero award, we've expand to include programs for boys and co-ed groups to clarify our definition of girls by including non-binary girls, trans youth, developed more programming for youth who are incarcerated or systems impacted on probation. We are always encouraging our girls to share their own story, what's going on in their world, because they are the only one that can write that poem, tell that story, write that song.

AMANDA GORMAN, AMERICAN POET: In a time where a skinny black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Amanda Gorman joined WriteGirl when she was 14. When we saw her perform at the inauguration, we could see the same things that we really embody at WriteGirl, represented in her, confidence, being willing to really be present.

What was really exciting to know was that she represents not only every girl that's ever been in WriteGirl, but she also represents every young woman in this country.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN: To learn more, please go to cnnheroes.com. We'll be right back.

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[11:55:00]

BOLDUAN: Right now, the Pentagon is tracking a large piece of space debris headed towards Earth. A chunk of a Chinese rocket, it's expected -- that's the rocket -- is expected to enter the Earth's atmosphere this weekend. And despite so many eyes on this thing, scientists still don't know exactly where or when it will land. But we did get the first image of it. A scientist using a telescope captured this photo in the sky over Italy.

CNN's Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon with the very latest.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Kate, that out of control Chinese rocket still scheduled to reenter the Earth's atmosphere this weekend, but nobody knows when, and nobody knows, still, exactly where it will land. The Pentagon monitoring it around the clock, as it circles, still, above the Earth, traveling at 18,000 miles an hour. This rocket, 100 feet tall, 22 tons, it will be hot metal when it reenters the atmosphere this weekend. So there is a lot of concern, but the experts are saying the overwhelming chances are, it is likely to drop into the ocean somewhere, if for no other reason than the ocean covers 70 percent or so of the world's surface.

But the deeper issue, beyond public safety, if it were to land on a location where there are people, the deeper issue is safety in space. The U.S. military tracks about 27,000 manmade objects in space every day. And it's a very crowded arena up there nowadays. You know, space traffic is heavy, the military likes to see everything very orderly, and very controlled.

This Chinese rocket is not in control. It is going to enter essentially out of control into the atmosphere, and that's the big worry. They want to see the Chinese make some adjustments to their space program so this doesn't happen again.

[12:00:00]

Kate?

BOLDUAN: Barbara Starr, thank you so much. It's all so fascinating. Let's see what happens this weekend.

Thank you all so much for joining us today. Thank you for joining us.