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Some of Kinzinger's Family Members Shun Him After Trump Vote; Kroger Health to Offer 1st Smartphone-Enabled COVID Test; Update on Coronavirus Responses Across the Country; FOX Calls Planned, Promoted, Advertised Trump Rally "Spontaneous". Aired 1:30-2p ET.

Aired February 16, 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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[13:33:58]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: In the last four years, we have seen former President Donald Trump's rhetoric sharply divide the country and, in many cases, families.

This time, it's Congressman Adam Kinzinger and his family. Several of his relatives have shunned him publicly in a letter. They're very angry that he voted to impeach Trump following that deadly insurrection.

I want to read to you part of this letter published by "The New York Times."

It says, "Adam, oh, my, what a disappointment you are to us and to God. We were once so proud of your accomplishments. Instead, you go against your Christian principles and join the devil's army, Democrats and the fake news media."

And it goes on to say, "You should be very proud you lost the respect of Lou Dobbs, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Greg Kelly, et cetera, and more importantly, in our book, Mark Levin and Rush Limbaugh, and us."

"It is now most embarrassing to us that we are related to you. You have embarrassed the Kinzinger family name. We are not judging you. This letter is our opinion of you."

"Oh, by the way, good luck in your fundraising endeavors. We're sure we know there are many other good GOP and Christian supporters who feel the same way we do."

[13:35:04]

"The Times" says 11 family members signed this.

But the letter didn't stop there. There's a P.S. It says, "P.S., for your information, many more family members feel

the same as we do. They just didn't have the courage to sign or letter or write their own letter. Not us. We're thoroughly disgusted with you. Oh, by the way, we're calling for your removal from office."

Let's talk about this now with CNN chief political analyst, Gloria Borger. And Reed Epstein, who is the politics reporter for "The New York Times."

And wrote about this in a fascinating article, Reid, that you have up now, "Adam Kinzinger's Lonely Mission."

Reid, you interviewed Kinzinger. You also interviewed a cousin who signed the letter.

First, tell us about how the congressman is reacting to this.

REID EPSTEIN, POLITICS REPORTER, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Well, you know, he received this letter in early January. It was mailed to his father on July 8th, two days after the riots. And he has, for the most part, sort of shrugged it off.

These are -- the letter is from 11 members of a very large central Illinois family. And Kinzinger has sort of framed this as that these are people who he's related to who he sees on some holidays but they're not his closest family members.

But at the same time, he understands that it's sort of part of the cleaving of America, of part of the Republican Party over the last several weeks, since the riot at the capitol, and people dividing themselves over their loyalty to President Trump.

KEILAR: You spoke to his cousin, Karen Otto, who signed this letter. Tell us what motivated her to do that. What did she say?

EPSTEIN: Well, she, you know, in part, wanted to shun him. Nat was what was behind this. She wanted -- she wants him to end his career in politics, essentially.

And she wanted him to know that there's a lot of discontent with how he has conducted himself within his own family.

There certainly is discontent with him among Republicans in Illinois. What makes this extraordinary is, of course, the family nature of it, and that they would make this so public.

And not just sending a letter like this to him, but to several other Republicans in elected office in Illinois and out of elected office in Illinois.

It was clear this was a letter that they intended to receive wide circulation, and of course, now it has.

KEILAR: I think, Gloria, one of the reasons that this story and this letter resonates so much with people is, you know, you can see story after story after story of families that are divided. I mean, they don't have this kind of element with obviously an elected

official.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Sure.

KEILAR: But this idea of a divided family is pervasive right now across the country.

BORGER: It is. And what was so interesting to me was the so-called political heroes that they mentioned in this letter that they're upset that Adam Kinzinger has gotten angry.

And they're not political heroes, really. They're television stars. You know, how dare you get upset -- you know, upset Sean Hannity or Laura Ingraham or even a radio personality, Rush Limbaugh, whoever it is.

It's not that they're saying, you know, we really stand by Lindsey Graham. Of course, they worship Donald Trump. But it's so remarkable to me because you really get an insight into who is influencing them and how they're getting influenced.

And I think that the Kinzinger is smart to kind of say, well, there's really nothing I can do about that right now.

KEILAR: Yes. It's hard to read that letter, I'll tell you that.

BORGER: Yes, definitely.

KEILAR: But, Reid, great story. Thank you for sharing it with us.

Gloria, thank you for your insight as well.

BORGER: Sure.

KEILAR: Winter storms are hampering the vaccine effort. It's forcing cities to delay distribution, which is obviously bad news. We're on the ground with that story next.

[13:39:05]

Plus, Kroger plans to offer at-home COVID-19 tests with results in 15 minutes from your phone.

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KEILAR: A possible breakthrough in COVID-19 testing. Kroger Health announcing today that it is working to obtain emergency use authorization for the first Smartphone-enabled rapid test.

According to a statement from Kroger, you would be able to administer a nasal swab yourself and then scan the swab with a new app on a Smartphone. And the app would provide results in just about 15 minutes.

Let's turn now to our reporters on the latest COVID developments. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: I'm Jacqueline Howard in Atlanta. Some people with severe COVID-19 show signs of eye damage. That's according to a new study out of France that published in the journal "Radiology."

Researchers studied more than 100 COVID-19 patients who underwent MRI imaging. The MRI images show that nine of those patients, or 7 percent, had abnormal nodules in their eyes.

[13:45:05]

The researchers encourage screening COVID-19 patients for eye problems.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: I'm Josh Campbell here in Cal State, Los Angeles, just east of downtown. Today is the day that so many in this community have been waiting for. That is the opening of this mass public vaccine distribution center.

Now, this is being run by FEMA in concert with state officials, also with support from the National Guard.

Officials tell us that the goal is to vaccinate up to 4,000 local residents here by the end of today. They hope to raise that number to 6,000 per day by Thursday.

This is one of two of these types of mass distribution facilities here in the state of California. The other one being up in Oakland.

According to the Biden administration, this is one of 100 of these types of facilities they hope to open within the first 100 days of the administration.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Ed Lavandera in Dallas. The winter storm is not just wreaking havoc with the power grid system here in Texas but it's also wreaking havoc with distribution of the coronavirus vaccine.

Many of those distribution sites have been closed down because of the winter weather storm. And that is forcing health officials to reschedule and postpone the appointments for these vaccines that many people across the state had already had.

So you need to check in with your local health officials to determine when exactly all of that will resume, kind of depends on where you're at.

But many of the major cities here in Texas are reporting these delays and postponements of the coronavirus vaccine.

And in Harris County, there was some concern that about 8,000 Moderna vaccines would be lost. But health officials were able to scramble and move those vaccines to other locations and get them used.

And they're also able to salvage 3,000 vaccines after Moderna said those vaccines could be restored in the refrigeration system.

So a great deal of concern about how all of this is unfolding here in the state of Texas this week.

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KEILAR: Thank you to my colleagues for those reports.

Another lie. We roll the tape on FOX touting a preplanned Trump rally as spontaneous. We'll talk about why it matters.

And the former president faces his first civil lawsuit over the deadly capitol riot, accused of conspiring with far-right extremist groups to incite the chaos.

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[13:51:47]

KEILAR: FOX is becoming its own worst nightmare, completely predictable. Worship Trump, blame Democrats, spotlight fear. Rinse, lather, repeat.

And despite their lies and conspiracy theories being documented and deconstructed on a daily basis, they make like the Brady Bunch kids and they keep on, keep on, keep on, keep on, all through the night.

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SEAN HANNITY, FOX HOST: A few hours ago, spontaneously, thousands of people in Palm Beach lined up in support of the former president as his motorcade traveled through Florida.

I have a question, Mitch McConnell, John Thune. How come you never had this kind of enthusiasm at any of your events?

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KEILAR: Lie. That rally -- this one here -- it wasn't spontaneous. There's an organized police presence that was ready for the event. Far-right media had been promoting it for the past week.

Reporter Olivia Nuzzi even tweeted out evidence before Hannity's show started.

It reads just like a normal invite. There's a time. There's a place, quote, Southeast corner of Parker Avenue and Southern Boulevard." There's a day. There's a reason.

There's even directions for what to bring, flag, signs, and your love for, quote, "the greatest president of all time."

But Sean Hannity is never one to let facts get in the way of things.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HANNITY: Looking at dad coming back from the gulf, did you see thousands of people out of nowhere? Nobody organized it, I could see. Certainly, nobody associated with your father that I know of. Do you?

DONALD TRUMP JR, SON OF FORMER PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, this is totally organic. And again, it just shows that the American people are with Donald Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: When you go to bed with lies, you wake up with them on the channel, too.

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AINSLEY EARHARDT, FOX HOST: Yesterday, Donald, Trump, on Presidents' Day, was driving into West Palm and there were crowds of people.

I don't know if you have seen the video. If you haven't, here it is. He's in the car. They stop for a moment. He's waving, doing the thumb's up to the crowd. But look at all of the supporters.

BRIAN KILMEADE, FOX HOST: That was not a planned event.

EARHARDT: Right.

KILMEADE: It was spontaneous on Presidents' Day for Donald Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: These lies are not harmless. They're part of the bigger lie about what is true and what isn't. They're dividing a nation. They're dividing family.

We just shared a letter from the family of Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger, who voted to convict Donald Trump in the second impeachment trial.

He looked at the facts and he voted his conscience. His family told him he was a disappointment to them and God.

Why? Because they said, quote, "You should be very proud you lost the respect of Lou Dobbs, Sean Hannity, Greg Kelly and, most important, in our book, Mark Levin and Rush Limbaugh, and us. It is now most embarrassing to us that we are related to you."

So just to run through that IMD-worthy cast of characters, Lou Dobbs is now off the air, booted off by FOX after he was named in a lawsuit for spreading conspiracy theories about voting machines.

Tucker Carlson has mocked the capitol attack, denying it was domestic terrorism, denying any racism was involved, even though there verifiably was.

[13:55:01] And we should point out that FOX successfully defended Carlson in a slander lawsuit saying viewers shouldn't believe what he says. That's right, his own network said he's full of it.

Then there's Laura Ingraham. She recently praised and hosted Robert F. Kennedy Jr to push anti-vaccination conspiracy theories.

And Greg Kelly, Mark Levin and Rush Limbaugh, all helped fan the flames of the big lie, that the election was stolen from Trump, when it was not.

Those are the people whose families, like Adam Kinzinger's, are listening to. There are so many American families listening to them.

These television personalities pushing lies and conspiracy theories disguised as patriotism and traditional American values, when really they're just home wreckers who wouldn't offer up the truth if it landed in their snake oil.

Next, comedian, Dave Chappelle, gets serious and sums up the hypocrisy of the capitol rioters, some of the same people who criticized Colin Kaepernick for taking a knew to protest police brutality.

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DAVE CHAPPELLE, COMEDIAN: They're carrying the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) Confederate flags to the rotunda! The Confederate Army didn't even do that. (EXPLETIVE DELETED), you went very far.

(END VIDEO CLIP)