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New COVID Cases 3 Times Higher In States With Low Vaccination Rates; Hurricane Watch Covers More Than 4 Million People; 4 More Victims Found In Surfside Rubble, Death Toll Now At 32. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired July 06, 2021 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: The President will come out today, the White House trying to revamp its strategy to convince vaccine hesitant Americans get your shot. What can you do?

DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: I think the President can do a lot at this point, because we have to look at why it is that people are not getting vaccinated, people who are eligible who are still choosing not to be vaccinated. They have a different risk benefit calculation than the rest of us, meaning that they don't think that COVID is that much of a threat to them. And maybe they've heard misinformation or disinformation, about the safety of the vaccines.

So they're saying, I don't want to get the vaccine because I think the threat of the vaccine is greater than the threat of COVID. Well, obviously, that needs to be corrected, and we need correct information to be spread. But I also think that President Biden can do a lot when it comes to rewarding those who are vaccinated, not talking about this as an individual choice, but actually saying that this is something, getting vaccinated affects your community, it affects people around you.

And to that effect, I actually think that the President missed a major opportunity in not requiring vaccinations at his Fourth of July celebration. At this point, we need social pressure, we need societal pressure to help convince people that vaccination, yes, it is your patriotic duty, you show that you care about others. And so you're not welcome at the White House and other major events if you're not vaccinated.

KING: That's an excellent point. We talked about leadership, by example, in the past presidency. We should talk about it in the current presidency as well. One thing we do know from the Biden team today, they're going to talk more about door knocking, to try to get into vaccine hesitant communities, getting the vaccines from big institutions into local primary care physicians. Do you believe those steps would help break through? WEN: I think there will help but that's tinkering around the edges. I actually think that the single biggest thing that the Biden ministration can be doing is to get behind the idea of vaccine verification. I'm not talking about a national vaccine passport, but rather the workplaces, schools, they're interested in having proof of vaccination in order to help to make their employees and their customers safer.

The Biden administration can help with this because eventually what we need is an opt out system. Right now we have an opt in. And a lot of people are not opting in. But if you have an opt out in saying vaccines are required, but if you sign this piece of paper, and you get weekly testing, you can opt out of it. I actually think that is what's going to take -- what it's going to take to increase vaccination uptake by a lot.

KING: As we head into where we are on the calendar right now summer camp season in the like, I just want to bring up a headline and get your perspective on this. More than 125 COVID-19 cases tied to South Texas church camp, pastor says. You know, Texas is one of the states that's below the national average when it comes to vaccination. But if you're talking about a church camp, talking about a summer camp, talking about sending your kids to camp at any time, or even adults to camps or group settings of any kind, is this a one -- is this a one off? Or is this something that troubles you?

WEN: Yes, this is definitely not a one off. We're going to see many more headlines like this. This was a camp for sixth to 12th graders. We don't know about masking and vaccinations, whether they were required, but I bet you that they were not that neither vaccines nor masks were required for a camp like this, which is why they had this major super spreader event, 125 out of 400 people attending with ripple effects of the community, many more hundreds, maybe even thousands being exposed as a result of this.

I think this is another reminder that the pandemic is not over. But also that it's not just about individual choice, you may choose not to be vaccinated, but that also affects the decisions of others around you as well. Even vaccinated people can still be infected by a lot of unvaccinated people around them. And so we really should be doing better when it comes to conveying that vaccination is not just about you.

KING: Dr. Wen, grateful as always for your insights. We'll continue the conversation. And you can check out Dr. Wen's forthcoming book Lifelines: A Doctor's Journey in the Fight for Public Health. Pick that one up as soon as you can. Dr. Wen, thanks again.

[12:33:53]

Up next for us, Tropical Storm Elsa bearing down in the Florida coast complicating, yes, the Surfside search.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: In Florida today, residents bracing for severe weather as Tropical Storm Elsa barrels toward the state. The Governor Ron DeSantis warning the storm is expected to be quote, near hurricane strength as it makes landfall. CNN's Chad Myers is tracking this for us and joins us live. Now, Chad what is the latest?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: John, it was a little bit bigger. Yesterday when I was talking to you, still in the water south of Cuba then it ran over Cuba and put down a foot of rain or more in some spots, lots of flooding there. But now it's back over water after losing a little bit of power, 60 miles per hour. And the forecast is for it to go to 70 because now the center is in fact over water again as it will continue to gain a little bit of strength.

Something that I want you to notice with the storm, there's the center. Notice how much rain is to the west, nothing. Much rain convection to the east, all of it, and this is all moving to the north on up into Florida. We will have storm surge. We will have some storms that begin to circulate. We will also have heavy, heavy rainfall with lightning and that surge going up the river may in fact try to push back on rain that's going down the river.

Look at Miami right now. We have 12 and Augusta 26 last hour. Key West just had a gust to 70 last hour as the storm travels to the north along the western side of the state. So that's what we're going to see today and into tonight.

[12:40:00]

By later on tonight I do believe that it's likely that we will see most of that precip on the east side of the eye into Tampa, Fort Myers, and then even into Jacksonville. Remember up here, it's very wet. You get a 50 mile per hour wind up there. Trees are going to fall down. Powerlines are going to fall down. A completely different set of circumstances there, hurricane watch is in effect for 4 million. If it does get to 75 miles per hour, they will turn that to a hurricane warning. John?

KING: We'll keep in touch over the next couple of days. Watch how this plays out. Chad, appreciate the very latest, though, there.

And now let's go straight to the ground in Surfside. Crews continue their search there of the collapsed condo rubble. More of the area is safe for the search crews. And the death toll, sadly, is climbing. CNN's Rosa Flores is live for us in Surfside. Rosa, what is the latest?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, the death toll climbing to 32 overnight. The number of unaccounted is at 113. Officials here say that this is still a search and rescue mission. But the fire chief warning that they have not found any signs of life. The fire chief though does say that they're using every single tool that they have very aggressively. They're using big heavy machinery and also the brave men and women that are still sifting through the rubble.

They have teams not just here from Florida, but Ohio, Indiana, and even the Israeli team is still here sifting through the rubble. They say that they are delayering. They continue to do that, in essence, removing layers of concrete, looking for voids, following those voids.

Now, after the demolition of the standing portion of this building, a third of this site was opened up allowing these search and rescue teams to finally get into some of those voids. Sadly, that's why officials say that some of those new fatalities, John, were a part of that search. And we continue to be here. Again, this is still a search and rescue mission. John?

KING: Rosa Flores, grateful for the live update. It's still sobering and sad when you just watch the pictures of the crews going through the mounts and mounts and mounts of rubble. Rosa, I'm glad you're there for us to chronicle all of this.

Up next for us, a giant 2022 question, how aggressive should Republicans be in places where they get to redraw congressional districts?

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[12:46:58]

KING: We are fast approaching what will be a chaotic year in congressional politics. This is the House map right here, the midterms and redistricting. Democrats are worried they could lose their nine seat advantage in the House right now, their narrows majority of 20 years. Why are they worried about that? Is A, the census moving some House districts. B, Republicans and a lot of these states have the power to change the map. So what are the options on the table?

Let's just take a look at a state like Kentucky. You look at this right here. Only one House district, you see only one blue House district but -- for Democrats right there. Could Kentucky Republicans make this go away? Watch this. Let me stretch out the map a little bit, just give you an idea. Yes, they could if they wanted to do this, redraw all the lines, right?

Take a piece of Louisville, give it to this district. Maybe stretch this district down from here and take a little bit more. Put the rest down here. You can split the city, the urban area, and get rid of the Democratic district. Another place where this could be done is down in Tennessee, only one Democrat here in Memphis, another one up here in Nashville. But look at this Nashville district. Jim Cooper was unopposed last time, 100 percent of the vote, right?

Well, could you make this district go away? Of course, you can. Just essentially take about -- take this the urban area, take a little bit for this district, little bit for this district, redraw it and make it go away, right? Republicans have the power to do that if they so choose. The question is, will they, will they risk the lawsuits?

Just a quick example of what this looks like? Let's come out to Utah. All Republicans in the House delegation right now but if you go back to the 2020 presidential election, you see right here, there are Democrats in Utah, Joe Biden won in the Salt Lake City area and out here. But remember this area right here, Salt Lake City in the suburb, there's more than a million people, that in and of itself could be a congressional district right there with room to change. So why are there no Republicans in the district?

Well, look at this. Let's stretch this out a little, turn that off, and stretch this out for a little bit. And take a look. What the Republicans did when they drew the lines, this is that area that was all blue, one, two, three, divide the Democrats into three congressional districts. And all the Republicans out in these rural areas overwhelm them when they vote.

Barack Obama, the former president is part of the Democratic efforts to raise money to fight efforts like this. He says, don't trust the Republicans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Both Democrats and Republicans in the past have engaged in political gerrymandering. There's no perfectly clean hands here. But what has changed is we have seen over the last decade or two, the Republican Party in particular embracing this particular strategy with great gusto and little shame.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: He's not wrong that Republicans are much less afraid than Democrats to flex their power in bold ways when they have it. The question is, how aggressive do you get? Mitch McConnell is telling Republicans in Kentucky, please don't do that. He thinks it's too complicated. In Tennessee, Republicans are saying we can make Jim Cooper go away. In Missouri, Republicans are debating, manual cleavers district in Kansas City, you slice it into three, spread those areas out. You could take the seat away. The question, is do you end up in court or what else?

JONATHAN MARTIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: No, that's the -- they worry for Republicans is that you wind up having a mid-decade court challenge in which you lose the gains that you made by being too greedy, which is precisely what happened in two major states in recent years in Carolina and Pennsylvania.

[12:50:09]

So I think that's the only hesitation, you know, is the fact that you're going to have a penalty for doing this. But let's be clear about this. It's not just the GOP that's doing this, and that has done this in the past. President Obama can look down today in Springfield, Illinois, to some his old friends there who know, you know, a thing or two about drawing line.

So I think this is a sort of decades long tradition in both parties. But there's no question that now the GOP has got more control of more states and is being much, much more aggressive on this front.

KING: Which is why you have this interesting conversation where Republicans in Washington who remember North Carolina, who remember Pennsylvania, thought they were going to benefit from it and ended up losing because they were over ambitious, trying to tell hungry Republicans at the state level, whoa, whoa, whoa, temper your ambitions here.

This is from a "POLITICO" piece today, Patrick McHenry of North Carolina. There's an old saying, pigs get fat. Hogs get slaughtered. James Comer in Kentucky, when you get real cute, you end up in a lawsuit and you lose it. Tom Cole, who did this for the Republicans for a lot of years, you have a bad election, and instead of losing a couple seats, you lose four or five.

So the voices in Washington are trying to tell the maybe younger people or less experienced people at the state level, be greedy, but not too greedy. Is that the idea?

MARGARET TALEV, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Not too greedy. I love that. Like what's the other expression because they can, like that's also what we're looking at. But so think about what they have to do to take back control the House, five seats, take control the Senate. It's one seat like, you know, it's not so hard to see Republicans if they could be strategic about this, picking up and then having a little buffer, a little comfortable buffer. But it doesn't matter.

Everything is going to court anyways, like no matter what. And the one thing that we know now is because of the partisan difference in balance of power, the Democrats play much stronger at the federal level right now, Republicans much stronger at the state level. But even at the federal level, like it's a divided Senate, right, it's a bare majority in the House, like everything's going to court.

KING: And there's the court part of it. But there's also the, where are we, part of it in the sense that if you're Republicans, and you rewind the tape five or six years, if you took a little bit of those urban areas, and then the suburbs, took them from a Democratic district and moved them over, you would win there, you would take the district.

But Trump so lost the suburbs. He got pummeled in the suburbs. And so the question is, is that going to come back. And a "POLITICO" puts it this way, the political environment of the Trump era has become increasingly volatile, making it harder to gauge how certain regions will perform in 2022.

So you could draw the lines based on a 2018 or 2016 scenario. But how do you factor you're not quite sure when you factor in Trump?

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right, no, absolutely. I mean, we just described the appetite. And in terms of whether there's hesitation to do this, we haven't really seen that hesitation when it comes to the Republican need to assert control over state legislatures, which gives them an advantage when we talk about drawing lines.

I mean, the other kind of branch of this strategy as well, is the increase in legislation on a local level that we've seen to also crack down on voting rights for certain areas as well. That's how you keep the advantage for drawing lines here, especially for maintaining control of the state governments. MARTIN: And John, to your point about self-interest, a lot of these incumbent House GOP folks who don't want to get too aggressive on drawing lines are not just interested in good government. They're also interested in the safety of their own seats. What happens if you are Kentucky and you split up Louisville to drive John Yarmuth into retirement and create an all GOP delegation?

Well, you have a lot of Democrats coming into somebody else's seat, which could create a more competitive seat for some of the incumbent Republicans in that state. So maybe that's part of the reason why they're not so inclined at this.

TALEV: You also have the things, the numbers come in late, right, because of the pandemic delays. And so you've got a compressed time schedule in some states. It's much harder to run complicated strategic calculations under shorter time.

KING: Have you ever heard self-interest mentioned in a conversation about politics?

TALEV: Yes. It's crazy.

KING: I'm shocked.

MARTIN: Gambling in the casino.

KING: All right, there's there -- there is. Look, it's a fastening things, I love all the numbers. We'll keep on top of it.

[12:53:56]

And ahead for us, news from Afghanistan on where things stand as more and more U.S. troops at home.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Topping our Political Radar today, the U.S. Central Command says the American troop withdrawal from Afghanistan is now more than 90 percent complete. The shrinking U.S. presence comes after U.S. troops left Bagram Airbase last week, handing it over to Afghan forces. The full withdrawal expected by the end of August. That is President Biden vows to end America's longest war after nearly two decades.

The former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is headlining South Carolina Republican Party's big annual fundraiser this month, that according to the state newspaper. The Silver Elephant Dinner has attracted multiple White House hopefuls over the years, fueling speculation Secretary Pompeo looking to run for president in 2024.

Now on to Texas in Matthew McConaughey, the Hollywood actor who's considering running for Texas Governor posted an Independence Day message on social media. He says using interesting language America, going through some growing pains.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY, ACTOR: As we celebrate our Independence today as we celebrate our birth as a nation, the day kick started a revolution to gain our sovereignty. Let's admit that this last year's trip around the sun was also another head scratcher. But let's also remember that we are babies. You know, as a country, we were basically going through puberty in comparison to other countries timeline.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: There you have it.

This quick programming note before we go another brand new CNN original series is coming. I can't wait. History of the Sitcom is bringing you all the stories behind your favorite sitcoms, the classics, the mega hits, and the new shows leading the way. Watch History of the Sitcom Sunday night at 9:00 p.m. only here on CNN.

[13:00:09]

Thanks for spending time with us today on Inside Politics. Hope to see you back here this time tomorrow. Ana Cabrera picks up our coverage right now. Have a good day.