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At This Hour

New January 6 Tape Shows Three-Hour Battle In Capitol Tunnel; Ex-Cop Kim Potter Guilty Of Manslaughter In Daunte Wright's Death; Omicron Surge To Keep G.W. Students Online For Now. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired December 24, 2021 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:14]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: What we can learn from this coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: We do have breaking news. The Justice Department just released the longest footage yet of the January 6th attack on the Capitol. Three hours of video showing some of the most violent confrontations as police tried to hold the line.

[12:35:05]

CNN's Jessica Schneider is here with more on this.

Jessica, what does this video show?

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Kate, this is an extensive as you mentioned three-hour video. CNN secured this along with other media outlet, after we sued to get access, and a warning here, it is violent and viewers should be advised of that.

This is an in-depth look, the most in-depth look actually that so far we've seen from this location on the lower west terrace of the Capitol. Can you see the battle unfolding between the rioters and Capitol police who actually succeeded in holding the line at this location until the building was cleared.

No rioters succeeded in getting inside from this entry point, and we've later learned that some of the officers didn't even know that the Capitol had been breached already in other spots because of what they were dealing with on this West Side. So, you can see this video. It is all one shot. It's taken from a Capitol security camera.

There's actually no audio on it, but it does show the rioters who brandished their weapons, weapons like batons and flag poles and it shows them turning pepper spray on police and at that point, officers were seen helping each other wash out their eyes.

This is the most sustained look that we're seeing at how much Capitol police tried and succeeded into holding that line, not letting any of the rioters at this point into the building. Right here this shot shows a rioter getting up on top of the crowd, jostling with a Capitol police officer. There's one point in this video where you can see an officer's helmet flying off of his head.

So, again, this video three hours long and this is just a glimpse at some of the video that prosecutors have revealed in court against the hundreds of rioters that they've been prosecuting so far. We sued to get access to this video because, again, it's being shown in court but not necessarily publicly released until today. So, some graphic video. You know, this has been trickling out video like this over the past year since the January 6th Capitol attack, and it really does give that glimpse of how violent this was and what these officers sustained.

But, again, Kate, very notable from this vantage point that all of these officers were able to keep these rioters out of the Capitol. They didn't even know until hours later that the Capitol had been breached because what have they were dealing with, what they were fighting from this perspective on the west side of the Capitol, Kate. So three hours long and showing us a lot maybe we haven't seen so far -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: My God. Thank you so much. There's so much more to learn from this. Really appreciate it.

Also at this hour, former Minnesota Police Officer Kim Potter is behind bars, handcuffed and escorted out of a Minnesota courtroom yesterday afternoon after the jury found her guilty on all charges, manslaughter in the first-degree and second degree.

Potter shot and killed Daunte Wright during a traffic stop in April, and the former officer said all along she mistook her firearm for her Taser and that mistake was never in dispute though the prosecution successfully argued Potter's fatal mistake was reckless, negligent and criminal.

Moments after the verdict, people outside the courthouse, as you can see other, they celebrated the jury's decision. Potter now faces up to 15 years in prison. Her sentencing is scheduled for mid-February.

I want to bring in now, Antonio Romanucci, an attorney for Daunte Wright's family.

Thank you for coming in.

So it is Christmas Eve, and I've been wondering how is the family feeling today?

ANTONIO ROMANUCCI, WRIGHT FAMILY ATTORNEY: Well, I mean, they are not feeling good about this. I mean, they know they will celebrating not only this holiday but, you know, holidays for the rest of their lives without Daunte. Kim Potter no matter what sentence she gets, eventually she will be celebrating holidays with her family, so although they have a great sense of relief that there was some justice, they are not feeling great.

BOLDUAN: I had the chance to speak with Daunte's mother Katie Bryant last night and reflecting on the whole trial I asked her about that moment when the jury asked the judge what happens if they can't reach consensus, couldn't reach consensus?

Let me play what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATIE BRYANT, MOTHER OF DAUNTE WRIGHT: At that moment it -- I was really worried. I wasn't sure if, you know, you had a few jurors that were hung up on a not guilty verdict at all. I was praying that, you know, second-degree manslaughter was already -- was already charged or was already found a guilty verdict on and that they were working on the first degree. There were so many thoughts and so many feelings that were running through my mind.

[12:40:00]

That day was a really rough day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHNEIDER: Were you worried as well?

ROMANUCCI: Well, I certainly had concerns. I mean, you know, if you're looking backwards, I mean, 28 hours is certainly a lengthy deliberation for this type of case, but in retrospect, now that we have the benefit of hindsight, what we really saw, Kate, were really two deliberations. One deliberation for the second-degree count and then they started anew it seems like for the first-degree count when they were able to actually handle and touch the gun, and I think that was the turning point for them because they realized that a reasonable police officer, especially one with 26 years experience, should know the difference between a gun and Taser and certainly once you've held it for six seconds before show shot Daunte know the difference.

BOLDUAN: And looking forward, the attorney general made a really strong same after the court readings and the verdict was learned, speaking to police everywhere about what this verdict means. Let me play that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEITH ELLISON (D), MINNESOTA ATTORNEY GENERAL: When a member of your profession is held accountable. It does not diminish you. In fact it shows the whole world that those of you who enforce the law are also willing to live by it, and that's a good thing. It restores trust, faith and hope.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: You represented George Floyd's family who was murdered by another police officer. What do you think of what the AG said?

ROMANUCCI: Well, I think what Keith Ellison said was spot on, and I think what it goes to is a much deeper root problem, the root cause here, and that's the training that police officers have which they don't have much control over. It's really up to these departments such as Brooklyn Center to train these police officers to have the repetition, the muscle memory, to be able to do the things that they need to keep their citizens safe and not cause this needless death. Had Kimberly Potter after 26 years been trained appropriately she never would have mistook the gun for Taser.

So what Keith said is we're with you, police officers, but let's get to the deeper cause here, and I think that's training.

BOLDUAN: Do you see this as a sign of change?

ROMANUCCI: Well, certainly, if it's not a sign of change I think people need to wake up and see that it is changed. You've got two very significant findings of guilty in Minnesota and it should be a wake-up call to the whole country that police officers are not untouchable when they make -- whether it's a mistake or whether they have intent, that there's criminality behind it, they are going to get charged and there's a good chance of them being found guilty. So, this is a very, very significant finding and I hope it is a wake up call.

BOLDUAN: Antonio Romanucci, thank you for being other.

ROMANUCCI: Merry Christmas.

BOLDUAN: Thank you.

Coming up, as COVID cases rise, some major universities are making the tough choice to return to remote classes. A top university official on what this new wave means for schools this time around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:47:45]

BOLDUAN: Developing this hour, an important decision from a major university in Washington, D.C. as the city records its worst woke of the pandemic. The Omicron surge pushing case to levels in the district to 1,300-plus per day, an increase of nearly 400 percent in just a week. I almost wish that was wrong, as I'm saying it.

George Washington University responding to those pandemic highs deciding to return to remote classes for the start of the spring semester.

Joining me now for more than is the dean of the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University, Lynn Goldman.

Thank you for being here. Full disclosure, I am a proud GW alum as we begin.

Talk me through this decision because remote learning isn't on the mal for anyone but what it was that you saw that you needed to make this move?

LYNN GOLDMAN, DEAN, MILKEN INSTITUTE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, GWU: You know what, in George Washington, we do routine monitoring of the COVID virus levels population in our environment on a regular basis and when we saw the rates shoot up ten-fold it was astounding. We realized we were seeing something that was new. We identified the omicron virus on campus and decided, well, with this as well as the overall context of what's going on in Washington, D.C., that we would need to review our approach and figure out how to return to campus safely in the New Year.

BOLDUAN: Yeah. Is it -- I don't know if it's one or the other or probably both, but is it about stopping an outbreak, or is it about -- is there any fear of just not having enough staff to return to school in the moment because as we saw with the airline industry, so many people in critical positions are out with COVID because it's so widespread.

GOLDMAN: So you are our rate of people with COVID, and we count all of them, it's about 1 in 20 right now, so that is a problem with staffing and managing a campus, but mostly our concern is the health and safety of the members of our population, our students, our faculty, our staff. You know, and -- and we feel that we can sensibly gradually move people back in and just take at least the first week virtual and then return something like January 18th to full in-person instruction.

[12:50:05]

That's not going to disrupt our operations all that much, and it will give us some time to be able to manage this carefully and in a way that's protective of the health and safety of our community.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Omicron has surprised -- has surprised us in so many ways. How confident are you when got your target date of returning after MLK Jr. weekend, how confident are you that you're going to be able to do it, that things won't shift yet again?

GOLDMAN: Well, actually people will be returning gradually before MLK weekend and we hope to start instruction right before MLK weekend. Do we have a crystal ball for what will be happening at that point? No, we don't. We didn't predict omicron.

We are seeing the highest rates that we've seen during the entire course of the pandemic right now, and so, what we're going to do is take the steps that we've learned work. We have learned that vaccination works. We're not going require booster shots for everybody. They will have to document that by January 10th, and our community has been great about getting vaccinated. Nearly 100 percent of them have been able to do that.

We're going continue to test regularly, probably more often than we were testing less falls, and we're going to have to limit some of the group activities as well as the ability of for outside visitors who aren't really necessary to have on campus to come on campus.

But I think we over been confident about using them and members of our economy are pretty good in terms of behaving sensibly, most of them.

BOLDUAN: Most of them. I don't know if I was still a student there, you'd be saying that. But I'm just saying most of them now. They've learned from their mistakes. Thank you for being here. Thank you very much. It's good to have you

on.

GOLDMAN: Thank you very much.

BOLDUAN: Thank you.

Just ahead for us, it is that time of year, friends, a look at New Year resolutions by the numbers and how to make one that actually sticks. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:56:56]

BOLDUAN: New Year's comes with holiday cheer and plenty of resolutions to do better next year.

Yes, friends, that marked my one and only holiday rhyme for you this season, but we do have some new insights for you no why some people stick to their resolutions and some do not.

CNN's Harry Enten joins me now with the numbers.

Harry, we've got one week to get ready. How many people are going to make New Year's resolutions?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Well, this is what I find so interesting is if you ask them now just before the New Year are you going to make a resolution? They say 43 percent say yes on average since 2015, but look here, say they actually made one after the New Year when all of a sudden they realize, oh, wait a minute, I might have to actually keep to it, only 29 percent say yes. So, about, you know, four in ten are going to say yes. But once we hit the New Year, it's only going to be about three in ten.

BOLDUAN: That tracks -- that tracks with my mentality, I will say. So, I'm not speaking for myself here, but how well do people stick to New Year's resolutions? I find this fascinating.

ENTEN: Yeah, look, this -- if you ask them after the year is done. Okay, have you actually stuck to your New Year's resolution, look to this? Look at this, 68 percent say yes, at least partially. But, of course, that's only among the ones who make one and say they made one. So it's that 68 percent of that say 28 percent or 29 percent who said that they made one after the New Year.

So, really, what we're looking around is about 20 percent of folks who actually make a New Year's resolution and say they keep to it in the entire population, so maybe you're one of those who right now is saying you know what, I'll make one but then, you know, after the New Year you actually decide I'm going to try and do it and of that proportion, only about 68 percent actually are able to keep it at least partially.

BOLDUAN: Are there trends here? Are any resolutions most popular? ENTEN: Yeah, there are a few, a few. Not necessarily the ones that I

would do.

BOLDUAN: You read my mind.

ENTEN: Right, exactly.

Exercise more. I don't think that that's necessarily in my future.

Eat healthier. You've actually been doing that half decently.

Save more money. I've got to admit that's something I do fairly well.

Spend more time with family -- eh, maybe.

Be a better person. That's something that all of us can do.

Get a new job. I got good news, I like my job.

And quit smoking. My mother was a pediatrician and two things she made me promise to do in my life, always wear a seat belt in the car and never smoke. And I do both of those.

BOLDUAN: Yet again, I speak for everyone out there to say, Harry, this is -- the segment is not about you, but we can continue.

I'm scared to ask but what is your resolution?

ENTEN: I have a few New Year's resolutions. Number up, I actually want to exercise.

I want to be less passive. I want to be less passive. I know I come across perhaps aggressive in the air but basically in real life I'm afraid of speaking my mind sometimes.

And most important I want to pet even more dogs. Shih Tzu and Lhasa Apsos, I love them.

BOLDUAN: Do not listen -- exercise is not even in the real of possibility for you, if you guys know him. I'm going to give you what your resolution is going to be. It's going to be buy new shoes to wear at work.

If you see Harry's shoes, the loafers he wears at work, you will know what I'm saying.

Regardless, happy holidays, friend.

ENTEN: Thank, you, too.

BOLDUAN: Thank you all so much for being here on this holiday. I'm Kate Bolduan.

"CNN NEWSROOM" with Poppy Harlow starts right now.