Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Coronavirus Outbreak; Trump On Trial; Conservationist Death; Super Bowl LIV. Aired 5-6a ET
Aired February 02, 2020 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Millions are on lockdown, thousands infected, teams all over the world are racing to contain the coronavirus. We're live in Beijing with the latest here.
GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hours after a vote against more documents in the U.S. president's impeachment trial a blockbuster admission by the depth Department of Justice.
ALLEN (voice-over): Today is the day, the 49ers and Chiefs are gearing up for the biggest night in American football. We take you to Miami.
HOWELL (voice-over): Live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm George Howell.
ALLEN (voice-over): I'm Natalie Allen. CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
ALLEN: Just about 12 hours from now, the U.S. will begin imposing a strict new travel ban aimed at keeping new cases of coronavirus from reaching the U.S.
HOWELL: That's right. The directive takes effect at 5:00 pm Eastern time. Before boarding planes for the U.S., airlines must ask passengers if they've been to China in the past two weeks. Foreign nationals who answer yes, they will not be allowed on the flight.
ALLEN: U.S. citizens who have been to China will be rebooked to one of seven U.S. airports, including New York, Los Angeles and Atlanta. Once back in the U.S., they'll be quarantined for 14 days.
HOWELL: In the meantime, in the Philippines, health officials report the first coronavirus death outside of China; a patient in Manila, who had flown to the country from Wuhan. In China the virus has killed more than 300 people and it's infected more than 14,000 others.
ALLEN: CNN's David Culver has been reporting this story from the very beginning and joins us live from Beijing.
What are the latest developments from there, David?
DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there, Natalie and George. The containment effort is getting more extreme by some standards. In fact, we're hearing that they are stepping up when it comes to restricting people from even leaving their homes in one city, in Guangdong, within Hubei province, not far from the epicenter of all of this.
But saying to folks only one person can leave every other day to get groceries and to go back to the home. That's, you know, with a few exceptions, of course, being medical personnel and those who are working at the supermarkets and pharmacies.
Nonetheless, it's pretty extreme. That, in collaboration with the construction of these two new hospitals, really, that's what folks are really focused on here. Particularly state media. They've been putting out these images.
We know that one of them, the first one, has already been completed with construction and they are planning to open it tomorrow. It's going to hold about 1,000 patients and then a second one will be opened later in the week, construction rapidly underway. Both of these will have been completed in less than two weeks' time. Pretty incredible.
But on Sunday we heard from China's premier and he visited a command center and reiterated his support for those who are on the front lines of this, the medical staff, saying they need to get the supplies to them, acknowledging something that we've been reporting and that is a dire shortage of face masks and some of the hazmat protective suits.
Doctors and nurses simply don't have access to them and they're running low. Some of them reusing the ones they currently have. What the premier said, they need to step up production. He was saying to factories in particular, they need to liken it to a war, if you will, build up their arsenal so they can battle against this epidemic.
Something else he said that stands out and that is with regard to food supply. China is a country that has become prosperous and folks have dwelled on that as a pride factor.
However, he suggested that there could be problems getting basic necessities and that could be a challenge over the next several weeks. It was something that he suggested could also be corrected, so long as they keep open supply chains.
That's been an issue where folks have quite literally been building some obstacles and walls around their towns to protect against outsiders bringing in the virus. But there's a danger of blocking the basic necessities. He stressed it as something they need to keep in mind of.
ALLEN: Something definitely to keep in mind of and to think about all of the people, millions and millions, who can't go anywhere. A lot of thoughts are with all of these people. David Culver, thank you.
HOWELL: Here in the United States, at least eight people are confirmed to have this virus.
ALLEN: CNN's Polo Sandoval has more on what the U.S. is doing to stop that number from rising.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
POLO SANDOVAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: As the eighth case of coronavirus confirmed in the United States, airport officials continue to screen passengers who are traveling into the United States from affected regions.
[05:05:00]
SANDOVAL (voice-over): Come Sunday evening, you can expect much of the attention to focus on six specific airports. They include Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, here in the New York area, JFK as well as Atlanta Hartsfield International. That is where authorities will be focusing much of their efforts.
Members of the Trump administration saying all flights from China will be funneling through so that those incoming passengers will be screened by CDC officials, who will be on the lookout for those symptoms.
This will be part of this announcement that was made by the Trump administration on Friday. This also includes a temporary travel ban on all foreign nationals who are not immediate family members of U.S. citizens or permanent residents who traveled to China in the last two weeks.
Additionally, any U.S. citizen who has traveled to what is considered the epicenter of this outbreak will be subject to a 14-day quarantine, one of the latest moves by U.S. officials to try and contain any potential spread.
Again, when you hear from authorities who are closely monitoring these numbers, at least eight confirmed cases in the United States, they still say that the risks of contracting the coronavirus in the United States is still low -- Polo Sandoval, CNN, Newark, New Jersey.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOWELL: A lot of concern about the virus and restrictions. Earlier we got some perspective on all of it from Summer Marion, a research fellow at both Northeastern University and Harvard University.
She argues these types of travel restrictions are not the best solution to an outbreak and actually run counter to international consensus. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SUMMER MARION, GLOBAL HEALTH POLICY RESEARCH FELLOW: There's a lot we still don't know about this virus. We do know that when it comes to these travel restrictions, we certainly have better policy tools at our disposal. The public health emergency of international concern issued on Thursday by the World Health Organization. This designation is the result of a decade and a half of work by a large community of well informed professionals who have developed a set of recommendations for how the global community can respond to just this kind of outbreak.
The travel restrictions we've seen from the U.S., from Australia, among other states, are directly contradictory to these recommendations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: Our guest last hour said the same thing right there.
Well, the U.S. Defense Department is taking steps to curb the spread of the virus.
HOWELL: Our Barbara Starr explains how the Pentagon plans to use military housing for those who will be quarantined upon arrival to the United States.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Defense Secretary Mark Esper has now approved a request from the Department of Health and Human Services to provide up to 1,000 beds, housing facilities, on military bases for people who are coming back to the United States.
And they may have to go in quarantine for coronavirus concerns. This plan would call for these people to be in quarantine, on these military bases, if needed, through February 29th.
The bases include March Reserve Air Force Base in California, south of Los Angeles, which is already housing some people. In addition, a training facility at Fort Carson, Colorado; Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, Travis Air Force Base in California and also the Marine Corps Air Station at Miramar, which is near San Diego in Southern California.
Nobody knows how many people may be arriving in the United States exactly that may have to go into quarantine. But this is clearly an effort to get ahead of it and have a plan in place for how to deal with all of this.
The Pentagon hastens to add that they are only providing the housing. It will be HHS that provides all the medical care, all the additional care that is needed and these people will not come into contact with military personnel on the bases and they won't be allowed to go anywhere on the base except in their housing area.
No telling how long this will last. Right now the housing needs are through February 29th but nobody can say really what the next steps are -- Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOWELL: The president's impeachment trial, these things may never be considered evidence in that trial but they are causing a stir.
ALLEN: What we are learning about dozens of emails involving the president and why they won't impact his likely acquittal. That's coming next.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:10:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
ALLEN: In the impeachment trial of the U.S. president, the Senate vote to block witnesses and documents, we've seen that and now we're already seeing the impact. It means we may never see emails the Justice Department is now acknowledging for the first time.
Dozens of them exist that apparently outlines the president's role and involvement in the Ukraine aid freeze.
HOWELL: The court filing revealing the emails, argue that they should stay confidential because the emails describe, quote, "communications by either the president, the vice president or the president's immediate advisers regarding presidential decision making about the scope, duration and purpose of the hold on military assistance to Ukraine."
That is adding criticism from the Democrats of a cover-up and sham but that won't likely change the outcome of the trial.
ALLEN: The trial is hurtling toward a final vote Wednesday, with the president's acquittal all but guaranteed. Manu Raju has more on what the next steps will look like.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How does it feel to be leaving during the trial after no resolution?
MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A bitterly divided Senate taking a break as Republicans push for a swift end to President Trump's historic impeachment trial.
After ignoring Democratic complaints that they are holding a sham trial, Republicans have set a schedule that will virtually ensure Trump is cleared a day after his State of the Union address next week.
[05:15:00]
RAJU (voice-over): Monday at 11:00 am, closing arguments from the Democratic impeachment managers and the president's lawyers for two hours each. After that, regular Senate business, allowing senators to deliver floor speeches about their decisions over whether to convict the president. Culminating Wednesday at 4:00 pm Eastern. The final vote on whether to
remove or acquit President Trump on charges of high crimes and misdemeanors.
Democrats' emotions still raw after Republicans voted along party lines, refusing to hear from witnesses or to issue subpoenas for scores of documents blocked by the White House.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi tweeting, "It is a sad day for America to see Senator McConnell humiliate the Chief Justice of the United States into presiding over a vote which rejected our nation's judicial norms, precedents and institutions which uphold the Constitution and the rule of law."
In Friday's dramatic vote, two Republicans, Mitt Romney and Susan Collins, voted to hear from witnesses, including former national security adviser John Bolton.
CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS, U.S. SUPREME COURT: The yeas are 49. The nays are 51.
RAJU (voice-over): But the other 51 Republicans voted to block the effort with many arguing that no matter what the witnesses said or what the president did, it would not amount to an impeachable offense.
SEN. LAMAR ALEXANDER (R-TN): I think he should not have done it. I think it was wrong, inappropriate, improper, crossing the line.
And then the only question left is who decides what to do about that?
CHUCK TODD, NBC HOST (voice-over): Well, who decides?
ALEXANDER: The people is my conclusion. I think what he did is a long way from treason, bribery, high crimes and misdemeanors. I don't think it's the kind of inappropriate action that the framers would expect the Senate to substitute its judgment for the people in picking the president.
RAJU (voice-over): But many Republicans and the White House wanted Trump to be cleared so he could use the State of the Union address to boast about his acquittal. Some Senate Republicans and most Democrats demanded a chance to speak on the floor.
That means President Trump will still be on trial while delivering the nationally televised address. The delay also allows the four Democratic senators running for president to campaign in Iowa ahead of the crucial Iowa caucuses Monday night.
Now the focus is on whether any senators buck their party on the final vote, including three moderate Democrats who have not ruled out acquittal.
SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D-WV): It's the most serious decision that any senator will ever make in their career. And every senator wishes they did not have to make this decision.
RAJU (voice-over): Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOWELL: Now context with Natasha Lindstaedt, a professor of government at the University of Essex, joining us from England.
NATASHA LINDSTAEDT, PROFESSOR OF GOVERNMENT, UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX: Thanks for having me.
HOWELL: Let's start with the trove of emails that shed light on the president's direct involvement in withholding aid to Ukraine. They won't come in as evidence in this impeachment trial.
Does the content of the emails, does it even matter now in pursuit of the Senate case or matter in the minds of U.S. voters who won't see it again in this trial?
LINDSTAEDT: It definitely doesn't matter to Republicans because they had a vote on it and they made very clear, 51 Senate Republicans made clear, they don't want to see any additional evidence, they don't want to hear from any witnesses. I think it's a massive stain on the Senate and it's a breach of their oath of office.
But the Republicans are playing sort of the short game. They want to remain loyal to Trump because they feel that they face a punishment pretty swiftly from Mitch McConnell and Trump when they are not loyal to him.
But the question is for the public, what does the public think about this?
We know that polls have revealed somewhere around 70 percent to 80 percent of the public wanted to hear from more witnesses and wanted to see more evidence. This would be the first impeachment trial in history where there were not witnesses and really not much deliberation.
So Republicans may be playing the short game but I don't think they're thinking about 2020 and what outside the base and they're going to need to get support from outside the base in order to win the 2020 election. I don't think they're playing the long view to look at what's going to happen in 2020.
HOWELL: Let's dissect the response we're hearing from many Republicans, many saying that what the president did was wrong, they admit, but it doesn't rise to the level of a high crime or misdemeanor.
Does that play well, given what we've heard from Democrats, about things that President Trump was involved in?
LINDSTAEDT: Well, that's their argument because that's the only argument that they have, that yes, Trump may have done something that was inappropriate but it doesn't rise to the level of being an impeachable offense. The issue, of course, means now we have a completely different bar for
what is an impeachable offense. Most legal scholars believe that founders had in mind impeachment as a process to remove a president when they committed high crimes and abuse of power would constitute a high crime.
[05:20:00]
LINDSTAEDT: Now what the Republicans are saying is, you have to have committed an actual crime and that the bar is so different that it's almost impossible to impeach a president and that the process of impeachment as a mechanism to remove the president just doesn't matter anymore, that it's really just up to the public to vote in elections.
This is a complete shift and it basically means an impeachment just has no meaning.
HOWELL: To be impeached by the House and an impeached president by the House and likely acquitted by the Senate, the question is will the president be able to shake that legacy?
Will it stick with him?
Time will tell. Natasha, thank you for the insight.
ALLEN: And stick around, we want to turn our attention to another major event in U.S. politics.
HOWELL: That's right. The first votes of the 2020 presidential election just a day away now from being cast in the state of Iowa, the Iowa caucuses.
ALLEN: Democratic contenders are crisscrossing the state as you might imagine to make their final pitches. CNN's Jeff Zeleny looks at what voters are thinking ahead of the big day in Jefferson, Iowa.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Finally, it's their turn. Iowa voters are poised to render the first verdict of the Presidential race.
PAT MUNDY, IOWA VOTER: I have never been not willing to take a chance. And I think this election, we maybe need to take a chance.
ZELENY (voice-over): Pat Mundy has been busy sizing up the field.
MUNDY: I started first with Elizabeth Warren and I was very pro- Elizabeth in the beginning. My next candidate was Pete. I've heard him speak twice. Joe Biden, he is a source of comfort. Bernie Sanders comes off much more compelling in person than he does on the screen.
ZELENY (on-camera): So Monday night, whose corner will you be in?
MUNDY: I have committed to caucus for Pete. ZELENY (voice-over): Monday, a retired teacher has taken full advantage of her front row seat. Shaking hands with Biden, asking a question of Andrew Yang and finally coming face-to-face with her top choice.
After a year of listening to candidates at town hall meetings--
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are going to win this campaign--
ZELENY (voice-over): --and through TV ads.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Elizabeth Warren is the president this nation needs.
ZELENY (voice-over): Voters are making up their minds.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the year to play it safe and go with a proven candidate. I think that's Joe Biden.
ZELENY (voice-over): We met Jon Heitland at a campaign stop for Buttigieg where he made his final decision to support Biden.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need to nominate the person who can beat President Trump. That's the number-one issue.
ZELENY (voice-over): The signs of the season are everywhere in Iowa, from storefronts to front yards. This time, many voters have been slow to choose, as they search for the strongest candidate to challenge President Trump. Their decisions are driven by issues, but above all, electability. On that front, Democrats are torn whether to choose a progressive path--
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am supporting Senator Sanders.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just love his message. I think that he has integrity.
ZELENY (voice-over): --or a more pragmatic one.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My first choice caucus, I think it's going to go with Amy Klobuchar. And my second is uncertain.
ZELENY (voice-over): It's that question of second choice that's critical here. Candidates must win at least 15 percent support in the first round of voting. If they don't, voters turn to their plan B. For Hope Bossard, that's Biden. She respects him and is comfortable with him. But after seeing him up close, she wasn't electrified.
BOSSARD: I have to weigh this out. I like a lot of the new ideas that Tom Steyer has, but I am good with Biden. If he's our guy, I can support him.
ZELENY (voice-over): But not everyone is making that choice. After seeing Biden and Buttigieg on the same day, just before Christmas, Cheri Scheib faced a tough decision.
CHERI SCHEIB, IOWA VOTER: What's a guy could do? I don't know yet. I got to think about it and sleep on it. I don't know yet.
ZELENY (voice-over): We caught up with her again this week.
ZELENY (on-camera): Who are you going to be with Monday night?
SCHEIB: I'm going to be with Pete. I am. Mayor Pete, you got my vote. As many times as I've seen him, I've enjoyed him every time. I appreciate everything he says. Smart guy. Today really solidified my thought process on it. So I'm going with Pete.
ZELENY (voice-over): Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Jefferson, Iowa.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: All right. Let's get back to Natasha, government professor at the University of Essex.
You heard it there, a lot of people saying they just want to vote Donald Trump out of office. But it seems everyone has got their pick.
And did you hear a sense of someone's in the lead in Iowa there?
LINDSTAEDT: Well, I mean the latest polls reveal that it is Bernie Sanders that is in the lead with 24 percent to 20 percent to Biden.
[05:25:00]
LINDSTAEDT: So he has a slight edge. And there's actually a big dip in between Warren and Buttigieg, so there's about -- I think they have around 15 percent or 16 percent support.
So unless something really crazy happens, we will predict that Bernie Sanders is going to win the Iowa caucus. It could be really close and Biden could win it.
And for the most part, seven out of the nine last Iowa caucuses have predicted who the Democratic candidate is going to be. It has a better ability to predict than New Hampshire.
But if you look at the other polls of the other states, you see that Biden is ahead of Sanders in many of the other key states. I think this is going to be a really wild ride here. We may see Sanders move ahead in Iowa but not end up winning the nomination.
ALLEN: Who has the most to lose if they don't do well in Iowa?
LINDSTAEDT: It's Bernie Sanders. He has to win this. If he doesn't win it, then I think it's going to be Biden all the way. He's got to get a little bit of a head start here because he's coming from behind in some of the other states and he has to prove that he's someone that could be electable.
That is one of the biggest advantages that Biden has is when you look at the head-to-head contest between Biden and Trump.
In all of the swing states, some of the key swing states like Idaho -- excuse me -- like Ohio, like Michigan, like Wisconsin, like Pennsylvania, Biden has an edge over Trump in places where Sanders does not. So Sanders needs to convince the public he is electable.
ALLEN: All right. We shall see. My goodness, it's Monday, how about that. Natasha Lindstaedt, always appreciate your insight. Thank you.
LINDSTAEDT: Thanks for having me.
HOWELL: All right. As fears continue to grow about the spread of the coronavirus, it's also fueling concerns of racist backlash against people of Asian descent. We'll have a look at that story ahead in Paris next.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:30:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
HOWELL: Welcome back to viewers here in the United States and around the world. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM live from the ATL. I'm George Howell.
ALLEN: I'm Natalie Allen.
(HEADLINES)
ALLEN: France has confirmed at least six cases of the coronavirus. Health officials say the most recent case is a French doctor, who had been in contact with a patient in Asia.
HOWELL: And now people in France, of Chinese and Asian origin, well, they're reporting a racist backlash. Our Melissa Bell has this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The first French citizens to be evacuated from Wuhan landed in France on Friday, one week after the country declared its first case of coronavirus. The evacuees are being quarantined in this holiday center near Marseille.
But already the fear has spread and is being felt by France's Asian community. Zhao Huang has been in self imposed quarantine since returning to Paris from China on Monday. Just the train ride home gave him a taste of what other Asians are feeling.
ZHAO HUANG, FRENCH RESIDENT: I feel like everyone is looking at me like a monster or stranger. Just like that. You know, I remarked they are very confused at facial expression.
BELL (voice-over): He says the feeling is widespread within France's Asian community. #ImNotAVirus emerged in response with tweets like this, "First of all, all Asians are not all Chinese. Second of all, Chinese are not infected with the virus."
One French newspaper which has since apologized even ran the headline "Yellow Alert."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I was in the metro going to work. I sat down on the seat and the person sitting next to me moved over by a few centimeters. If he could've moved a few meters, he would've done. But at least it was a few centimeters and he covered his mouth with his scarf.
I was shocked, I was speechless. I did not know why and I did not want to fan the flames so I did not say anything. But I really wanted to tell him that what he had done was not OK. It's the first time this has happened to me.
BELL (voice-over): The feeling is widespread within France's Asian community, with story similar to Zhao's. Racism against Asians is not new but there is a feeling that this is a new outlet for it, from Canada to the United Kingdom.
Where one columnist wrote this week that his ethnicity had made him feel like he was part of a threatening and diseased mass.
ZHAO: This is an international issue. A white man or African friends could be infected by the virus. This is not really just Asian people who got the virus.
BELL: As in other cities, Paris has its own Chinatown, until now a vibrant and well integrated part of the French capital. But with the virus, a new shadow has fallen upon it as fear leads to suspicion and discrimination -- Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: Jeff Yang is a CNN contributor and a columnist for "The Wall Street Journal," he joins me now.
Jeff, thanks for coming on.
JEFF YANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks for having me, Natalie.
ALLEN: Let's talk about what's going on in relation to the coronavirus. The report we just saw have people in France seeing backlash, people moving away from them on buses. Chinatown emptying out.
We know that this is extending beyond France. Many people from many backgrounds are reporting that they're being treated with unnerving suspicion. Give us your reaction to that.
[05:35:00]
YANG: It's anecdotal, obviously. We don't have specifics on exactly how many people are experiencing this. But just on my timeline on Twitter, on other social media platforms, you're seeing a lot of people, a lot of Asian Americans and Asians in other countries, who are experiencing, I guess you could say, a metaphorical cold shoulder when it comes to being in public and simply being, you know, Chinese in a crowded space.
It's something that causes people to part like the Red Sea; daring to cough or sneeze causes people to actually shy away from you. There is a sense in which people feel very much like there's a kind of racial profiling occurring, simply because the disease so far has been primarily limited in terms of fatalities --
ALLEN: Right.
YANG: -- to Chinese victims.
ALLEN: Right. There are numerous reports of on-line racism against Chinese people and the sharing of xenophobic comments. Give examples of what you're reading and seeing online.
YANG: We're seeing lots of people talk about the dietary habits or the hygiene of Chinese people as being the root cause of coronavirus and other pandemics in the past, like SARS and like the bird flu.
And a lot of it is simply just beyond extreme and not held up by scientific data. People are using tropes, stereotypes that have existed since really generations, hundreds of years, to vilify Chinese people and Asians more broadly.
And it's actually quite scary because this kind of disinformation hurts efforts to contain the disease. It actually makes the dissemination of real ways to prevent the spread of the virus more challenging.
ALLEN: Right. You touched on people blaming Chinese for their eating habits and their culture and the root of these reactions.
What will quell the racism that you are seeing?
YANG: I think the only thing that will truly quell it is a frank conversation about where and how diseases like this occur and how they spread, something that's not in any way associated with race, ethnicity or nationality, something that really speaks to basic rules of, you know, kind of wellness, right, wash your hands, don't touch your face.
When you're in public make sure you contain any kinds of fluids or aerial spread of germs. These are things that everybody should be doing. But they're definitely not something that people should apply solely to people of any ethnicity or any visible race.
I think that in terms of the larger context of this, we have to understand that the hardest hit people, out of everybody and this disease, are the people of Wuhan. This is a gigantic social tragedy, something where hundreds of people have passed away, tens of thousands of people are ill. Best efforts are being made on a global basis to try to contain this
disease. But adding insult to more than injury, to fatalities, by claiming that there's a racial dimension to the spread of this disease, is truly scary.
ALLEN: We thank you for your insights and hope people will listen to this. Jeff Yang, thanks so much.
YANG: Thank you, Natalie.
HOWELL: That's understandable when people are concerned but it's upsetting to see racism slip into the mix with this.
ALLEN: Very much so.
HOWELL: Yes.
Well, much of the world's attention is focused on patients with the coronavirus but the shortage of medical workers is causing a crisis of its own for patients with other illnesses. This month one -- you see this situation here, a person begging guards to let her daughter pass through the checkpoint.
ALLEN: The mother says the girl has leukemia. The hospital in Wuhan where she is normally treated can't take her because it is operating at full capacity.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I'm obviously very upset because you're examining and treating patients with coronavirus but our illness also needs to be examined by a doctor. Right now it's a special time. The small hospitals in our area can't treat her. We just want to go to a big hospital to get her seen by a doctor.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOWELL: There's a great deal of desperation. After hours of waiting, the guards allowed the woman and her daughter to go through the blockade, where an ambulance was waiting to pick them up.
ALLEN: Thank goodness.
Well, an outpouring of grief over the death of a conservationist in Mexico. Why human rights activists are pointing a finger at illegal logging for killing this man right here.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:40:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
ALLEN: In Australia, some of the fire activity around the capital has eased but the area will remain under a state of emergency until at least Monday.
HOWELL: Temperatures have cooled slightly in Canberra after reaching into the 40s on Saturday. A storm moving through the region could impact firefighting efforts. Rain is expected to continue through the week.
The president of Mexico is vowing to fight the criminal groups that are allegedly responsible for the death of a popular conservationist.
ALLEN: The man known as the defender of the monarch butterfly may have run afoul of illegal loggers. Matt Rivers has more on his legacy and the deadly violence plaguing the country.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Homero Gomez Gonzalez dedicated his life to protecting the monarch butterfly in Mexico. He posted videos all the time like this one from three weeks ago. But it would be his last. He disappeared the next day.
Gomez's body was found this week in a well, officials say, with signs that he had been suffocated. There's lots of illegal logging in the area and Gomez had campaigned against it to protect and preserve the habitat of the butterflies.
Authorities think his work may have put him in conflict with people who wanted him dead. While Gomez's life was unique in Mexico, falling victim to organized crime is horribly common; 35,588 people were murdered in Mexico in 2019.
People are angry.
Asked why he was here, this protester says, "We're here protesting because there's been too many massacres in this country. We just want to live in peace."
Hundreds marched to Mexico City last week as Mexico's public security ministry released data showing last year was the country's most violent in recent memory.
[05:45:00]
RIVERS (voice-over): Experts say the violence has largely been fueled by criminal groups, operating with near impunity across the country. Involved in everything from drug trafficking to extortion.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't feel safe. No one feels safe.
RIVERS (voice-over): The march was led in part by the LeBarons, a Mexican American family that lost three women and six children in a November attack in northwest Mexico.
They were ambushed by armed gunmen, shot in their vehicle, lit on fire. This is what remains.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just opened my eyes to the incredible insecurity and the fear.
RIVERS (voice-over): President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador or AMLO came into office in 2019, promising an end to surging levels of violence. He wants to address what he calls the root causes of crime, namely economic insecurity, stop militarizing the drug war, he says. Eliminate poverty and the violence goes down.
There is a new strategy, he says, no longer facing violence with violence. There is no longer a war against narco trafficking. And he's even popularized a saying, abrazos, no balasos, hugs not bullets. But given the record number of murders last year, marchers say his policies aren't working, at least so far.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you'll listen to his policies, everything makes sense. He's a bright guy. But at the end of the day, here we are.
RIVERS (voice-over): The World Wildlife Fund says the monarch butterfly population has rebounded in Mexico. That is Homero Gomez's Gonzalez's legacy. He was laid to rest Wednesday as the man who saved the butterflies. Now Mexico has to figure out how to save people like him -- Matt Rivers, CNN, Mexico City.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOWELL: Matt, thank you.
Still ahead here, we are just hours away now from Super Bowl LIV.
ALLEN: Coming up, what the two starting quarterbacks had to say in a cryptic tweet from a quarterback that's not playing.
Maybe Tom Brady?
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:50:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
HOWELL: Happening right now, it's all tied up at a set apiece at the Australian Open men's final. Novak Djokovic is facing off against Austria's Dominic Thiem.
ALLEN: If Djokovic wins the best of five, this would be his eighth Australian Open title, his 17th Grand Slam win. Thiem, who is ranked number five in the world, is looking for his major victory and he's now leading in the third set. Got to rush home and watch that.
The stage is set for the biggest game in American football. Pick your sport, tennis or later on football.
HOWELL: A lot of people will be watching for sure.
The San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs are squaring off in Super Bowl LIV. CNN's Coy Wire and Andy Scholes have more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Welcome here to South Beach with Coy and the excitement is building for this game. Fans keep rolling into town. The Chiefs certainly excited to be here. They haven't been to a Super Bowl in 50 years.
The 49ers, one of the most storied franchises in the NFL, have won it five times, looking to win it for the first time in 25 years.
Of course, you know, the star of the game, all eyes are going to be on Patrick Mahomes come Sunday.
COY WIRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: One of the coolest players in the league and the most fun to watch and only 24 years old. He's already won the league MVP. What a beast he has been in the playoffs already, rallying his team from 10 and 24 points down to make it to this big stage.
It's like he's been built for this big stage. His dad played pro baseball for 11 seasons and Mahomes said growing up around those pro athletes was a big part in his career.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PATRICK MAHOMES, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS QUARTERBACK: Definitely an advantage. I got to see a lot of things kids don't get to see. I got to see how hard they trained when they were at the top of the game. It was a grind.
You don't see that as a little kid. You see the guys going out and performing and being great. But you don't understand how much hard work it takes. That instilled me at a young age I have to work hard if I want to be where I want to be at.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WIRE: Cannot wait to watch Patrick Mahomes do his thing on the field. He has a great story. The Niners' quarterback, Jimmy G.
SCHOLES: And Jimmy Garoppolo, he didn't have to do much for them to get here. He only threw the ball 27 times total in two games, which is a very small number. But they will need him to play big if the Niners are to win this game.
Who knows, he might have to outduel Mahomes in this one. We've become familiar with him because he was Tom Brady's backup.
WIRE: And so good looking.
SCHOLES: Maybe that too.
Garoppolo has two Super Bowl rings as Tom Brady's backup but he says a win on Sunday would mean so much more, considering he's one of the leaders of the Niners.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIMMY GAROPPOLO, SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS QUARTERBACK: Each one of those rings, even though two I wasn't playing in, you put a lot into the season even as a backup. Whether you're getting the defense ready or getting your own offense ready, it means a lot. I think being the starter, this one will carry a little more weight.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WIRE: Even though he is not here, we have to talk about one player who still is making news, Tom Brady. We're so used it to seeing him in the Super Bowl. He puts out a cryptic tweet.
What are you making of this?
SCHOLES: I zoomed in on this, saved it on my phone.
Is he walking towards or away from the field?
I can't tell.
Does this mean he's leaving the patriots or the NFL or retiring. I have so many questions, Coy.
WIRE: I'm sure he placed that tweet strategically so you and I and the rest of the Twitter world would be talking about him here at Super Bowl LIV in Miami and he's not even playing here.
SCHOLES: It will be interesting to see what unfolds in Tom Brady's future. Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOWELL: All right. Thanks.
And Brady posted about that on his Instagram. Two of his teammates were asked about it on Barstool Radio. Brady told them people are overreacting about this. His real message, they say, the best photos are in black and white.
ALLEN: I think there's more to it than that.
HOWELL: I think so, too.
Some are in it for the photos and some are in it for the game, the commercials and all it's about the halftime show for some.
[05:55:00]
ALLEN: Yes, that's me. Jennifer Lopez and Shakira will take center stage for the Super Bowl halftime show. At a news conference this week, J.Lo said she hopes the performance carries a message that hard work pays off.
Both she and Shakira spoke about how proud they are to be sharing the stage as Latina women and hope their show empowers women around the world.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JENNIFER LOPEZ, SINGER: This Super Bowl, I mean the two teams that are playing, right, the Chiefs and the 49ers, are run by women and then you got two women headlining the halftime show.
It's just that statement alone for me is empowering. When I think of my daughter, when I think of all the little girls of the world to be able to have that, to see that, two Latinas doing this at this time in this country at this time, it's just very empowering for us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: All right. We'll wait and watch.
Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Natalie Allen.
HOWELL: And I'm George Howell. For our viewers in the United States, "NEW DAY" next. For viewers around the world "QUEST'S WORLD OF WONDER" is ahead.
ALLEN: See you soon.
