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Biden to Address Ransomware Hacks with Putin; Fauci: We Must Not Declare Victory Prematurely; Massachusetts to Close All Mass Vaccination Sites; Airlines Scramble to Get U.K. Travelers Home from Portugal; Biden Rejects Counteroffer from Republicans on Infrastructure Bill; U.S. Job Market Moves into Higher Gear; Capitol Siege Aftermath; Debate Rages over Critical Race Theory; Pentagon to Release Report on UFOs. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired June 05, 2021 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Michael Holmes. Appreciate your company.
Coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM, like terrorism in the wake of 9/11. That's how the FBI director is describing ransomware attacks escalating across the country.
Travel rules reversal: why many Brits vacationing in Portugal are now rushing to get home.
And as the Jersey Shore prepares for summer crowds, restaurant owners are finding employees hard to find.
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HOLMES: We begin with a dire warning from the U.S. government. Ransomware attacks are getting so malicious and so frequent that they could cripple vital infrastructure if drastic action isn't taken soon. Experts say cyberattacks are up more than 100 percent compared to this time last year and last year was busy.
Hospitals, schools, police, transportation, gasoline, food, government -- no one has been spared. And a single successful attack can throw daily life into turmoil.
Remember Colonial Pipeline that was hacked with an errant password?
Suddenly millions of Americans couldn't get gas, a jarring wake-up call for the Biden administration. Jessica Schneider explains.
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JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Biden administration sounding the alarm of growing threats of cyberattacks. FBI director Christopher Wray comparing the effort needed to combat this rapid succession of hacks and ransomware attacks to how the FBI approached the response to terrorism after 9/11.
"There are a lot of parallels and a lot of importance and a lot of focus by us on disruption and prevention," Wray said.
Director Wray told "The Wall Street Journal" the FBI is investigating about 100 different types of ransomware, many that trace back to hackers in Russia. One study shows the U.S. was hit by more than 15,000 ransomware attacks last year alone, costing businesses and organizations between at least $500,000 and $2.3 billion in 2020.
Ransomware locks up computer files and hackers demand payment to release the files.
JOHN CARLIN, PRINCIPAL ASSOCIATE DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: A study of cryptocurrency payments using similar techniques that will just distract you show a 300 percent increase in ransom payments over the prior year.
SCHNEIDER (voice-over): Ransomware attacks have impacted everything, from the gas pipeline operated by Colonial that led to gas shortages all along the East Coast, to meat production plants being shut down. And even individual health care networks, whose computer systems have been shut down sporadically across the country and the world.
JOHN HULTQUIST, DIRECTOR OF INTELLIGENCE ANALYSIS, FIREEYE: Before long, we are worried that some people will get hurt especially when we consider all these incidents that are affecting health care. Ireland's health care system went down.
SCHNEIDER (voice-over): The Department of Justice signaling this week it plans to coordinate its cyber investigations the same way it treats terrorism cases by sharing information and interagency coordination. Former FBI cyber official Shawn Henry says it's going to take an international effort.
SHAWN HENRY, PRESIDENT, CROWDSTRIKE: They've got to work collaboratively with foreign law enforcement agencies to take these people off the field.
SCHNEIDER (voice-over): The massive threat from cyberattacks have been looming for years. Former Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats, warned about the threat three years ago.
DAN COATS, DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: Today, the digital infrastructure that serves this country is literally under attack.
SCHNEIDER (voice-over): The White House this week's and business leaders nationwide, a letter appealing for immediate action saying, "We urge you to take ransomware crime seriously and ensure your corporate cyber defenses match the threat."
And the FBI director also called out Russia in that interview for knowingly harboring cyber attackers. But President Vladimir Putin is fighting back, calling it nonsense that Russia was ever involved in any cyberattacks, specifically on the JBS meatpacking plants. And President Biden will get the chance to confront Putin at a summit
in Switzerland later this month. The White House says President Biden will address that JBS attack with Putin as well as the increased cyberattacks that we know have been emanating from Russia -- Jessica Schneider, CNN, Washington.
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HOLMES: As Jessica mentioned, Russia's leader brushing off U.S. allegations that Russian hackers were behind the most recent ransomware attacks.
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HOLMES: CNN's Matthew Chance with that part of the story.
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MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Vladimir Putin sharply rejecting allegations that Russia is in any way implicated in the recent ransomware cyberattacks in the United States, describing them as nonsense, ridiculous and just hilarious.
U.S. officials say two recent attacks on a crucial U.S. fuel pipeline and on a major meatpacking company were carried out by cyber criminals based in Russia. They've called on the Kremlin to crack down.
The suggestion being that the Russian authorities are currently allowing the cyber gangs to operate with impunity. President Putin made his remarks at an interview with Russian state television on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Take a listen to what he had to say.
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VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA (through translator): It is just ridiculous to blame Russia for this. I think that the relevant U.S. services should find out who the scammers are. Not Russia, for sure.
For us to extort money from some company?
We are not dealing with some chicken meat or beef. It is just hilarious.
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CHANCE (voice-over): Strong words from the Russian leader and they come less than 2 weeks before he is scheduled to meet the U.S. President Joe Biden in a face-to-face summit in Geneva, Switzerland.
Hacking and cyber warfare just one of the fraught issues on the agenda, which is also likely to include sanctions, Russia's treatment of Kremlin critics and military threats against its neighbors.
President Putin says he's hoping the meeting will be held in a positive manner but he doesn't expect any breakthrough in Russian- American relations -- Matthew Chance, CNN.
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HOLMES: Robert Lee is the CEO of cybersecurity company Dragos and he joins me now from Crofton, Maryland.
Good to see you, Robert. So the FBI director comparing these attacks to 9/11, in terms of threat, because of what they can do for infrastructure. I mean, he wouldn't do that without thought.
I mean, do you agree with him, just how big and serious is the problem?
ROBERT LEE, DRAGOS: So far, everything has been criminal in nature, both, from non-state actors and state actors taking advantage of these things. But it does expose the weakness everybody is concerned about, where you could do disruptive attacks.
We've seen these types of attacks before, not with ransomware but with cyberattacks on infrastructure, including Ukraine 2015 and the Ukraine in 2016, when cyberattacks took down portions of their electric power system.
HOLMES: Yes. Absolutely.
And what worries you, most, in terms of potential impacts?
I mean, you mentioned health care organizations being hit. One -- one imagines, at some point, lives are going to be at risk or -- or -- or even lost.
LEE: Absolutely. So I think, we have to, first, focus on human life. That is, obviously, what we need to protect the most.
Beyond that, it also is just a significant economic impact. A lot of these companies, especially when you look at industrial companies, they are portions of our supply chain for food, fuel, energy, water.
When you disrupt those, it can have a real impact on our day-to-day lives. And when you start looking at manufacturing, some of those companies are just-in-time manufacturing.
So disruption to them is very difficult to catch up for, especially if you are in the middle of a global pandemic. It's not exactly easy and that can lead to significant impacts.
HOLMES: Yes, yes, good point. I mean, tell me this.
How -- how -- how does the perpetrators being, it would appear, in Russia hamper efforts to get on top of this?
Even if these aren't government actors -- and they might well be -- but even if they are just criminal, it would certainly seem, you know, Vladimir Putin and his government isn't acting against them. How significant is that?
LEE: It absolutely gives them air cover. So a lot of these criminals in Eastern Europe and in Russia and other places, their governments don't lock down or crack down at all on their actions.
The mindset is, as long as you're not attacking our companies, you're not breaking our laws. Therefore, we're not going to get involved.
And because ransomware operations are very easy to get into, it's kind of cheap to start off in and the payments can be, you know, multimillion-dollar payouts on each company they target and your home government isn't willing to prosecute you or bring you to justice, there's not a whole lot of reasons you wouldn't do it.
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LEE: And that creates an international crisis.
HOLMES: This -- this is a corporate issue, isn't it, by and large, the most recent ones, anyway?
Even if the potential impacts of an attack do have national security implications. The U.S. is a country, of course, that doesn't like federal mandates and so on with private enterprise.
What can the federal government, actually, do?
What should it do?
LEE: Well, federal government does have a very important role and responsibility to play, especially, in coordination, amplification, of what works and what doesn't work and also, in trying to find ways to create incentives.
You know, regulation is something that always comes up in the discussion. And there is reasonable regulations that make sense. But you can't policy or regulate your way out of this. Just as you mentioned, these companies have to invest in it, themselves. A lot of the day-to-day work happens in those private-industry companies.
And as we look at a lot of these companies around the world, they really haven't made the investments in cybersecurity that are required, not only for where they are today but where they're going and taking advantage of new technologies.
So by and large, it's got to be everybody at the table. And there's going to be international cooperation as well. But as you mentioned, it's got to start with the corporations themselves and there's got to be incentives and mechanisms for them to do the investment required.
HOLMES: And, real quickly, do you know any countries that are doing a good job combating this?
As you say, it requires an international effort, really.
Cooperation between governments, anyone doing a good job?
LEE: I don't think anyone's doing a particularly good job on the ransomware problem. There is obviously good governments out there. Again, the U.S. has done a lot. If you look in the U.K., what happens with their NCSC organization in Australia, the ASDNA (ph) ACSC (ph), basically, these various-government organizations have worked really hard to create partnership in those communities. And that is a great thing.
But people are what we need to train. People are who we need to employ in these organizations and the corporations to actually do the day-to- day work, using technologies that amplify those skills. That's more important, really, than just partnership. But you do need both.
HOLMES: Great analysis, Robert Lee with Dragos, Thank you so much. Appreciate it.
LEE: Thank you.
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HOLMES: Diplomatic pressure intensifying against Belarus, as the European Union imposes its latest sanctions. The bloc is banning Belarusian airlines from flying over E.U. airspace or landing at its airports.
This after that forced landing of a Ryanair flight in Minsk which led to the arrest of dissident journalist Roman Protasevich. The activist was once again shown on state media, where his family and supporters say he clearly was under duress. CNN's Fred Pleitgen with the details.
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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: International condemnation is rolling in after that so-called interview that Roman Protasevich, the journalist and activist, who's locked up in Belarus, gave to Belarusian state TV.
The United Kingdom is calling it disturbing. The German government has been calling it disgraceful. The interview itself is quite difficult to watch. You do see that Roman Protasevich, at times, you can see that he has marks on his wrists which could obviously come from having had handcuffs on before being led into the interview room.
That interview itself, Protasevich is essentially saying he's repenting, said he pleads guilty to organizing some of those protests that took place in Belarus. He also says he doesn't want to conduct political activism anymore. In the future, he essentially says, he respects the dictator, Alexander Lukashenko.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): The Belarusian opposition, of course, is not buying any of it. In fact, the opposition leader in Warsaw called for tougher sanctions against the Belarusian regime.
There are indeed some new sanctions that have come into effect. The U.S. is sanctioning 9 state-run Belarusian companies. Minsk is reacting to that.
They're now saying they are going to limit the amount of personnel that the U.S. is allowed to have at the U.S. embassy in Minsk, that includes both technical as well as diplomatic personnel -- Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Berlin.
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HOLMES: We'll take a quick break. When we come back, the U.S. still fighting to get 70 percent of adults at least one coronavirus shot by July the 4th. We'll talk about why that's so tricky.
Also why the rise of a COVID variant has British travelers in Portugal scrambling to get home by Tuesday.
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DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF COVID-19 MEDICAL ADVISER: President Biden's implementation plan for rolling out the vaccines thus far has been a striking success.
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HOLMES: Not only that but Dr. Anthony Fauci also believes President Biden's goal of vaccinating 70 percent of adults by July the 4th is achievable. And it's vital to get as many people vaccinated as possible, of course.
A new study showing that an increase of COVID hospitalizations in adolescents demonstrates the importance of prevention measures against the virus. Now states are focusing on getting their young people their shots. Erica Hill with that.
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ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR AND U.S. CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Shots of hope at a New York City playground.
AALIYAH JENNINGS, VACCINE RECIPIENT: If it benefits me in a good way, in a safe way, then why not get it?
HILL (voice-over): An attitude the administration is hoping more young people will adopt as a new-CDC study shows a recent, troubling rise in COVID hospitalizations among 12- to 17-year-olds.
DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: These findings that force us to redouble our motivation to get our adolescents and young adults vaccinated. HILL (voice-over): This morning, mobile vaccine clinics were ready outside schools.
MEISHA PORTER, CHANCELLOR, NYC DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION: Our families trust their principals, they trust their schools. And so, if they can come to what is almost their second home and get it done. It just makes a big difference.
HILL (voice-over): Tonight, they park at bars and nightclubs.
MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D-NY), NEW YORK CITY: We're going to go where young New Yorkers are.
HILL (voice-over): Meantime, Massachusetts announcing plans to close all its mass- vaccination sites, in the coming weeks. Two-thirds of the state's adults are now fully vaccinated.
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HILL (voice-over): New Jersey, not far behind, just dropped all indoor capacity limits.
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Vaccinations are up. Jobs are up. Wages are up. America is, finally, on the move, again.
HILL: The president focusing on the positive amid signs his July 4th goal of at least one shot for 70 percent of adults may be an uphill climb. The country is close but average daily vaccinations are moving in the wrong direction, dipping below 1 million, for the first time, since January.
DR. FRANCIS COLLINS, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: I think we can make it. But it's going to take a push.
HILL: A dozen states have, already, met or exceeded that goal. But --
DR. MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, CENTER FOR DISEASE RESEARCH AND POLICY INSTITUTE, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: I'd remind people, just because a state has hit 70 percent, we still see pockets in those states, where they are well below 50 percent protection.
HILL (voice-over): It's not just those pockets raising concern. Six states have, yet, to get a single shot in more than half their adult population.
COLLINS: I worry about the ones that are way below that. And they are sitting ducks for the next outbreak of COVID-19.
HILL (voice-over): The good news?
Average daily cases now just above 15,000 and average reported deaths are at levels not seen since March of last year.
HILL: New Jersey governor Phil Murphy signing an executive order on Friday which ends that state's public health emergency nearly 15 months after it began. Currently 62 percent of adults in New Jersey are fully vaccinated. Nearly three-quarters have had at left one shot -- in New York, I'm Erica Hill, CNN.
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HOLMES: The U.K.'s drug regulator has authorized the use of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine for kids as young as 12, the agency saying it's carefully reviewed the data in children aged 12-15, concluding the vaccine is safe and the benefits outweigh any risk.
It's now up to the country's vaccine committee to give the final go- ahead. This coming as concern grows over the spread of the COVID variant first identified in India. Public Health England says it is showing, quote, "substantially increased growth" and is now in dominant form in the U.K.
Concern about the spread of variants is prompting British authorities to enforce new quarantine measures for people traveling from Portugal. Beginning at 4:00 am on Tuesday morning, they will have to quarantine for 10 days and that has Britons abroad scrambling to get home before that deadline. CNN's Nina dos Santos joining us now from London.
Cases up 22 percent in the past week, concern over these variants and now holidays cut short.
What's going on?
NINA DOS SANTOS, CNNMONEY EUROPE EDITOR: Well, there's a lot of disappointment here, just a couple of weeks before schools are set to break up in the U.K. and what a year it's been. Many families spending a lot of 2020 and the early part of 2021 marooned in their houses.
They were finally thinking that Portugal would be a safe destination to go to without having to incur any of those painful measures, like having to quarantine in your home for the first 10 days upon return and expensive and extensive testing as well.
As of Tuesday, though, that is exactly what they're going to have to put up with. That's prompted a war of words between London and Lisbon and Portuguese politicians, questioning the logic here of the U.K., plying these measures, putting Portugal in that so-called amber list whereas it previously was green.
When the numbers of COVID cases and the rates of infection in the U.K. and Portugal are proportionally quite similar. This is a measure of the disappointment for those travelers scrambling to get back.
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DOS SANTOS (voice-over): From green to amber, the traffic light system in the U.K. just hit the brakes on the travel plans of many U.K. citizens visiting Portugal.
The U.K. downgraded the popular holiday spot on Thursday, surprising many British travelers already in the country, with new restrictions, saying they must quarantine when returning to the U.K., the changes going into effect on Tuesday. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The change is the day we go back. So 4 hours
difference. If we had come back 4 hours earlier, we wouldn't have to. And if we come back four hours later, we do have to do it. I don't see (ph) --
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now we have to work from home in 7-10 days.
DOS SANTOS (voice-over): The U.K. just reopened some international travel about 3 weeks ago. Portugal was initially on the green list, meaning there was no need to quarantine.
But the U.K. announced it was changing this status, citing a rise in COVID-19 cases there and concerns over a mutation of the variant first detected in India. Many U.K. tourists say that decision casts a cloud over their sun-soaked beach holiday, already in progress.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've had tests to get here, tests to go home, tests when we get home. I just don't understand. I really don't understand why we are now on the amber list.
DOS SANTOS (voice-over): Many businesses in Portugal, which rely on British tourists for income, fear would-be customers will not come now with the new restrictions.
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DOS SANTOS (voice-over): A blow for Portugal's tourism sector and a disappointment for the vacationers, who are ready to spend.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know a few -- a couple of weeks ago, they're opening up. They are re-employing people. They are getting the hotels open, the shops open. Again, they're going to have to step backwards.
DOS SANTOS (voice-over): Airlines are adding extra flights to accommodate the scramble of U.K. tourists trying to get home before the change. For some, a holiday cut short is better than being forced to stay at home.
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DOS SANTOS: Well, Michael, the U.K. says it needs to try and make sure it doesn't bring in any more variants that could get a foothold so that it stays on track for reopening. This economy, domestically, on the 21st of June.
At the moment, that appears to be on track but a week in COVID world obviously for the U.K. and elsewhere is subject to many, many changes, isn't it?
Back to you.
HOLMES: Yes, exactly, a bit head-spinning. Nina dos Santos in London, good to see you. Thanks. Organizers for the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix have canceled the
event for the second year in a row, of course, thanks to COVID-19. The event's deputy chairman says the decision was, quote, "incredibly difficult" but necessary due to safety concerns.
The race was scheduled for October 3rd. Organizers say they're working with officials in Singapore to determine the future of the race.
Thanks for watching CNN NEWSROOM. If you're an international viewer, "AFRICAN VOICES CHANGEMAKERS" coming up next. If you're with me here in the United States, I'll be back with another half hour of news.
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HOLMES: And welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM, everyone. I'm Michael Holmes. Appreciate your company.
Now the U.S. President Joe Biden rejecting a Republican counteroffer on infrastructure spending, saying their proposal doesn't meet his policy goals. That doesn't mean the chance of a bipartisan deal is dead. A group of Republicans and Democrats are working on a proposal that we could see as soon as next week. Phil Mattingly with the latest.
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JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Now's the time to build on the foundation we've laid.
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tonight, President Biden pressing the path forward to a major infrastructure deal.
BIDEN: We have a chance to seize on the economic momentum of the first months of my administration.
MATTINGLY: A path that remains in limbo. Biden speaking by phone with Senator Shelly Moore Capito, the lead GOP negotiator in the long running bipartisan talks, but a new GOP offer to increase their proposed spending by $50 billion fell far short of Biden's expectations.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki in a statement saying Biden, quote, expressed his gratitude for Capito's effort and goodwill, but also indicated that the current offer did not meet his objectives to grow the economy, tackle the climate crisis and create new jobs.
Biden this week offering to drop the top line of his proposal and take corporate tax increases off the table to finance the plan, a central GOP ask. But Republicans have quietly poured cold water on that effort. Still, the White House not signaling time has run out yet --
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: It's not unlimited, but we have an opportunity. He's going to talk to Senator Capito this afternoon. We're going to see how those conversations go.
MATTINGLY: But Biden also facing crosscutting pressures inside his own party. Progressives pleading with him to drop the bipartisan talks and move to a budget procedure that allows for a simple majority to move Biden's sweeping proposals.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): If we're going to stand up for working families, what we need to do is use reconciliation.
MATTINGLY: As moderates crucial in a Congress where Democrats hold the narrowest of majorities, calling on them to continue.
SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D-WV): These take time. You just can't -- I know everyone is in a hurry right now.
MATTINGLY: For Biden, a critical moment coming as the May employment report showed 559,000 jobs added and an unemployment rate that ticked down to 5.8 percent.
BIDEN: No major economy is gaining jobs as quickly as ours.
MATTINGLY: But the hole from the pandemic still deep, 7.6 million jobs fewer than before the coronavirus shut down the nation and no shortage of choppy economic data from inflation to labor force participation, threatening to derail Biden's goals.
BIDEN: As we continue this recovery, we're going to hit some bumps along the way. We can't reboot the world's largest economy like flipping on a light switch.
MATTINGLY: And for President Biden, the biggest question now is, where does he go next?
White House officials have made clear they don't view Senator Capito and her group of six Republicans as the only game in town. They're willing to have conversations with any Republican or Democrat who believes they may have a pathway forward to a bipartisan agreement.
And that is key obviously. As long as senator Joe Manchin and other Democratic moderates make clear they want bipartisan negotiations to continue, well, they will.
Who they'll be with, well, Manchin may be one of those senators. He and senator Mitt Romney have been leading another group that had been working on the issue, hadn't quite risen to the White House level yet. That may soon change.
But also keep an eye on House Democrats next week. The White House is keying on a June 9th movement on a House surface transportation bill. That is at the core of what President Biden wants to do on infrastructure. It's much larger than what a bipartisan group in the United States
Senate has produced up to this point. So the White House basically juggling a couple balls right now, keeping them all in the air, recognizing they need options as they move forward but also that time is running short -- Phil Mattingly, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: I want to go back for a moment to the job numbers that you heard just a moment ago. The U.S. economy adding 559,000 new jobs in May. Now that's fewer than what economists expected but twice as many as the month before.
Unemployment dropped to 5.8 percent, so, overall, pretty good news, with President Biden saying it shows the nation is on the move again.
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BIDEN: No other major economy in the world is going as fast as ours. No other major economy is gaining jobs as quickly as ours. And none of this success is an accident.
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BIDEN: It isn't luck.
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HOLMES: But those numbers only tell part of the story. Many businesses are still unable to find workers to fill in the empty spots left by the pandemic. CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich takes us to the New Jersey Shore, where restaurant owners are desperate to find employees ahead of the summer crowds.
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VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): In 74 years of business, Vic's Italian Restaurant says it's never had this, a help wanted sign.
As the season heats up in Bradley Beach, New Jersey, the restaurant is desperate for workers to meet summer crowds.
YURKEVICH: How important is this summer for business?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's very important but we can't do the customer service the way we used to. So we need more people. And I'm just fearful, to some degree, that, if we don't have that, not every customer will understand.
YURKEVICH (voice-over): Seventy-seven percent of Americans plan to travel this summer compared to 29 percent last year, a welcome sign for restaurants and summer hot spots like the Jersey Shore, closed for much of last year.
This small beachside town blooms from population 4,000 to 25,000 in the summer.
YURKEVICH: How critical are these restaurants to the Bradley Beach community every summer?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very critical. And I call it the bookends of Bradley Beach. On the east, we have the beach. On the west, we have Main Street.
YURKEVICH (voice-over): Vic's is the biggest employer in town, with 100 employees during peak season. But right now, the restaurant can't cover 20 percent of its shifts, even raising hourly wages by $2 for new employees.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just can't get people to come in and to start a new job.
YURKEVICH: Why can't you pay more?
Why can't you offer more incentives?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, if we were to go above and beyond when this all goes away, when the crisis is over, the floor is going to fall out and inflation is going to kick in. The customers will have to absorb the cost and we don't want to do that.
YURKEVICH (voice-over): At Langosta Lounge in nearby Asbury Park, owner Marilyn Schlossbach is offering bonuses to current and new employees.
Why do you think you're having such a tough time finding people to work?
MARILYN SCHLOSSBACH, LANGOSTA LOUNGE: Unemployment. The stimulus is killing us.
YURKEVICH (voice-over): Schlossbach owns seven restaurants along the Jersey Shore and usually employs 250 people. She's operating with just 75.
SCHLOSSBACH: I'm honest in telling them I'm pushing them but still I'm pushing them and I don't think that's a healthy way to live your life.
YURKEVICH (voice-over): That means longer hours for servers like Kathleen Thompson (ph). Despite being furloughed and making just as much on unemployment, she wanted to go back to work.
KATHLEEN THOMPSON (PH), RESTAURANT SERVER: They've been good to me for 20 years. I can't say, no, I'm not coming back because I'm collecting this money. No, that's not fair to them. They need their employees to get their business up and running. And I was willing to come right back.
YURKEVICH (voice-over): Vanessa Yurkevich, CNN, Bradley Beach, New Jersey.
(END VIDEOTAPE) HOLMES: Just days after Donald Trump's blog went dark, the former U.S. president found out he will have to wait at least two more years to regain access to one of his favorite social media megaphones, Facebook extending his suspension. CNN's Sunlen Serfaty with the details.
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SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tonight, Facebook is not backing down in their ban against former President Trump, announcing that Trump will remain suspended on Facebook for two more years until at least January 2023. Trump calling the decision an insult to his supporters.
MIKE PENCE, FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: January 6th was a dark day in the history of the United States Capitol.
SERFATY (voice-over): This comes as former Vice President Mike Pence is reemerging into the political spotlight in the battleground state of New Hampshire.
PENCE: But thanks to the swift action of the Capitol Police and federal law enforcement, violence was quelled. The Capitol was secured. And that same day we reconvened the Congress and did our duty under the Constitution and the laws of the United States. SERFATY (voice-over): Putting some distance between himself and former
President Trump over the January 6th insurrection, publicly acknowledging they have very different views of what happened.
PENCE: You know, President Trump and I have spoken many times since we left office and I don't know if we'll ever see eye-to-eye on that day.
SERFATY (voice-over): Pence was inside the Capitol on January 6th, overseeing Congress certifying the vote for Joe Biden.
PENCE: The Senate will now retire to its chamber.
SERFATY (voice-over): As the violent mob chanted, hang Mike Pence, the vice president was rushed out of the Senate chamber. Security footage showing that at one point, he was less than 100 feet from the rioters.
[03:40:00]
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: If Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election.
SERFATY (voice-over): Earlier, then-President Trump had delivered an incendiary speech to some of the protesters who would later go onto storm the Capitol.
TRUMP: Mike Pence is going to have to come through for us. And if he doesn't, that will be a sad day for our country.
SERFATY (voice-over): After watching the events unfold at the Capitol, the president did not call his vice president to check in on him and did not speak to him for several days following the attack.
TRUMP: I know your pain, I know you're hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us.
SERFATY (voice-over): With their relationship strained, sources familiar say the two men have largely gone their separate ways in the months since, as Trump continues to dismiss the severity of the insurrection.
TRUMP: It was zero threat right from the start. It was zero threat. Look, they went in and they shouldn't have done it. Some of them went in and they're hugging and kissing the police and the guards. You know, they had great relationships.
SERFATY (voice-over): A lie the Republican Party seems quite content to embrace for now with Senate Republicans even refusing to form a bipartisan commission to investigate what happened on January 6th. Instead, they are pledging loyalty to Donald Trump as the former president is preparing his own return to the political stage this weekend, kicking off a series of campaign-style rallies on Saturday.
SERFATY: And while Pence did put some distance between him and Trump over the insurrection in that speech, it was still a very, very pro- Trump speech. He, at many times, praised the former president and talked about what he believes he accomplished while in office -- Sunlen Serfaty, CNN, Washington.
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HOLMES: Uncomfortable conversations on race in American schools. Just ahead, what critical race theory really is and why conservatives want to ban it from the classroom. We'll be right back.
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[03:45:00]
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HOLMES: The Georgia State Board of Education has passed a resolution that blocks the teaching of critical race theory in kindergarten through 12th grade classrooms.
Georgia's Republican governor supports that ban and GOP state lawmakers across the country are taking similar action, calling critical race theory "divisive" and "anti-American." But many others say teaching it is essential. CNN's Abby Phillip explains what the theory is and why conservatives want it banned.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just because I do not want critical race theory taught to my children in school does not mean that I'm a racist, damn it.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Schoolchildren across the country are caught in the crosshairs of a political battle over how race is taught in American schools.
BETTY SAWYER, NAACP OGDEN: Why wouldn't you include a diversity of people to talk about race?
That just baffles my mind (sic).
PHILLIP (voice-over): After last summer's nationwide protests against racism and police brutality, conservatives began waging their own battle over American history and an academic theory called critical race theory.
CHRISTINE EMBA, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Critical race theory is an academic concept developed by legal scholars in the 1970s and '80s and it states that race and racism are a big part of American history and are still embedded in our institutions, in our law, in our public policy and still affect the outcomes and life outcomes of Black Americans and other people of color.
PHILLIP (voice-over): Decades after the relatively obscure idea was coined, GOP political figures have seized on it.
TRUMP: Critical race theory teaches that America is an evil country and that you are part of the suppression from the moment you're born. I will not allow federal taxpayer to be used to spread anti-American propaganda.
PHILLIP (voice-over): But that claim is false, the theory's founders and others say.
EMBA: They use the umbrella term of "critical race theory" to describe basically anything that challenges conservative viewpoints on, you know, race and racism in America's history.
They could be talking about anything from "The New York Times'" 1619 Project to K-12 schools daring to teach students, justifiably, that, in fact, some of our founding fathers owned slaves.
PHILLIP (voice-over): Yet since former president Donald Trump left office, a slew of red states, led by ambitious GOP politicians, have picked up the torch he put down.
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): Let me be clear. There is no room in our classrooms for things like critical race theory.
PHILLIP (voice-over): That was Florida governor Ron DeSantis, widely believed to be a 2024 presidential hopeful.
And the issue has also taken hold in Oklahoma, which, just days ago, marked 100 years since one of the deadliest race massacres in American history occurred in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As governor, I will not stand for publicly funded K-12 schools training impressionable minds to define themselves by their sex or their race.
PHILLIP (voice-over): The state's Republican governor, Kevin Stitt, was removed from the massacre's centennial commission after he signed a bill banning schools from teaching certain concepts about race.
At a time when Republicans are raging against cancel culture on social media, there has been no such outrage against bans on teaching history that they believe is un-American.
EMBA: This is cancel culture in reverse. If a teacher is acknowledging that, oh, America does in some ways have a racist past, conservatives are so threatened by this that they are the ones melting down.
PHILLIP (voice-over): Abby Phillip, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: The Pentagon takes a close look at the numerous UFO sightings Navy pilots have reported.
Just like the rest of us, it wants to know, what is this flying thing?
We're now hearing what military investigators have concluded. We'll have that when we come back.
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HOLMES: Well, are we alone?
That's the big question, isn't it?
Partly prompted by strange flying objects like that one that defy explanation. Yes, we're talking about UFOs.
For the first time, the Pentagon will release a report about its investigation into numerous sightings such as that one on your screen. But sources are telling CNN what's in that report which comes out later this month. Tom Foreman with the intriguing details.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoo! Got it! Whoo hoo!
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The videos are captivating.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh my gosh, dude.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow!
What is that, man?
FOREMAN (voice-over): Dark, grainy images of air or spacecraft, of unknown origins. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a whole fleet of them. Look at the S.A.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My gosh.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are all going against the wind. The wind is 120 knots to the west.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at that thing, dude.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Spotted by civilians, commercial pilots and military officers, too, all insisting that what they saw was real and inexplicable.
LT. RYAN GRAVES, NAVY PILOT: Once we actually got close enough to the radar signatures and get our visual systems engaged on objects, we can actually see an IR signature, infrared energy, emitting from where the radar telling us something was.
FOREMAN (voice-over): The unprecedented, unclassified report to Congress includes analysis of more than 120 incidents over the past decades, according to "The New York Times."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Break Omaha (ph) (INAUDIBLE) looking at the possibility to launch Halo ASAP.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Sources tell CNN it will say there is no evidence UFOs encountered by Navy fliers work from outer space, while not entirely ruling out that possibility.
[03:55:00]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).
FOREMAN (voice-over): The report is further expected to say these are not high-tech secret U.S. aircraft. And as former president Barack Obama put it --
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We don't know exactly what they are. We can't explain how they move.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holy (INAUDIBLE), they're going fast. Oh, it's turning around.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Time and again, witnesses have said, just imagine a craft that can fly thousands of miles per hour, maneuver in ways no known aircraft can match, evade radar.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And, oh, by the way, has no obvious signs of propulsion, no wings, no control surfaces and yet still can defy the natural effects of Earth's gravity. That's precisely what we're seeing.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Some analysts speculate the UFOs could be new technology from the Russians or Chinese. Sources say the report will not rule that out. Certainly the U.S. military has denied the existence of secret American aircraft in the past. And there are skeptics that all of this is much of anything at all.
SCOTT KELLY, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: I think it's likely, you know, just some kind of optical illusion, maybe combined with some, you know, military flight tests of some unmanned aerial vehicles.
FOREMAN: Still after so many years of refusing to acknowledge that anyone was seeing anything up there, the mere fact that an official report is being sent to lawmakers is out of this world -- Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
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HOLMES: Now one of America's own flying objects will soon be bringing us the first photos of the solar system's largest moon. NASA's Juno mission is about to come close enough to capture images of Jupiter's moons. The largest of those is more than 3,000 miles across and bigger than the planet Mercury.
Thanks for watching CNN NEWSROOM, everyone. I'll be back tomorrow. Meanwhile, Kim Brunhuber will be back in a moment.
