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Iran's Foreign Minister Accusing The U.S. Of Fabricating A Pretext For War; President Trump And His Team Have Been Very Hawkish About Iran Thoughout His Term; Pope Francis Announced He Will Not Be Leading New Years Eve Or New Years Day Services; New Years Eve In Time Square To Look Completely Different This Year. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired December 31, 2020 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

CAROLINA GARCIA, NURSE WHOSE FATHER DIED OF CORONAVIRUS: I was very happy that I can be there, but at the same time seeing my father lay there was very heartbreaking. But, that's my dad and I was going to be there with him.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: It's so painful. It's so painful to, you know, watch a loved one struggling like that.

GARCIA: Yes, it really was.

CAMEROTA: But, I'm sure your presence comforted him.

GARCIA: Yes, I know my dad knew that -- that I was there and that comforts me a lot, me and my family.

CAMEROTA: And the rest -- well, the rest of your family, as I understand it, had to be outside his hospital window as so many families have had to be this year. And so, what was that like for them and you seeing them out there?

GARCIA: You know, with what's going on with COVID-19 right now and with, you know, risks of getting infected and I was positive. My -- I -- my family knew, my sisters that, you know, this is all they can get was seeing my dad through that window and they visit my dad every day until the day my dad passed.

They -- they were out there just making sure that, you know, they can still see my dad and even though he was sedated they had comfort then that they would try to mentally connect with my dad. And I would like get the phone and put it by my dad so they can speak to him, so my dad can still hear their voice.

And so, I mean that's what we had to work with and I, you know, as a family we just tried to stay connected just to make sure that my dad knew that our presence was there, even though they physically couldn't touch him.

CAMEROTA: Yes. We were looking at pictures of your very big family. I mean, you're seeing your parents surrounded by their nine children and I was so struck to read about their history, your parent's history.

Is it true that they tried to conceive a child for seven years unsuccessfully and then they were successful and as -- had nine children in rapid succession, basically one a year after that?

GARCIA: That is correct. My mom, for the first seven years she just couldn't get pregnant and once she did she didn't stop. But, my dad was a person who he knew he wanted a big family.

I sometimes wonder if they were able to conceive when they first married if we were -- would have been 17 kids and we probably would. But, my dad was a person of, you know, family and that's just who my dad was. So.

CAMEROTA: No, I mean it's remarkable that they had so many kids and loved having so many kids and it looks like from all the photos, all of the affection of -- of your family.

GARCIA: Yes. And till the last day my dad, his kids, his wife, his home, his family, that was always my father's number one priority. Everything he did he did it thinking of how could this benefit my kids or how could this help my kids.

My dad was just so -- such a sweet person and I'm not saying this just because he's my father, but my dad, his kids, his family was his number one priority always. And I'm going to say that that's what broke my heart the most, that my dad knew that we were there and seeing us suffer, seeing him in the condition that he was the day before he passed, me and my sisters had Zoomed and we were -- we did a prayer and I remember telling my father like, dad, like just -- you know -- keep fighting, there's a God.

But, if you're tired it's OK to like go, we're going to be OK. To give us a sign, because there was times where I would call my sisters and I would tell them that I don't know that I can continue seeing my dad that way. And the following day my dad passed.

So, I really believe that my dad and God decided his destiny of going -- taking a different route in life, but my dad has left us great memories and I'm just very proud that I can call him my father.

CAMEROTA: That's really touching and really beautiful and sometimes I think it is true that you have to give your loved one permission to let go.

GARCIA: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Because it's hard for them to leave their -- their children and we can see how tight knit your family was and obviously your father is lucky to have had him for these 68 years. And so Carolina, thank you for all you're doing as a nurse and thanks for sharing your really personal story with us.

GARCIA: You're welcome. Thank you.

CAMEROTA: We want to remember Jose Garcia and the more than 342,000 Americans who have died from coronavirus. We'll be right back.

[07:36:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:40:20]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: Breaking news, Iran's Foreign Minister just tweeted moments ago, accusing the United States of fabricating a pretext for war. It comes as CNN learns that U.S. Defense Officials are divided about the potential for Iran to attack the U.S., to retaliate for assassinating the top Iranian general a year ago.

CNN's Barbara Starr live at the Pentagon with the breaking details. I mean, interesting comments for the Iranian Foreign Minister, listen, let's -- let's take those with a grain of salt, he lies all the time in his public comments. But, what you and I know, Barbara, is that there are senior U.S. military officials who doubt that Iran is poised for an imminent attack on the U.S.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is a complicated situation. I mean look, it starts with the U.S. in the last couple of days sending nuclear capable B-52 bombers to the Persian Gulf region in a show of force, a message to Iran, don't start anything, we're ready if you start something.

Now resulting in this tweet from the Iranian Foreign Minister, saying in part and his words are blunt, believe them if you will or not, saying instead of fighting COVID in the U.S., real Donald Trump and cohorts waste billions to fly B-52s and send armadas to our region.

Intelligence from Iraq indicate plot to fabricate pretext for war and he goes on, of course, to say Iran will defend its country. What he is talking about here is the question of whether Iranian backed militias inside Iraq are preparing to attack U.S. troops in Iraq.

The intelligence is mixed, there's a lot of different opinions as there always is on intelligence. Some are saying that they see evidence and it's very troubling. They believe an attack could be immanent. Others -- but the intelligence is not certain by any stretch.

And other say, no, there's really no corroborating evidence. The top U.S. General, General Mark Milley Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he has let it be known and let me quote from someone who has direct knowledge of Milley's views at the moment, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is paying extremely close attention to the situation. The military doesn't believe an attack is immanent, but is taking all precautions to ensure they deter Iran while protecting U.S. forces. Key last words there, Jim, while protecting U.S. forces.

What we do know from several officials in the last several days, measures have been ramped up for the protection of U.S. forces inside Iraq, watching very carefully if those Iranian backed militias do decide to act. Jim. SCIUTTO: Barbara Starr, never to underestimate the importance of deterrence or the level of concern there about protecting U.S. forces, you flew the B-52s, but help us understand, if you are truly concerned about an immanent attack why would the U.S. be moving a U.S. carrier group out of the region right now? Our understanding being that's partly a signal to Iran to deescalate.

STARR: Well, I think it's partly a signal. You and I both know that carrier had been out at sea for an extended period, scheduled to come. The -- the deterrence message, if you will, is to try and send that message to Iran not to -- not to escalate, the U.S. is not interested in escalating, the U.S. is not interested in war, but the message being that it has plenty of capabilities still on hand. If Iran were to attack inside Iraq, if, and hopefully it never happens, U.S. troops were to be killed, that's going to be the red line that is going to have to force either the Trump Administration or the Biden Administration perhaps to act. Jim.

SCIUTTO: Right. And it's a red line that they've defended -- enforced, rather, before. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon. Thanks very much.

Joining us now CNN White House Correspondent John Harwood and CNN Congressional Reporter Lauren Fox. Good to have you both on.

John, the president returned early from Florida and it's CNN's reporting that this is not connected to Iran, it's all about January 6, and this baseless attack on the election. You -- from your understanding, does the president have interest in an attack on Iran before he leaves office?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Look, I think that what everyone is wondering is on the situation with Iran is who is initiating the activity here.

Is there a legitimate reason, as Barbara said, the intelligence is mixed, to believe that Iran is preparing an attack or is President Trump, who has been very hawkish and people around him have been very hawkish about Iran throughout his term, looking to start something.

[07:45:00]

You know, the president's been behaving in ways that aren't particularly rational with respect to the election. You mentioned, he's coming back to encourage this baseless idea that fraud deprived him a victory in the election and trying to see how many Republicans he can get to go along with him.

You know, is he capable of doing something like initiating or -- or egging on a military confrontation to aid in that purpose. You'd like not to think so and you'd hope an American president would not be motivated in that way, but with Donald Trump it's anyone's guess.

CAMEROTA: Lauren, what would be the reaction from Congress if tensions were to escalate further with Iran? LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Well, I think we've seen this movie before and on Capitol Hill there's been multitudes of concern about the fact that the president sometimes runs fast and loose when it comes to foreign policy, especially with a country like Iran.

You've heard Senator Marco Rubio talk about this in past, you've also heard other senators speak out against the president when they feel like he's going too far, when they feel like he's being the aggressor.

I mean, there have been concerns for a long time about how the president handles relationships in the Middle East, you know, not just with Iran but also with allies like Saudi Arabia.

So, I think that lawmakers on Capitol Hill on are going to be concerned. Obviously, we may expect to see more a reaction this morning and I think we should just keep an eye out for that, because everything is happening in the context of next week and this January 6, you know, rigmarole that we're going to see on Capitol Hill when lawmakers are expected to object to the Electoral College results.

SCIUTTO: Rigmarole, good word. Not used often enough Lauren Fox, in relation to things like this. I want to quote from Senator Ben Sasse, of course Republican from Nebraska, on what he's hearing regarding January 6. This was in a Facebook post.

When we talk in private I haven't heard a single Congressional Republican allege that the election results were fraudulent, not one. Instead I hear them talk about their worries about how they will look to President Trump's most ardent supporters.

Based on your reporting, Lauren, do you hear of other Republican Senators who might join Hawley in this rigmarole, to steal your word?

FOX: Well we're -- you know -- we're keeping an eye for that. Obviously all eyes on someone like Tommy Tuberville a Senator-elect who's coming in and has made it clear that he's an ally of President Trump. There's also, you know, an eye to keep out for people like Tom Cotton and Ted Cruz, other lawmakers who may want to run for president in 2024.

Look, I think there is overall quite a lot of frustration right now with what we saw from Josh Hawley yesterday. Yes, he let leadership know ahead of time, but remember, McConnell has been privately urging members to not move forward with that -- this. Remember that Republicans in the House of Representatives have been talking about this for some time. They've been, you know, strategizing with the White House, but at the end of the day they can't get anywhere unless a senator signed on.

Now that Hawley has, he has put members who are up for re-election in 2022 in an impossible position. And remember, that these are the members who ran with Trump at the top of the ticket in 2016.

They thought they were going to get a break because their next re- election was in a mid-term, but there are 21 Republican seats to defend, only 13 Republican -- only 13 Democratic seats to defend and that makes this already an uphill climb for Republicans to keep the Senate and they don't want to have a bunch of fights in primary elections going into the mid-terms in 2022.

CAMEROTA: So John, now that President Trump is cutting his New Year's celebration short to return to Washington, what's the plan? What -- what is he going to do today?

HARWOOD: We don't know what he's going to do today. What we saw on his schedule was simply that he was leaving Florida at 1:00 o'clock, but this is a president who's very impulsive, who doesn't particularly make long-term strategy, who acts moment to moment and he's -- he's got his eye focused on January 6.

And, you know, he said famously in 2015 when he was running, I could shoot somebody on 5th Avenue and not loose any support. What he's doing right now is aiming at American democracy and testing that proposition.

Now, we've already seen that at the state level there are a significant number of Republicans in key positions, Georgia for example, Pennsylvania, Michigan as well, who are standing up and saying no, you can't shoot American democracy, we're going to protect it.

But, on the other hand the incentives within the party have people like Josh Hawley who wants to run for president standing up and saying, yes Mr. President I'm with you. And the question is who else is going to follow.

President Trump is focused on maximizing the number of people who do follow, but one of the things that we know is that Mitch McConnell has not been willing to do that. He stood up and said Joe Biden's the President-elect and as a result of that he's lashed out at -- at Mitch McConnell and he's raised this demand for $2,000 stimulus checks that are making Mitch McConnell or demonstrating to voters in Georgia as they prepare for those decisive runoffs next week, that it's Mitch McConnell and Republicans who are standing in the way of you and those $2,000 checks. He's taken the idea that, Mitch McConnell if you're not going to stand with me I'm going to do something to hurt you. And he has.

SCIUTTO: So Lauren, what you have in the performance art category, damaging performance art, but performance art is the January 6 challenge. What's really happening on the Hill, right, is that McConnell has bundled the $2,000 stimulus checks with two things the president wants, changes to liability protection for social media companies and also election fraud commission, basically killed those ideas. They're going to go nowhere.

What is going to happen is that the president's veto of the defense bill is going to get overridden and a whole host of other stuff the president wanted, not renaming military bases named after Confederate generals, et cetera. I mean so, when you get down to brass tax, right, the real stuff that's happening is killing key parts of the president's agenda. FOX: Well, that's exactly right Jim. And I think that this has been

one of the most interesting things to watch this week. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell basically told the president no thanks when it comes to what the president thought he was getting in exchange for signing that massive omnibus spending bill and stimulus bill.

And, you know, essentially McConnell is waiting out the clock here and trying to ensure that his members don't have to take a tough vote on these $2,000 checks, something that's going to split the party anyway.

And meanwhile, while Josh Hawley and Bernie Sanders are holding up a fast-track vote to override the president's veto on that defense bill, eventually the votes are going to be there, they're going to override the president's veto, it's going to be sign -- it's going to essentially become law and it's going to become law after 60 years of bipartisan agreements on how to run the Pentagon.

Remember, this is an overwhelming bipartisan bill. This is not some bill that narrowly get through every year, 59 years and running, this will be the 60th year and certainly it's really going to end and culminate in telling the president no.

SCIUTTIO: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Lauren, John, thank you both very much.

So, New Year's Eve celebrations will be very different this year. We have a live report for you from Time Square and what that will look like next.

[07:52:15]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:57:00]

CAMEROTA: Developing right now Pope Francis announcing he will not lead New Year's Eve or New Year's Day services. The Pope is reportedly suffering a flair-up of a sciatica condition in one of his legs. Here he is celebrating mass just yesterday and this will be the first time in years that Pope Francis, who turned 84 this month, has had to skip an event for health reasons.

SCIUTTO: Well it's of course a New Year's Eve like no other. We are now 16 hours, that's all, from the ball drop in Time Square. Celebrations this year though will look very different. Officials telling revelers stay home. CNN's Brynn Gingras is live in Time Square with more. I mean, we're not going to see a scene like we normally see there, crowds cheering, et cetera, very different.

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes absolutely Jim. I mean you can probably see behind me there's a lot of production trucks. It looks like a normal Time Square on New Year's Eve, but yes, it is -- actually very different and the fact that we aren't seeing people lining up outside streets trying to wait for their turn to get in and sit in those pins all day and wait for the big show. That's not going to happen. No crowds this year, no fireworks, the ball drop can be seen online live streaming, but it is -- it's going to be very different. You have to take precautions and that's what's being done here.

The show will go on though, that's important to note. There are going to be performers at some point in Time Square giving us a show, a lot of big names. But listen, all of them had to undergo a COVID test in order to get inside.

And there are pens as well, I actually checked them out. They're much smaller in size, they're socially distanced apart and they're also reserved for people who were invited, the heroes of 2020, the frontline workers and their families. So, a much smaller crowd being able to actually view the ball dropping.

And also it's important to note, of course, the NYPD is here. They always protect this area during this big event, but they're working with 80 percent less people than they usually do just because of the fact that people are not going to be allowed inside. However, a big part of their job is going to be making sure people stay outside, don't come to the streets, don't try to get a view of the ball. The message is everyone just stay home. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TERENCE MONAHAN, NYPD CHIEF OF DEPARTMENT: We are not going to allow people to stand on the street corners, stare up. Don't come. Do not come to the area. If you think you're going to be able to stand there and watch the ball, you're mistaken. Don't come. Watch it on home. It will be a spectacular television show. Next year we'll all gather together and we'll fill Time Square. But this year don't even attempt to come down there to watch it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRAS: Yes, don't come, don't come, don't come, don't come, he said it many, many times. Listen, it's been more than a century that the New Year's Even ball drop has been celebrated here in Time Square, but again, stay at home, watch it from your couch, Alisyn and Jim, and you know what, keep that countdown till midnight. I'm sure a lot of people can't wait for that hour.

CAMEROTA: I'm starting to think the cops really don't want us to come to Time Square. That's what I'm getting the impression. Brynn, thank you. Thanks very much.

Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen, they will have CNN's New Year's Eve live from Time Square, begins at 8:00 pm tonight. And some of the special guests --

[08:00:00]