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Buttigieg: "Close to a Fish-Or-Cut-Bait Moment on Infrastructure; Record Travel as U.S. Celebrates 1st Maskless Holiday; CDC Eases Restrictions for Summer Camps; More Than Half of U.S. Has at Least One Dose of COVID-19 Vaccine; U.S. Surgeon General: We Must Address the Loneliness Epidemic; Israel P.M. Netanyahu Faces Ouster as Rivals Try Forming Unity Government. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired May 31, 2021 - 13:30   ET

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


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ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: Joining us now, the grandsons of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Vice President Henry Wallace, James Roosevelt Jr and Scott Wallace.

Gentlemen, thank you for being with me.

Your grandfathers helped remake this country through investing billions of dollars in public works and mobilizing hundreds of thousands of Americans.

James, do you view the Biden agenda as something that has the potential to transform the country in the same way?

JAMES ROOSEVELT JR, GRANDSON OF FORMER PRESIDENT FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT: Ana, thank you for having us.

And I do want to take a moment to just remember the sadness of what happened in Miami-Dade earlier.

Yes, I definitely believe that what President Biden is proposing has the prospect of bringing this country to the kind of 21st century equity and anti-racism and equality that the New Deal tried to bring this country to, and succeeded in bringing this country to.

You know, it's President Biden's way to talk with the American people, to talk with -- across the aisle and try to be bipartisan.

We are also, as Secretary Buttigieg just said on the program a couple minutes ago, approaching a time when there has to be action.

CABRERA: Back then, your grandfathers managed to get some bipartisan support, even though conservatives were worried the New Deal would be hostile to businesses and economic growth. Sound familiar?

Scott, what is the cost to this administration if they bypass Republicans and act alone?

SCOTT WALLACE, GRANDSON OF FORMER VICE PRESIDENT HENRY WALLACE: Well, I hope they will try to act together. Bipartisanship is really important.

Of course, in FDR's time and my grandfather's time there were real schisms he had to deal with, not just between Republicans and Democrats but between southern Democrats, an important part of his coalition, and progressive New Deal northern Democrats.

It was a delicate balancing act, but he had to make deals. And I think that's what Biden is trying to do now. I'm hopeful that he can do it for at least some portion of his package.

But obviously, the Republicans are not going to go along with his way of paying for it, which is rolling back some of the Trump tax cuts. That's -- that's going to require him to go it alone.

CABRERA: Right. Right. And Republicans have said that is a red line for them. So it's interesting to hear your optimism from both of you.

I want you to listen to what Senator Bernie Sanders has said. He believes trying to work with Republicans on infrastructure or the jobs plan is just pointless.

He says, quote, "If 10 Republican Senators cannot even vote for a bipartisan commission to investigate the January 6th insurrection, 10 Republican Senators will not vote for anything meaningful to improve the lives of the American people. We must abolish the filibuster and act now."

James, why would a vote, on anything the administration wants, turn out differently than the January 6th commission vote?

ROOSEVELT: Well, I think that Senator Sanders accurately assesses that the most Republicans view the commission as a pure political issue.

I think it's an important issue for -- because we have to understand what happened to prevent it from happening again. But I think most Republican elected officials view it as a pure political issue.

What we're talking about, and President Biden's overall program, is getting this country first of all back on its feet economically, with stopping the virus, with creating jobs.

And jobs are the most important thing. Everything else is tied to creating jobs.

And infrastructure, of all kinds, are part of creating jobs, just as creating Social Security based on people's jobs and the work they've done was part of what my grandfather did.

CABRERA: There's a group of Republicans saying they want to get a deal done.

Listen to lead GOP negotiator, Senator Shelley Moore Capito. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO (R-WV): The president's spokesperson said everything has been allocated. It hasn't gone out the door. We have hundreds of billions of dollars that could be reprogrammed towards something as core as infrastructure.

And I think that's what we should be looking at, rather than put --you know, force feeding into certain categories where really it's not part of COVID, not part of a rescue package, it's dollars that were way overallocated that have yet to be spent.

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CABRERA: Instead of reenforcing more taxes, Scott, what do you make of that idea of reprogramming money from COVID relief?

WALLACE: Well, I think Biden is right to be ambitious about this. We are in a New Deal moment and I think the American people are looking to government for not only infrastructure and jobs, but for a new version of the New Deal.

The New Deal left out a lot of important demographics. They left out women. The jobs programs left out minorities.

And of course, they didn't have the Internet and they didn't have women in the work force so much. So we have to rethink what infrastructure means, and that requires being big and bold like FDR was in the New Deal.

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And I would point out that FDR passed 15 major pieces of legislation in his first term that created the New Deal, and not one of them was exposed to a supermajority vote. They all had to pass only by a simple majority.

And Adam Gentleton (ph), who has written the definitive book on the filibusters, has said the new deal would have been impossible if we had today's filibuster regime in the Senate.

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CABRERA: I've often wondered that, especially given the amount of polarization we have politically in this country in this moment as well.

Scott Wallace and James Roosevelt Jr, I really appreciate you taking the time with us today. Thank you so much.

WALLACE: Pleasure. Thank you.

ROOSEVELT: Thank you for having us, Ana.

CABRERA: Summer camp is going to look different this year, again. Vaccinated campers can go mask free, and more. Plus, we'll talk to a doctor about the loneliness epidemic as the

country emerges from isolation.

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CABRERA: The pandemic isn't over but, for many Americans, this Memorial Day is their first maskless holiday since it began. Millions have been traveling, gathering with loved ones, kicking off a busy summer with fewer restrictions.

Dr. Carlos Del Rio is joining us. He is executive associate dean of Emory University Medical School.

Doctor, good to have you.

A year ago this weekend, we were discussing a potential surge after the holiday. We're in a different place this year with roughly half the country at least partially vaccinated.

But we are seeing these record levels of travel. Should we be worried about what might come two weeks from now?

DR. CARLOS DEL RIO, EXECUTIVE ASSOCIATE DEAN, EMORY UNIVERSITY MEDICAL SCHOOL: Well, Ana, I think that we're in a much better place because of the number of people that have been vaccinated. And we're still not out of the woods but the reality is we're in a much better place.

And I would say just continue vaccinating people. The vaccines are really creating a barrier for further spread of the virus.

And, yes, we can continue seeing small outbreaks but hopefully won't have big outbreaks and big surges like we did last summer.

CABRERA: Memorial Day marks the unofficial start of summer. And over the weekend the CDC put out new guidance for summer camps.

For camps where everyone is fully vaccinated, staff and campers don't need to wear masks, don't have to be tested, don't have to practice social distancing.

Do you feel comfortable with this?

DEL RIO: I think it's absolutely right. If everybody is vaccinated, there no need to do anything extra.

The challenge is, there are many counselor kids under the age of 12 that are going to be in. And you need to have some level of restrictions or protections to prevent the kids from getting infected.

But with testing and other mitigation strategies, you can also control the situation. As I said we're in a much better place. Summer camps will take place this summer which didn't happen last summer.

CABRERA: As a participant with kids myself, I wonder given the warmer weather and the reduced infection rates, is it OK to lose the masks when they're playing outside on the playground, for example?

DEL RIO: Absolutely. When you're outside, you're much safer than when you're inside. And the reality is they can take their masks off.

CABRERA: Good news there.

President Biden set his goal for 4th of July, 70 percent of adults to have at least one dose of the vaccine. Right now, at 62.6 percent. Do you think the U.S. will hit the president's goal?

DEL RIO: I think so. We're vaccinated right now. We're giving about 1.3 million shots a day. Hopefully won't go below a million.

If we do that over the next three weeks, we should be there by the 4th of July, which will be really an incredible accomplishment.

CABRERA: We just got to keep on keeping on.

People starting to make their return to the office. I know a lot of people return tomorrow.

The U.S. surgeon general has called attention to mental health. He says we must address the loneliness epidemic.

I think for so much of the past year, the focus has been on physical health. But what do you think needs to be done to address mental health issues that may have developed or been exacerbated by the pandemic?

DEL RIO: Ana, there are two things. One is the mental health, loneliness.

But the other one is we need to think about the thousands of people that have lost loved ones, have lost relatives, and they have not had time to grieve. And to properly, you know, go through the process of grieving.

And for that reason, we're going to have a lot of people who simply are going to be depressed, are not going to feel normal.

This is going to be hard. A lot of people are still very anxious about going back to work.

So I think work environments need to provide a very supportive environment for people to, again, feel welcome and be able to function appropriately.

Because of your mental health is not appropriate, your work will not be the quality you would like it to be.

CABRERA: Dr. Carlos Del Rio, I appreciate you. Thank you for being with us.

DEL RIO: Happy to be with you.

[13:44:23] CABRERA: The fate of Israel's longest-serving prime minister is in doubt, again. Why this ouster attempt could be different this time for Benjamin Netanyahu.

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CABRERA: After a quarter of a century leading Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on the cusp of being replaced. A right-wing nationalist and a former TV anchor-turned-politician are trying to form new unity government that could unseat Netanyahu.

CNN political analyst, David Sanger, joins us now to discuss.

David, we've been here before with Netanyahu's political future all but certain and then something changes and he maintains his power. Is this different?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It looks like it might be, Ana. It's difficult to tell.

There are many Israelis who in their adult lives can't remember anybody being prime minister other than Benjamin Netanyahu. It's been 12 years now and he had another three years in an earlier time.

There have been four times in the past two years the Israelis have gone to the polls. And it now looks like this unruly coalition may come together unseat him.

It's a coalition that's united on almost no issue other than their desire to get rid of Netanyahu. That's basically the only thing.

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Because it's got a right-wing party to it, a very centrist party, a small number small of members of an Arab party.

And it looks like, in the next couple days, unless Mr. Netanyahu can pull a rabbit out of the hat once again, he might finally get replaced.

CABRERA: What is the turning point here? What was it that may lead to his actual ouster?

SANGER: Well, it's been a combination of things. First of all, there's been a sense his time is out of gas. He is facing corruption charges, pretty serious charges going on in the courts at the same time.

There was a sense during the recent uprising by Hamas and the effort to go -- that moved toward the ceasefire a number of days ago, that that might have been given Netanyahu a way to hold on.

And in fact, yesterday, he started talking again about if I'm ousted, we will not be safe from Hamas, we will not be safe from Iran.

But I'm not sure that argument is working with the majority of Israelis anymore. I think they may at this point be willing to take the risk.

Although, it is a risk, because this new government could fall apart quite easily.

CABRERA: You think the Iran nuclear deal had an impact in this as well?

SANGER: Well, it will be interesting to see if the result here has an impact on the Iran nuclear deal. I think it's been sort of the reverse order.

Netanyahu has been extraordinarily clear in his opposition to it. He has ordered a number of actions against Iran, we believe, including the explosion at the Natanz nuclear enrichment site more than a month ago to undercut it.

But there are members of this new coalition, who believe that Israel is safer with the deal. It might give President Biden an opportunity to at least restore the old deal.

Now the big question comes, does he lose the Israelis if he is not able to then do the next step and make a longer-lasting and tougher deal? And that's going to be the hard part of this negotiation.

I think getting back to the old deal is not as difficult as extending it.

CABRERA: And how else could a change in power, you know, have an impact when it comes to the U.S. relationship with Israel?

SANGER: Well, I think one of the key questions is, does a new government take on the Palestinian issue differently?

The critique about Prime Minister Netanyahu is that while he has defended Israel on in that the peace process with the Palestinians has completely fallen apart. There really has been no discussion in the past four or five years.

While at the same time, he has reached agreements with four Arab countries, thus proving that you could have some peace with some Arab neighbors without first resolving the Palestinian issue.

I think there could be a little more room on the Palestinian issue perhaps with this new government. But it's hard to tell because there's a large element to it.

And perhaps the next prime minister in, Bennett, who is the right of Netanyahu on some of these. So it's going to be a real minefield for the U.S. to work through.

CABRERA: I'm glad we have people like you to help us understand as we continue down the journey.

Thank you, David Sanger, for being with us. I appreciate it.

SANGER: Thank you, Ana. Always great to be with you. CABRERA: Developing now, police release new video showing men with

assault-style rivals seconds before a deadly rampage in Florida. And now police are connecting the shooting to a rivalry.

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Stay with us.

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CABRERA: We have some breaking news right now. Tennis star, Naomi Osaka, just withdrew from the French Open after being slapped with a $15,000 fine by the French Open for not participating in news conferences.

The four-time major champion refused to talk to the media after her straight-set victory on Sunday, citing her mental health.

In a prior social media post she writes, quote, "We've often sat there and asked questions that we've been asked multiple times before or asked questions that bring doubt into our minds. I'm just not going to subject myself to people that doubt me."

And she had said she hoped the money from the fine would be donated to a mental health charity. But, again, just breaking in the last few moments. She has withdrawn from the French Open.

Many of you are showing us how you're making you're the comeback after the COVID restrictions are easing.

And Vanessa shared this photo of her parents meeting their 8-month-old grandson for the first time after the family was apart over a year.

And Jennifer Newbaker saw her 80-year-old mother-in-law, who is also a cancer survivor for the first time in 16 months. And there you see her in the background. She is getting a foot massage. They said they treated her to dinner and that foot massage.

And Carol Cheverling (ph), she decided this next moment was worthy of a celebration. She threw her granddaughters a birthday party surprise.

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CAROL CHEVERLING (ph), THREW PARTY FOR GRANDDAUGHTERS: This is your first big present. And this is for both of you. You both can open it.

Ready, go!

(SHOUTING)

UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: Grammy!

(LAUGHTER)

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