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At This Hour

Beijing games begin amid a diplomatic boycott and Covid restrictions; Police fatally shoot black man who was not target of warrant; Biden touts greatest year of job creation ever. Aired 11:30a- 12pET

Aired February 04, 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]

CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST: There are certainly many, many questions that come with that.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: You're on the ground in Beijing Christine. You have covered many Olympics before this one, you cannot put the geopolitical issues aside, but I'm saying, you know, all along with that, I'm curious what it is, like being under these very severe COVID restrictions there.

BRENNAN: Yes Katie and Patrick. In fact we've never been through anything like this. This is my 20th Olympics in a row, winter and summer. I'm so fortunate to have these opportunities. And it is the COVID fortress to try to keep COVID out, a closed loop bubble as they're calling it. A throat swab every day, all of us, the entire, all the athletes, coaches, officials, journalists every single day. Again, if they test positive, off you go to quarantine, journalists, athletes, officials, etc. It is - it's tense, it's - it's harsh. It is not at all that welcoming, feeling that Patrick knows and that you know about Olympic Games, that joie de vivre, the fact that you can go and meet people from other countries.

So there's a there's much more of a fear, a cautiousness, a concern, almost like everyone wants to just get through it, OK and be able to go home. And that is such a shame, because of course, that's exactly what the Olympic Games are not supposed to be.

BOLDUAN: Yes, Patrick, what is your expectation for these games with so much hanging over it?

PATRICK MCENROE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, my expectation Kate is great to be back on with you and with Christine as well. My expectation is that the games themselves will go on, we'll celebrate the athletes as we should, because they've been working their whole lives for this opportunity to participate in the Olympic Games, particularly the Winter Olympic Games, with many of these athletes, this is their - this is their moment, right? This is their moment to shine. But I found it a little bit ironic, Kate, that the person apparently who lit the torch at the ceremonies this evening in Beijing was a Uighur.

And so to me, that sort of says was a little bit what the former - the person from the United States government that used to be in China, the ambassador, she that was a word I was looking for the ambassador to China said China just doesn't care. They just don't care what we think and what we say. And when I saw that it was Uighur that lit the torch, that sort of rang true with me that that's exactly what they were saying to everyone.

We're going to do our thing. We don't care what the rest of the world thinks.

BOLDUAN: A Grand Illusion is how Christine was kind of describing it, which I think is really made it - very good way to do it - very interesting way to put it. You know, the International Olympic Committee is facing continued questions, Patrick about Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai. The IOC is out now saying that if she wants an investigation into the sexual assault allegation, they will support her. What do you think that means?

MCENROE: I don't like what it means at all. And I, Christine was one who asked a question to, I believe, is Thomas Bach, the head of the IOC. And to me, they're just intertwined. The IOC and the Chinese government at this point, are just basically working together. I mean, how many times have we heard this before Kate, in the me too movement, when it comes to someone who wants to speak up and wants to tell their story? Oh, it's up to them to tell their story? No, no, it's not.

It's up to the world to tell their story. It's up to show them support to that individual, particularly one who, as she says in her, in her initial posts, that she was sexually abused. We know the situation that puts people and if they're forced to tell their story, they want to do it. And this whole idea that they're going to use the human route. That's what the IOC has been saying. To me, it's a lost cause with the IOC at this point, the games will go on, but is it isn't just about the money at the end of the day?

That to me is what's driving this whole thing. And at the end of the day, somebody - someone's going to have to step up and do something because clearly, as the ambassador - the former ambassador to China said on this network about an hour ago, they do not care what we in the West think. They don't care, then - and by having that person light the torch was just a slap in the face to all of us.

BOLDUAN: Yes, before I let you go, Patrick, the sports world in the United States has been rocked by this discrimination lawsuit brought by NFL coach Brian Flores. What do you think about this whole thing?

MCENROE: Well, I think it's, it's extremely problematic. And if you look at the assistant coaches that are in the NFL, I believe there's 15 coordinators that are African American, there are six GMs, that are African American. So the one side, if you take the NFL side, you say, you know, there are coaches in the pipeline. But at the moment, there's only one African American Coach right now in the NFL.

So from the - from the larger perspective, this is a huge problem. Of course, each individual team can - can tell their side of the story as the New York Giants are doing, and others that are hiring coaches. And when you look at it from that standpoint, you say, OK, they're going to hire the best person. The NFL is in a tricky spot because they manage the whole league, but each team is its own entity, running its own business.

And then look at college football. There's over 130 teams, I believe in the FBS, and just 10 of them are African American Coach, that's about 8 percent. So that's another pipeline potentially for NFL Head Coach. At the moment there's only one. Clearly there's discrimination, clearly there's racism but when you get down to actually how to solve it, that's when it becomes extremely problematic.

[11:35:00]

And as we've seen with the Rooney Rule, that's been a little bit of a farce. And when you hear the stories of those African American coaches like coach Brian Flores, boy, it's got to ring true because that's their story, and I believe it.

BOLDUAN: Thank you, Patrick. It's good to see you. Christine, thank you so much for jumping on with us from Beijing. I really appreciate it. Coming up for us. Minneapolis Police under fresh scrutiny after police shoot and kill a black man while serving a search warrant. The video and the controversy, that's next.

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[11:40:00]

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BOLDUAN: Developing this morning, Minneapolis Police are facing growing questions after body cam video shows officers fatally shooting a young black man. We want to warn you the video is disturbing. In it you will see police serving a no knock search warrant. Officers open the door to an apartment and here's what happens.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police, search warrant.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: CNN's Omar Jimenez is following all of this for us and joins us now. Omar, what more are you learning?

OMAR JIMINEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kate so we just learned the Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is now partnering with the county attorney to review this particular case and what we know is the Minneapolis Police Department was executing a warrant tied to a homicide investigation stemming out of nearby St. Paul, Minnesota and - but a mere luck as we later learned the identity.

His family attorneys say he wasn't the target of the investigation and police say his name wasn't listed on any of the search warrants. So I want to show you some of the slowed down video of what happened in about 14 seconds in real time. They had a key to the actual apartment. They burst through the doorway, they're yelling commands like police, search warrant. Let me see your hands. They eventually kick this couch which appears to wake up Locke as you seen wrapped in a blanket but as he gets up, you also see a gun and that is when those three shots are fired.

Now we haven't been able to confirm this latest part but police say that gun was pointing in the direction of the shooting officer here. A spokesperson for the St. Paul Police Department confirmed the warrant this investigation stemmed out of is still an active investigation at this point. The attorneys for Locke's family say that he was a legal gun owner at the time of his death but of course we're supposed to be hearing from them this morning along with the Locke family - family reacting to this.

The officer who shot here was also identified as Mark Hanneman. He's been with the department since 2015. And has been placed on routine administrative leave, Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right, much work on this. Omar, thank you for covering it. We'll get back to you. Also happening right now. Two of the three men convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery have changed their pleas to not guilty in the federal hate crimes case against them. CNN's Ryan Young is live outside the federal courthouse in Georgia to explain. What is going on here, Ryan?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, OK. Just a lot of back and forth when it comes to this case. When you think about it, we know the men were all guilty in the state case, this is the federal case. And that's why there's no video as well because of course federal court, not allowed to shoot video.

But today Travis McMichael was in court pulling back his plea deal from before. Of course, the judge rejected it on Monday. Gregory McMichael did his by paper, so he wasn't in court today. But I can tell you for the family, they are really focused on this federal case because they believe there's an opportunity for some more of the evidence that wasn't in the state case to be exposed.

So you can see some of the back and forth between the men leading up from the days after the shooting. In fact, Ahmaud Arbery's father spoke after court just a few minutes ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCUS ARBERY, FATHER OF AHMAUD ARBERY: I just got one word to say all we wanted 100 percent justice. So are we looking for him. God me to go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Yes, Kate, I was talking to some of the members of the church community here at Brunswick just this morning. They were telling me how important it is to see the wheel of justice continue to turn here. They've been very pleased with the fact that everything that's happened has been really happening in front of the media, and so that everyone can see exactly what's going on. That's what they want to continue. So this family continues to get justice. That court case starts on Monday with jury selection. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Ryan, thank you. Also in Georgia in a new interview, the Fulton County District Attorney investigating Donald Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election is laying out a new timeline. DA Fani Willis telling the Atlanta Journal Constitution that she expects a very busy summer, a lot of activity she says in June and July, with two grand juries examining Trump and his allies attempts to change the election outcome in Georgia.

Willis said she expects the probe to wrap in early 2020 Three the DA also spoke out against the racist attacks that she says she's been facing since opening this investigation.

[11:45:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FANI WILLIS, FULTON COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: You know, I get called in very regularly. It's really silly to me that they believe that by crawling those kinds of insults, that is going to impact the way that we do our investigation. It's not going to impact me to do something faster. It's not going to impact me in treating the former President or anyone else unfairly. And it's not going to make me stop what I have a lawful duty to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us new details about the ISIS leader killed during the U.S. special forces raid in Syria. What we're learning now about the comeback he was planning, next.

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[11:50:00]

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BOLDUAN: Developing this morning, we are learning new details about the U.S. special forces raid that killed the leader of ISIS. The Washington Post is reporting that he was plotting a comeback as the U.S. military closed in on him. The one big question now is what does this operation mean for the broader fight against ISIS?

Joining me now is Democratic Congressman Adam Smith. He's the Chairman of the House Armed Services. Committee. Chairman, thank you for being here. You put out a statement applauding this operation. But you - oh, we need to jump over to the White House. I'm so sorry, Mr. Chairman. President Biden speaking on the economy now.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I want to speak to you this morning about an extraordinary resilience and grit of the American people and American capitalism. Our country is taking everything that COVID has a throw at us. And we've come back stronger.

I'm pleased to report this morning what many of you already know that America's job machine is going stronger than ever, fueling a strong recovery, an opportunity for hardworking women and men all across this great country. America is back to work.

Today, we learned that in January, our economy created 467,000 jobs. That's not all. We learned the job growth in November and December over last year, was revised up by more than 700,000 jobs. On top of that 400,000 jobs that previously - on top of that 400,000 that were previously reported.

This morning report caps off my first year as president. And over that period, our economy created 6.6 million jobs, 6.6 million jobs. You can't remember or know the year when so many people want to work in this country. There's a reason, it never happened. Take a look at the chart. You can look at the last all the way back to President Reagan.

Look how many jobs we've created in - average per month. This is - it's never happened before. And look, it history has been made here. But it comes alongside the largest drop in unemployment rate in a single year on record, for largest reduction in childhood poverty ever recorded in a single year. And the strongest economic growth this country has seen in nearly 40 years. Historic economic progress.

And I'm proud of the role the administration played in this economic plan has played in the recovery. You know, the rescue plan that Democrats passed to get the economy going again, the bipartisan infrastructure law has started to get in the way rebuilding bridges, roads, highways, ports, airports, internet, there's so much more that we're doing as well.

And my decision at the outset of our administration to Buy America, it's always been the law, it was very seldom ever followed. Now, it's reality, not an empty promise. I made clear that when the federal government spends taxpayer dollars, we buy American products, American products, made in America, including all the component parts of that product, with very few exceptions.

With the support of the American private sector, our business leaders and entrepreneurs, our workers, our union leaders, they've all come together like never before in my days in Washington. I know it hasn't been easy. I know that January was a very hard month for many Americans, I know that after almost two years, the physical and emotional weight of the pandemic has been incredibly difficult to bear for so many people. But here's the good news.

We have the tools to save lives and to keep businesses open and keep schools open, keep workers on the job and sustain this historic economic comeback. Vaccination and boosters have proven incredibly effective. This past month, we started mailing out 10s of millions of at-home tests to deliver to your home for free so you get to determine whether or not you have COVID.

That's an addition to the 20,000 sites across America, where you can get a test in person for free to determine whether or not you have COVID. And we have more treatments today to keep people out of the hospital, including lifesaving anti-viral pills, which we purchased millions of and now we're seeing the difference over our efforts of May. Look at what's happened. Just in the past three weeks, today's extraordinary job report data was collected. The COVID crisis has been cut in half, down in half in just three weeks. Still too many cases, still we have to be on alert but to be clear this is a dramatic decline.

[11:55:00]

Now I want to be clear, even with this extraordinary news, even with the historic economic progress we made across the past year, we still have a lot of work to do. Making sure every American has a job is a great start. But it's not the finish. For many Americans wages are up this year. In January, wage increases were strong across the board. That's good.

We have to continue to keep wages growing. And we need even more high paying jobs. Jobs, you can raise your family on and have some breathing room. Two weeks ago, the CEO of Intel, Pat Gelsinger came to the White House to announce a brand new $20 billion semiconductor factory. They call it a campus outside of Columbus, Ohio.

It's going to create 7000 jobs just constructing the facility, and 3000 permanent jobs running the facility with an average salary of $135,000. The semiconductors are microchips, power virtually everything in our everyday lives, from our cell phones to automobiles, refrigerators, the internet, the electric grid.

Without semiconductors, these things do not function in a modern economy. So the spin-off of this is going to create 1000s of additional jobs as well, helping us build more American products in manufacturing, automobiles, appliances, and so much more. It's going to create jobs, and it's going to help ease inflation. One of the reasons why automobiles cost so much money these days, and they're responsible for one-third of all the inflation that's calculated in the market is because they lack the semiconductors to build the vehicles.

Intel's announcement helps fix that problem. Last week, I called a meeting of CEOs from General Motors, Ford, Microsoft and other major corporations in America. Mary Barra of General Motors, the Chairman of the board, the CEO, I should say, announced a $7 billion investment in a Michigan manufacturing plant to manufacture electric vehicles. It's going to create 4000 new quality jobs of prevailing wage.

That's on top of the announcement last year made by Ford CEO, Jim Farley who was with us to invest $11 billion to make electric vehicles, creating 11,000 new, good paying jobs. Look, last Friday, I went to Pittsburgh, where the Pacific - the Union Pacific Railroad announced the largest purchase of American battery electric locomotives in history.

Built in Erie, Pennsylvania, built by American manufacturing workers in western Pennsylvania, creating even more good paying jobs. And again, the spin off from that these locomotives aren't just going to be purchased in American, countries around the world because it's going to be the best product are going to purchase them. American made electric vehicles made in Erie, Pennsylvania, good paying jobs. Look, we all know we're in competition with the world. These announcements are the drumbeat, a job of a job resurgence, unlike anything we've seen in our history. And it didn't happen by chance, it's a result of the economic plan I put an action on day one. When I said it's going to be Buy America.

I'm delighted to keep going and expand what we've done. Because we have a great opportunity ahead of us to further progress, make progress where we've - beyond what we've already made. Look, the House Representative just passed a few minutes ago, just before I walked over here to provide $90 billion, over $90 billion for research and development, manufacturing, and all those elements of the supply chain needed to produce and products right here in America.

So we keep delivering more announcements like the one we've had in the past few weeks. Another way we're boosting our economy is by promoting competition. Look, hamburger is you know, up for time fourfold almost, many places. Well guess what meat processing, meat processors are - shipping railroads, other industries are dominated by a few giant companies that control the market they operate in.

And over the years is domination of the market by a smaller number of companies, smaller and smaller, it's about four in the meatpacking area has reduced competition, squeezed out small businesses and farmers and in many cases increased prices in almost all, increased prices for consumers.