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GOP Resists calls To Remove Marjorie Taylor Greene's (R-GA) From Key Committee; New York Attorney General Says Nursing Home Deaths Were Undercounted By The Thousands; Long-Hauler Opens Up About Her Struggle With Coronavirus. Aired 7:30-8a ET
Aired January 29, 2021 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[07:30:00]
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: State government and Hollywood elites. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MARGIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): We're talking about who is "Q", so I'm going to tell you what he says. According to him, many in our government are actively worshiping Satan.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: So in a now-deleted Facebook post captured by the liberal media watchdog "Media Matters for America," Greene questioned whether California's deadly Camp Fire in 2018 was started by lasers beamed down from outer space. Lasers, she says, somehow connected to the Rothschilds, the Jewish European banking family -- the target of some of the oldest, laziest, most dangerous anti-Semitic tropes on the books. Jewish space lasers.
So since it was deleted, CNN has not been able to independently verify that post.
Here is what she said on camera about the nation's deadliest mass shooting in Las Vegas in 2017.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GREENE: How do you get avid gun owners and people that support the Second Amendment to give up their guns? Maybe you accomplish that by performing a mass shooting into a crowd. You make them scared, you make them victims, and you change their mindset.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: She agreed with commenters in a now-deleted Facebook post or posts who said that the 2017 Parkland school shooting was a so-called false flag planned event. And just this week, video surfaced of her confronting and harassing Parkland shooting survivor, David Hogg.
At a town hall in Georgia just last night, Greene signaled she's not ready to stand down on pushing these ridiculous claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GREENE: We had done a lot of work in our preparation, talked to a lot of people, looked at a lot of evidence that I think still needs to be looked at and should be presented in court. I truly believe that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: And joining us now is Greg Bluestein. He's a political reporter for "The Atlanta Journal-Constitution."
He has reported on Congresswoman Greene since she first announced her run for office. And that's the thing, Greg, and I'm so glad you're here because some people who are only seeing this for the first time -- Jewish space lasers, Satan-worshipping stuff -- are like oh my God. But this has been known by and large from the beginning. This is who she is.
The story isn't the crazy things that Marjorie Taylor Greene has said because she's always said them. The story is the acceptance of it from institutions at this point.
GREG BLUESTEIN, POLITICAL REPORTER, ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION (via Cisco Webex): The acceptance and the silence. Look, you're exactly right.
Her beliefs in these deranged conspiracy theories, these violent threats might be news to some Republicans in Washington but they're well-documented by "The Atlanta Journal-Constitution," by Politico, by CNN, and by other outlets long before last year's election. And most Republican leaders here chose to stay silent or even support her rather than risk alienating President Trump ahead of a close election.
BERMAN: So where did she come from, who is she, and how was she accepted early on?
BLUESTEIN: Well, she's not from that district in northwest Georgia -- a very conservative district. She's actually from a wealthy family in the suburbs of Atlanta.
She first announced a race for suburban Atlanta for a rather moderate district now represented by Democrat Lucy McBath.
But then, when Tom Graves, the incumbent congressman from the district of northwest Georgia, announced his retirement, she moved up to a city in Rome, Georgia -- in northwest Georgia -- and ran for a very crowded primary seat and emerged in a runoff against a local neurosurgeon frankly because Republican establishment couldn't get behind any candidate. They'd rather -- they chose to pretty much stay out of it and it gave her an open pathway to the seat.
BERMAN: Do you have a sense that these dangerous things that she has said -- that they've held her back in any way?
BLUESTEIN: They got her some bad local coverage, some negative local coverage, but she used it to galvanize her supporters. She said look what the fake media is doing. Look what the liberal Democrats are trying to push against me.
You know, that she's cast herself as a freedom fighter -- as someone who spoke out against these -- what she says, these dangerous conspiracies. And so she used it to energize Republicans in northwest Georgia.
Also, she came in with a big money advantage because she's so wealthy. And so she was able to kind of emerge as that frontrunner early on because she had the money to get the yard signs and radio ads and all these other things that other candidates in a very crowded field couldn't afford.
BERMAN: How far away did the two Republican Senate candidates in Georgia who were just in that runoff -- how far did they run away from her?
BLUESTEIN: Not at all, honestly. At the time, there was basically a primary in this special election between Doug Collins and Sen. Kelly Loeffler, and both of them pushing for that Republican spot in the January runoff. Both courted her very, very aggressively because they knew -- they thought, at least, that whoever won her district in November would end up on the runoff.
She ended up actually endorsing Sen. Loeffler at an event I was at that ended in disarray after just a few questions. So both of those Republican Senate candidates really, really aggressively wanted her support.
[07:35:09]
BERMAN: And now it seems that a silence has moved to Washington. I mean, how serious has the pushback been on her from Republican leadership?
BLUESTEIN: You know, House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy says he wants to have a conversation with her. So not -- it does not look very serious, so far.
Meanwhile, Democrats in Georgia and in Washington are raising those concerns that she's on the House Education Committee, and yet, she's mocked the deaths of schoolchildren in mass shootings, right? So they are -- they are pointing that out that how could -- how could this be happening right now.
And then back here in Georgia, you know, there were many stories written over the summer saying that she was promising to be a nightmare for Democrats. Well, she could end up being a nightmare for Republicans, and that's exactly what's happening.
BERMAN: Well -- but they're not running away. I mean, what does it tell you? What does it tell you the most we have right now from Kevin McCarthy is saying he's going to talk to her?
I mean, that really -- as a naughty kid sometimes, that would really scare me. I was going to get talked to by somebody and that's going to really keep me from doing something.
BLUESTEIN: Exactly. What it tells you is the lingering effect -- the lasting impact of President Trump in Georgia because he called her a rising star right after she won the runoff. Republicans here told me privately that they can't afford to risk alienating those deep well of Trump supporters who supported him and who supported her rhetoric by speaking out against her.
A few did. Former Congresswoman Karen Handel did -- a Republican from suburban Atlanta. And other -- you know, some Republican pundits in Georgia did. But most of them didn't because they just didn't want to fear enraging President Trump. And that hold on the Republican Party in Georgia and Washington still exists, it looks like.
BERMAN: Again, I ask you this. Have you seen any evidence that she's winning or in office in spite of it or because of it?
BLUESTEIN: I think it's because of it. And I say that just because she emerged as the frontrunner in the primary because of her invective, because of her outspoken stances. And even when these Facebook posts -- when her racist, xenophobic, anti-Semitic remarks came out again and again in published reports all over social media, it didn't seem to dissuade her supporters one bit.
BERMAN: And again, that is what I think should be of most concern as we sit here this morning. It's not a bug, it's a feature. It's not that Marjorie Taylor Greene is an aberration. It's that maybe she's not and it's telling us something much more than that.
Greg Bluestein, you have been reporting on this from the beginning. You have been telling people -- telling the world, if they're willing to listen, about this from the beginning, so we thank you for your reporting. We thank you for being with us this morning.
BLUESTEIN: Thank you.
BERMAN: All right.
A blistering report accusing New York's governor of undercounting coronavirus deaths in nursing homes by a lot. We have new reaction to this, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:41:55]
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Developing this morning, New York's attorney general is accusing the state's health department of undercounting coronavirus deaths at nursing homes by the thousands. The state health commissioner disputes this report.
CNN's Alexandra Field joins us now with more. What have we learned, Alexandra?
ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Alisyn. Look, we are talking about a huge disparity here between the number of
deaths of residents in nursing homes related to COVID that were reported by the state's Department of Health and the number being reported by nursing homes themselves.
This revelation based on an investigation by the state's attorney general's office which surveyed 62 nursing homes. That's just a fraction of the nursing homes statewide.
But soon after the report landed, the Department of Health updated its number of deaths of nursing home residents by more than 3,800 people, releasing new data that says that those residents died from COVID or COVID-related causes in hospitals.
But the Department of Health's commissioner -- the state health commissioner, Dr. Howard Zucker is pushing back against this report, saying that undercounted or miscounted is the wrong word.
He explains it this way. He says, "The Department of Health has always publicly reported the number of fatalities within hospitals irrespective of the residence of the patient, and separately reported the number of fatalities within nursing home facilities, and has been clear about the nature of that reporting."
So we'll see if that distinction makes any difference for the families of nursing home residents who have been asking questions about the care of their loved ones for nearly a year now.
What this report definitely does is it intensifies scrutiny that started back in March surrounding a state policy that allowed hospitalized patients to return to nursing homes. Some six weeks later, the state changed the policy, requiring negative COVID tests for those patients before they could return to nursing homes. But Alisyn, in those intervening six weeks, more than 6,000 patients went back into nursing homes.
The governor has defended the policy by saying it was in line with federal guidelines.
CAMEROTA: Alex, thank you very much. Obviously, this is not going away, so bring us any new developments.
FIELD: Certainly.
CAMEROTA: Even the people who are never hospitalized with coronavirus can have a very rough road ahead -- even the people who originally think they have a mild case of it. Some of them battle symptoms for months.
Rebecca Meyer was a healthy 31-year-old until she got COVID in March of last year. She joins us now to describe what has happened in her life ever since. Becca, thanks so much for being here. Great to see you.
You have been battling this for basically the better part of 11 months. And so, originally, you thought you, I assume, were just going to have one of the bad bouts of it, and then what happened?
REBECCA MEYER, LONG-HAULER STILL BATTLING CORONAVIRUS SYMPTOMS AFTER 10 MONTHS (via Skype): Yes, that's absolutely right, and thank you for having me.
I got sick in March. I thought I would have just a run of the flu, and then I just never got better.
CAMEROTA: So --
[07:45:00]
MEYER: And I went all summer in and out of the hospital and all fall and winter and just haven't been better.
CAMEROTA: So you have been in and out of the hospital. And as I understand it, doctors have tried a lot of different meds on you, such as antibiotics, steroids, the dexamethasone which is the strong steroid, inhalers, anti-nausea meds. Did anything work?
MEYER: Oh, I've tried many things. My bedroom has looked like a pharmacy at many times. I've had some mild successes with some meds and in general, not anything has really worked long-term. We're still very much in the symptom management phase of my sickness, you know, 10-11 months in.
CAMEROTA: And just to reiterate, you were a healthy 31-year-old woman with no underlying conditions. And so, now tell us what your daily life is like.
MEYER: I was healthy prior to March. Now I don't get out of bed most days. I don't remember a day prior to March where I wasn't nauseous or throwing up at some point throughout the day. My kids don't have access to their mom like they used to because I just -- I'm just not up to it.
CAMEROTA: We're looking at pictures of you before and then after and how debilitated you've become. How many times have you been hospitalized?
MEYER: I think I'm up to seven times now. I've lost track at this point. But usually, I stay two to three weeks. So that's also lost time with my children.
And during that course they just -- they try to run every test they can and then they hit a wall at some point. And they're like do you want to be miserable in a hospital or do you want to be miserable in your bed? And I'd much rather be in my bed.
CAMEROTA: And what do doctors say about why they can't crack the code on why you haven't gotten better?
MEYER: Not a whole lot. There's still a lot we don't know yet. The science hasn't caught up yet. It's comforting knowing I'm not alone in this fight -- that there's
thousands of others also struggling. But it's disheartening that doctors don't know yet what's wrong with us and that we've been sick for so long and there really is no end in sight.
CAMEROTA: And so what has this done to your emotional state?
MEYER: It hasn't been good for me, that's for sure. Like I said, I don't get out of bed most of the time. I have a feeding tube now because I have post-colo gastroparesis (ph), I have thyroid issues.
Emotionally, I'm not well. I don't have a lot of hope. I try to be optimistic but after months and months of in and out of the hospital and doctors with no real solutions yet, it's frustrating.
CAMEROTA: Of course, it is. I mean, that's the worst -- being sick and not knowing when it will end. Not knowing is this my life forever. I mean, that's the -- the people who I know who are chronically sick, that is just a daily crucible, emotionally.
MEYER: And that's exactly what it is and I really have to take it hour-by-hour because right now I feel OK. An hour ago I was so nauseous and feverish that it was hard to move. So it's just -- it's a constant struggle.
CAMEROTA: You talked about the fact that you're not able to be there for your kids. And I know that obviously, this has taken a huge toll on your other relationships, like with your boyfriend.
MEYER: Yes, it's been very hard. When I got sick in March, he lost his job shortly into our quarantine and has essentially taken on all of the responsibilities of cooking, cleaning, remote learning with the kids, taking care of me. He's had to learn my feeding tube care. He has to drive me 2 1/2 hours to the hospital whenever I have an issue with it.
It's been hard on him and it's been hard on us.
CAMEROTA: Of course, it is. How are you two hanging on?
MEYER: Well, we are very lucky that we have a great support system of online friends and family. They carry us when we don't feel like we can keep going.
We have to keep hope that eventually -- like this is not like forever. That this is our live right now. It feels like forever but hopefully, that's not the case. And that's all we can do at this point.
CAMEROTA: How can we help you, and what do you want our viewers to know?
MEYER: It's important to know that this can happen to anyone. I'm 31, I was healthy. I was an active mom of four. And now I don't get out of bed, I don't eat, I don't spend time with my children like I need to.
This can happen to you. This can happen to your loved ones. And don't wait for it to hit close to home to take it seriously.
CAMEROTA: Becca, it's really generous of you to want to even, in your crisis, to be able to share the message of what you're going through with everyone and how seriously to still take it. Even though there's so much, obviously, coronavirus fatigue and people want to be done with it, we're not.
[07:50:10]
And so we really, really appreciate you sharing the personal hell that you're going through. And obviously, we will stay in touch with you throughout all of this. Thanks so much for being with us.
MEYER: Thank you so much.
CAMEROTA: John.
BERMAN: We need to pay attention and people need to stay vigilant.
We want to remember some of the more than 433,000 Americans lost to coronavirus.
Ernest Slaughter served more than 27 years as the pastor of a Baptist church in Jackson, Mississippi. He was also a local activist and businessman. He ran unsuccessfully for a city council seat. He was just 53 years old.
Mark Faiella was a beloved owner of a pizza shop in Hopewell Township, Pennsylvania. His wife describes him as a real people person who remembered his customers' names and whatever they had going on.
Fifty-year-old Aaron Flores coached football at a community college in Wichita, Kansas. He suffered from a rare and severe lung disease and received a double-lung transplant three years ago which left him particularly vulnerable to coronavirus. He is survived by his wife of more than 20 years and two daughters.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:55:26]
BERMAN: Cicely Tyson, the pioneering star of film and stage, has died at the age of 96. For more than six decades she broke barriers, bringing dignity and depth to every character she played.
CNN's Stephanie Elam on a remarkable life.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CICELY TYSON, ACTRESS: In strength there is power. And I think that we have learned how powerful we are as a race of people.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Cicely Tyson embodied strength and power in a decades-long career that paved the way for countless women of color.
The daughter of emigrants from the West Indies, Tyson grew up in Harlem and got discovered by a fashion editor at "Ebony" magazine. After working as a model, she found her way into acting and in 1963, became the first black actress to star in a T.V. drama, playing Jane Foster in "EAST SIDE/WEST SIDE."
TYSON: You want to go and meet her (ph)? I'll take her with me.
ELAM (voice-over): Tyson appeared in numerous T.V. shows through the 60s and early 70s before making her mark on the big screen, as well. She earned an Oscar nomination for the 1972 film "Sounder" about a sharecropping family facing hard times in the Great Depression.
TYSON: The children and me will do the cropping. We have to because we owe you all that money.
ELAM (voice-over): Around this time, Tyson vowed to only accept roles that portrayed black women in realistic ways that reflected their full humanity.
TYSON: There were a number of issues as a woman born black and living in a country that did not recognize me as a human being. I have wanted to address those issues and that's why I was steadfast in terms of what I was -- what I was giving to my audiences.
ELAM (voice-over): Tyson stayed true to her ideals and played women of substance, including Kunta Kinte's mother Binta in the landmark miniseries "ROOTS" and the title role in "THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MISS JANE PITTMAN," which earned her two Emmy awards.
TYSON: No, no.
ELAM (voice-over): Away from the screen, Tyson was known for her relationship with fellow entertainment icon Miles Davis. Her marriage with the jazz great lasted seven years.
TYSON: I was so proud of that house.
ELAM (voice-over): Tyson was a tireless performer well into her 90s, along the way appearing in high-profile projects like "HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER," "The Help," and a Tony-award-winning turn in the Broadway production of "The Trip to Bountiful."
TYSON (Singing): Praising my savior --
ELAM (voice-over): In 2016, President Barack Obama awarded her the Medal of Freedom for her six decades of accomplishment.
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Cicely's convictions and grace have helped for us to see the dignity of every single beautiful member of the American family, and she's just gorgeous.
ELAM (voice-over): With grit and grace, Cicely Tyson brought integrity to a career filled with groundbreaking performances. (END VIDEOTAPE)
BERMAN: One of Tyson's last public comments came in a tweet to Amanda Gorman, the poet who obviously captured so much attention at President Biden's inauguration. Tyson wrote, "Amanda Gorman, your words remind us that we will rise, rebuild, reconcile, and recover. Thank you for your words and light."
CAMEROTA: Oh my gosh, what a career, what a life -- 96 years old.
"ROOTS" what such, John, a watershed event -- you know, television event. You were too old to watch it but I remember it being really a watershed and how impactful her performance was.
BERMAN: When you watched Cicely Tyson, and I've always loved her -- everyone has always loved her -- the way she filled every role she played -- every last nuance. I mean, every corner of every character, she filled it with exuberance and grace. And it's just -- it's so powerful. Such a power in all her performances.
CAMEROTA: And also they could be devastating. I mean, like the "Jane Pittman."
BERMAN: Oh, yes.
CAMEROTA: They were devastating --
BERMAN: All of them were.
CAMEROTA: -- moments -- yes.
So anyway, not even after -- I'm happy that she's 96. Cloris Leachman, yesterday, 94. These women are having long, healthy lives.
BERMAN: Well, that's why I know you're going to audition for community theater starting now. It'll keep you young.
CAMEROTA: What do you mean, going to?
BERMAN: Right.
We have breaking news -- important breaking news for you. NEW DAY continues right now.
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
