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At This Hour

Trial Begins of Ex-Cops Accused of Violating George Floyd's Civil Rights; Fauci Says, Omicron Peaking in U.S., But Warns of More Pain Ahead; New Documentary Takes Critical Look at Disney's Pay Practices. Aired 11:30-12p ET

Aired January 24, 2022 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kate. So, as you mentioned, opening statements have begun today. This is the first trial for the other three officers charged in the killing of George Floyd. It is the federal trial. And the charges that all of them are facing are that they violated George Floyd's civil rights by their indifference to his serious medical needs when Derek Chauvin's knee was on Floyd's neck back in May 2020, and at least two of them, Tou Thao and J. Alexander King, face a charge that they failed to intervene and stop Derek Chauvin.

Now, notably, Chauvin is not a defendant in this particular trial, and that's because, initially, all four of them were going to be tried together. But last month, Chauvin pleaded guilty, so the judge severed those proceedings from these.

18 jurors were selected in total for this, six alternates, and part of that was because the judge was worried about the COVID outbreak. And we heard some of that as the court proceedings began today, telling the jurors that there are rapid tests on site. And if you feel sick, you need to get tested.

And in that jury make-up, I should mention of note, no black men or women were selected. This, of course, is separate from the state trial that was moved back so that they could accommodate this one and we'll see how these statements play out as we are expected to hear from them in the 30 or 40 intervals over the course of the day, Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN AT THIS HOUR: All right. Omar, thank you so much for that update. We'll be checking back in with you.

Here in New York, hundreds of police officers, just look at this video, lining the streets to pay respects to another fallen officer, Jason Rivera. The 22-year-old rookie officer was shot and killed in an ambush attack while responding to a domestic disturbance call on Friday night. His partner, 27-year-old Officer Wilbert Mora, is still in the hospital, critically wounded.

New York's new mayor and a retired police captain himself, Eric Adams, is planning to address this rise in violent crime this afternoon.

Let's get over to CNN's Shimon Prokupecz who is tracking all of this for us. Shimon, the death of Officer Rivera bringing to light this very serious challenge that the mayor is facing in his very first days.

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Right, and it's crime. This is a platform he ran on, promising to reduce crime, making people feel safe, that they can be on the street, ride the subway. But, certainly, he's facing a big problem because of the number of shootings, the gun violence that has gone on just in the first couple of weeks that he's been in office. It's certainly significant.

The ideas that he's going to propose, we'll see what he says at 2:00. Of course, he's been touting this anti-gun initiative, these plainclothes officers and bringing them back to combat some of the gun violence because the issue is that there are just too many guns on the streets of New York City, all of them illegal guns that somehow are making their way into the city.

One of the things, of course, we keep hearing about is this pipeline, weapons coming in, guns coming in from outside of New York City but the issue for New York City right now is that there are just too many guns in this city already. It's not what's going to come, it's what's here now.

And that's something that the police department and the mayor need to address is how to get the guns that are -- the thousands and thousands of guns that are in this city already, how do you get them out of here? And how do you take them off the street? Because some of them are illegal guns that have been stolen, guns that people passed along through gang members and other ways. That should not be on the street.

And so that is going to be the big task for the mayor and certainly the police department is trying to get these illegal guns off the street.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Much more focus on this today and especially also this week with the funeral, the wake and funeral for Officer Rivera coming up later this week. Thank you so much, Shimon.

Coming up for us, Dr. Anthony Fauci, he now says that the omicron wave is headed in the right direction but still a warning that there could be more pain ahead. That's next.

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[11:35:00]

BOLDUAN: We do have some breaking news just in. The White House just announcing President Biden will be meeting with European leaders on a video call this afternoon in the situation room about the unfolding crisis before us between Russia and Ukraine.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond is live back at the White House for us once again. What more are you learning about this, Jeremy?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, this is a continuation of efforts by the White House and its allies to show a united front in the face of this ramped up Russian aggression on the Ukrainian border. President Biden is set to meet with his European counterparts at 3:00 P.M. this afternoon, speaking with them on a secure video call. This includes the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, as well as the leaders of the European Union and NATO leadership as well.

And this comes not only as President Biden is considering sending 1,000 to 5,000 troops to Eastern European allies in Baltic nations as a deterrent to Russia, but also as we've seen several NATO countries also sending increased material to Eastern European allies, that includes the movement of ships and planes as well, all of this intended to deter Russia or try to deter Russia from this potential invasion of Ukraine. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Jeremy, thank you so much for the update.

[11:40:01]

Much more to come from the White House today, that's for sure.

Now, let's turn to this, some positive news on the pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci suggesting now that the omicron wave in the United States is peaking. But he also warns it's not over.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: If the pattern follows the trend that we're seeing in other places, such as the northeast, I believe that you will start to see a turnaround throughout the entire country.

There may be a bit more pain and suffering with hospitalizations in those areas of the country that have not been fully vaccinated or have not gotten boosted. But we do know and these are the recent data that have come out from the CDC, that even with omicron, boosting makes a major, major difference in protecting you from hospitalization and severe outcomes. So, things are looking good. We don't want to get overconfident but they look like they're going in the right direction right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: And Joining me right now for more on this is Dr. Peter Hotez, he's the co-director of the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children's Hospital. Dr. Hotez, what do you think of the latest assessment from Dr. Fauci? DR. PETER HOTEZ, CO-DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR VACCINE DEVELOPMENT AT TEXAS CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: Yes. I think it is starting to come down in the northeast and New York City and Washington, New York State, and that's good news, but still a lot of unknowns. I mean, will this go down with the same trajectory that it went up, meaning, will it come down as quickly as it went up, or does it get stuck halfway down like in the past in the U.K. and some other places with different variants?

BOLDUAN: Is that that long tail we hear people talking about?

HOTEZ: Yes. And in some cases, not even a long tail. It just gets stuck halfway down, then it plateaus and stays there for a few weeks or even months. So, that's question number one.

Question number two, does it also start to decline, as it is in the northeast and the rest of the country? That's the hope. But we'll see and we'll know this over the next week or two. So, the next week or two is going to be absolutely critical.

And then we've got to figure out assuming that we do get past this, say, over the last month what the post-omicron world looks like and the fact that I'm concerned that protection offered by omicron infection, if you're not vaccinated on top of it, is going to be short-lived and will look like upper respiratory coronaviruses and then we're going to be vulnerable again for a big wave coming over the summer. So, what's the plan for the nation to get ready for the summer? That's going to be the other big question.

BOLDUAN: And a lot of big questions, of course, come with this are, what of the mandates, what of the requirements? What is the best guidance and how to live in the midst of this? In Virginia, the new governor there, he has a new executive order lifting school mask mandates effective today, which are allowing parents to decide whether their kids wear masks in school. What do you think about lifting -- even if it's looking better, what do you think about lifting school mask mandates right now?

HOTEZ: Well, look. This is the most highly transmissible variant we've seen. We've got something on the order of measles and, therefore, if you start lifting mask mandates now, you're basically condemning all the kids to get infected with omicron and having to live with those consequences, which will mean that some kids have to be hospitalized or possibly worse. So, it makes no sense to lift mask mandates at this point. It makes every bit of sense to maximize vaccinations because we know that's having a huge impact, especially the boosters on reducing hospitalizations, reducing emergency room visits by quite a bit. So, if you've only gotten two doses of the vaccine, you need that third dose to stay out of the hospital in the emergency room, point one, and we need to max out vaccinating our kids, and we're just not doing that nationally and, therefore, we invite omicron to continue to linger.

And so, you know, we should talk about this like it's out of our hands. It's every bit in our hands to get rid of omicron out of the country right now.

BOLDUAN: It's a great point. Great to see you, Dr. Hotez. Thank you.

HOTEZ: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: coming up for us, the granddaughter of Roy Disney takes on the company her family founded in a new film about wage inequality. Abigail Disney joins me live, next.

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[11:45:00]

BOLDUAN: It is known as the happiest place on earth, Disneyland, Disney world, the whole Disney brand. But a new documentary premiering at the Sun Dance Film Festival tonight puts that to the test. Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: By show of hands, how many of you have someone you know that works at Disney that's on food stamps? Wow.

How many of you know somebody who works at Disney who slept in their car in the couple last years?

How many of you know somebody who have gone without medical care because they can't afford it?

How many of you all have children?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am somebody who doesn't have kids. I don't have the finances to take care of a child in the way that I would like to. It's affected my ability to family-plan and to look towards my future as far as my personal life. And it's not -- you know, this is not where I thought I'd be at 33.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: The film is called the American Dream and other Fairytales, directed, produced, narrated by Roy Disney's granddaughter, Abigail Disney. She's with me now. Thank you for being here.

ABIGAIL DISNEY, DIRECTOR, THE AMERICAN DREAM AND OTHER FAIRY TALES: A pleasure to be here.

BOLDUAN: Wage inequality, it is well-documented, right? And you began speaking out about this a few years ago.

[11:50:02]

What is it about it that made your passion, your drive, your life's work that got you here?

DISNEY: Yes. You know, I've been tortured since I was a little girl by the fact I knew I was so lucky. It just always bothered me. It never really felt right. I was raised in a pretty religious home and it didn't match with what I thought I was hearing every Sunday. So, I have always worked in one way or another on trying to make the world a better place. But, honestly, when I saw this so close to home, I felt like I couldn't stay silent.

BOLDUAN: I have to say, that part of the documentary that we just filmed, it's very, very impactful. You're sitting down with a group of employees from Disneyland. What do the employees that you profile, especially the four you mainly profile, what do they think about this film and the publicity and the focus now?

DISNEY: I am so proud to say that they have all told me they really love it and they're really proud to have worked with us, because they were engaged with the union already because they felt that it shouldn't be happening to them and they didn't want it to happen on other people either. They all work so hard. And so I'm excited that they all feel really delighted.

Three of them have talked about moving on and they aren't at Disney anymore, which you heartbreak to me, because Disney used to be a place you stayed for a lifetime, but it isn't true with the low-wage employees anymore.

BOLDUAN: And we reached out to Disney to ask for a statement, and I want to read for everyone the statement that Disney offered us. They said this. The well-being and aspirations of our stories employees and cast will always be our top priority. We provide a leading and holistic employment package that includes competitive pay and comprehensive benefits for our cast members to grow their careers and care for their families. That starts with fair pay and leading entry wages, but also includes affordable medical coverage, access to tuition-free higher education, subsidized child care for eligible employees, as well as pathways for personal and professional development.

And a spokesperson also pointed to that the company outpaces statewide minimum wage levels in both Florida and California. And, recently, the company agreed to a 16 percent raise for certain workers. Do you see that as progress?

DISNEY: Yes, I absolutely do. I see it as progress and I'm delighted that they agreed to a wage hike for their low-wage employees. It's a great step in the right direction. It is only a step, because low-wage employees are not simply about getting more dollars into their pockets. They're also looking to be treated like humans. There are a lot of things, and I think that education piece of it that they always feature when they push back on me is an interesting place to focus and drill a little deep on. Because they offer education on the theory that there's like this ladder you climb. And, sure, you're in a low- wage job today, but if you take this education, then you move up to a better paying job.

And it sounds right, and it is a belief system Americans hold tightly, but the dark side of that mythology is that you're assuming that someone is going to come in at that same wage and do that same job when you rise into the next one. And so you're accepting that there is perpetually an underclass of people that have to do these incredibly hard jobs for not enough money. So, $24 an hour is closer to the living wage in Anaheim. They have come up to $18, which is brilliant, I'm happy, brilliant, good job, Disney, but I'm talking about a living wage. And I'm talking about employers treating every single one of their employees as though they were in that job, or as though their son or daughter were in that job.

BOLDUAN: Well, that's one what I actually want to ask you about, because this is personal for you, obviously, you have made clear, but is this about changing companies and corporate culture, or is this about changing laws? I mean, because does a billionaires tax fix all of what you have learned through filming this?

DISNEY: This is a question of both. And the problem is you can never boil things down to one thing. I know for a fact that a campaign was waged to change our country's norms around how companies should handle their employees, what it was each American's job to do to take care of themselves. We went from somewhat of a communal culture that was interested in making sure the broad classes of people were okay, to a culture that said every man for himself and I don't really care how everybody else is doing.

[11:55:01]

And that was what justified the low tax environment, that's what justified the killing of regulations, the attack on unions and so forth. All of these things have left workers in a really terrible place.

So, norm shifting was really important, but those norms feed law changes, regulation changes. So, we're not going to find the political will unless we shift our norms, but in the meantime, you know, there has to be a billionaire's tax, there has to be higher corporate tax. There has to be regulation on corporations so the IRS is well funded enough to collect all the taxes they're supposed to get. There's a million things that have to happen all at the same time and corporate culture must change.

BOLDUAN: The film is called the American Dream and Other Fairytales. Abigail Disney, thank you for coming on.

DISNEY: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Thank you all for being here. Inside Politics with John King begins now.

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[12:00:00]