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At This Hour

Hospitals Overwhelmed With Surge In Respiratory Illness In Kids; Trump Considers Allowing Investigators To Search Mar-A-Lago Again; Kanye West Refuses To Apologize For Anti-Semitic, Anti-Black Remarks. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired October 20, 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]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Softened someone else's mind. I think he's rational, but the decisions he's making, or maybe better put his objectives are not rational.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: How do you deal with that, though, Ambassador? How do you eventually or at all negotiate with someone like that?

WILLIAM TAYLOR, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE: You probably don't, Kate. You probably don't negotiate. President Zelenskyy has made it very clear that he's not going to negotiate with President Putin. He'll negotiate with the next Russian president. But to negotiate with someone who's performing these atrocities that is killing your people -- killing Ukrainians, civilians, this is not a military fight. This is -- this is the Russians under President Putin attacking civilians, schools, hospitals, power plants, hoping that Ukrainians will be miserable this winter. How do you negotiate with that kind of a person?

You wait until you've pushed the Russians out of their country. And that's what the Ukrainians say. They're willing to negotiate when they push the Russians out of their country, then they'll sit down. President Zelenskyy is ready to sit down with the next Russian president. That's what's going to happen.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Ambassador, thank you for coming on. It's good to see you.

So it is clearly a surge, a dangerous respiratory illness among kids now overwhelming some hospitals, one hospital now considering field tents on their front lawn to handle the influx. The top doctor from that hospital joins us next.

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[11:35:24]

BOLDUAN: Hospitals across the U.S. are struggling right now with a surge in respiratory viruses among children. The CDC says cases of RSV specifically have tripled in the past two months are already nearing last year's peak. One Children's Hospital in the Northeast is seeing so many cases right now that they are considering setting up a field tent on their lawn to deal with the influx.

And joining me right now is Dr. Juan Salazar. He's the head of infectious diseases at that hospital, Connecticut Children's Medical Center in Hartford. Doctor, thank you for jumping on with me. I saw you -- that you say that this spike feels unprecedented for at least the northeast. Talk to me about that.

DR. JUAN SALAZAR, PHYSICIAN IN CHIEF, CONNECTICUT CHILDREN'S MEDICAL CENTER: Yes. Kate, good morning, and thank you for having me. And we certainly have seen a dramatic increase in kids coming into our hospital with RSV. This has really stepped up over the last two or three weeks. And it's created some difficulties for us because again, our beds are filled to capacity, the kids keep coming in, and so we've had a situation where we have to expand our services in a way that we can provide all the care for the kids that are coming in with RSV. I've been doing this for a long time, I've been a Connecticut children's for 25 years, and I have never seen this level of the surge, specifically of RSV coming into our hospital.

BOLDUAN: It is interesting, I've seen reporting that the hospital is in talks and considering, you know, with the National Guard and the -- and FEMA about possibly setting up a field tent to deal with this influx. How close are you to the point of really needing that, do you think?

SALAZAR: Yes. I want to emphasize we're coordinating this directly with the governor's office, with the Commissioner of Public Health who had been incredibly helpful to us. And we're not yet pulling the plug at the beginning of this process of actually putting it there.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

SALAZAR: But we have to be prepared in case the numbers continue to increase. So if RSV increases further and it -- and it hits us with influenza at the tail end of this, we're going to have to need -- we will need additional capacity for our hospital, not dissimilar to what other places in the U.S. have seen, in Boston and Philadelphia, even as far down as Miami and in San Diego, where RSV seems to be surging across the country. So we have to be prepared and we have to be cautious so that we can provide the best care for children.

BOLDUAN: And you kind of lay out a key question which is unknown is where is the peak, and when is the peak. Over at Yale New Haven Children's Hospital, they told ABC that they have about three kids admitted for COVID, and 30 admitted for RSV, which is kind of jarring when you think of where we've -- where we were just you know, two years ago -- starting two years ago and all -- and the real fear of what COVID means for everyone. Is that what you're seeing? And what does this say about where we are with COVID, and with other dangerous viruses?

SALAZAR: Yes, it's a great question. So, we have seen -- just to give you a sense of over the last 10 days. We've had over 100 kids that have come in with RSV into our system, which is really unprecedented. In the COVID era and the peak of the COVID era for children, we never had 100 kids come into our hospital in any given week. It was a very different pandemic for the kids and for the adults. So, we're sort of in the -- what I would call the similar face with RSV for as children, as adults with COVID. Now I want to make sure that I don't alarm parents because RSV is not as serious as the COVID crisis in the adult population.

BOLDUAN: Right.

SALAZAR: We can take care of these kids. We can actually provide the care. The majority of them who will get better will go home. But in the midst of this, they require intensive care, they require oxygen therapy, and supportive care so that parents can feel assured that we can actually do this.

Now, we are coming out of the COVID era, but COVID I think has created this dynamic where kids were socially distanced that were wearing masks for a long time properly so. And we needed to do that to prevent COVID infections. But now these viruses are capturing a population that is completely not used to them. And they're seeing it in large numbers. And so I think for the next four to eight weeks, we just have to be careful. We have to be thoughtful. And one message to parents which is really, really important, get your kids vaccinated for influenza, this is the time you need to do it. Six months and above, you can get your flu vaccine, go to your pediatrician, and then avoid a surge of influenza and four to six weeks so we're not dealing with this over the next four to eight months.

BOLDUAN: Yeah. I mean, my children are among them. We call them Jeremy's in my household. We've protected them very importantly with masking and distancing from the Jeremys for so long. And now they're in a school year of you know, mask-free as is wonderful, but now they're getting hit with the Jeremys all over the place. Thank you so much, Doctor. I really appreciate your time.

SALAZAR: Thank you very much.

BOLDUAN: Thank you. A CNN exclusive, Donald Trump's legal team is thinking about letting federal agents back into Mar-a-Lago. We're going to explain why. Next.

[11:40:05]

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BOLDUAN: A CNN exclusive, former President Trump's legal team is weighing whether to invite federal agents to return to Mar-a-Lago once again. CNN's Gabby Orr is live in Washington with much more on this. So, Gabby, what do you know?

[11:45:06]

GABBY ORR, CNN REPORTER: Kate we've learned overnight that there's been a distinct change in the approach that Trump is taking toward the investigation going on about records at Mar-a-Lago, especially classified documents that he was keeping at his Florida residence. Now, his team had previously been very adversarial, both in their court filings, but also their private interactions with the Justice Department. And that's now changing.

You know, faced with all of these various investigations that are ongoing, the former president and his attorneys have decided to act in a bit more of a conciliatory way toward DOJ investigators. And one thing -- one thing that's been tossed around behind the scenes, as his attorneys discuss how to cooperate with DOJ or how to accommodate them is potentially inviting federal investigators back to Mar-a-Lago to conduct a supervised search at the former president's residence.

Now, this would, of course, look very different from that August search that was conducted by FBI agents at Mar-a-Lago. This would look more like the June meeting that took place between FBI agents, the way they were supervised on the premises accompanied by Trump attorneys. But that is one idea that's being discussed. No firm decisions have been made. But his team is looking for ways to basically placate federal investigators and wrap this investigation up quickly so that Trump can look at his political future and plot that out, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Interesting. Well, let's see what happens. It's good to see you, Gabby. Thank you.

ORR: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: So, Conway what -- Kanye West digging in apologizing -- sort of, for his anti-semitic remarks. That's next.

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[11:51:01]

BOLDUAN: Kanye West, he is digging in, issuing a non-apology apology in a new interview after his anti-semitic, anti-black comments. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PIERS MORGAN, JOURNALIST: My question for you is do you now regret saying death con 3 on Jewish people?

KANYE WEST, RAPPER: I think, every day -- I think.

MORGAN: Are you sorry you said that?

WEST: No.

MORGAN: Let me hear who matters. You should pay.

WEST: Absolutely, not. You know, I will say I'm sorry for the people that are hurt with the DEFCON -- the confusion that I call. I feel like I call -- I cause hurt and confusion. And I'm sorry for the families of the people that had nothing to do with the trauma that I had been through, and that I use my platform where you say hurt people hurt people, and I was hurt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Joining me now is LZ Granderson. He's a columnist for The LA Times, the host of the ABC podcast, Life Out Loud. He also writes about this very issue in his new column titled Kanye West's life and art are one. You don't have to keep watching.

LZ, your column is fantastic on this, exactly why I wanted to have you on to dig into it. But first, what is your reaction to this apology that is not an apology from Kanye West?

LZ GRANDERSON, COLUMNIST, LOS ANGELES TIMES: LOS You know, it's more of the same. And it's really typical of people who don't want to be held accountable for their actions, right? Like they may acknowledge some wrongdoing in very general terms, but he never actually acknowledged the wrongdoings and take personal responsibility for it. And then in that answer, I just heard more of the same of that from Kanye.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Let me read a part of your piece that really struck me. I tell everyone, they really should go read the whole thing. You write. Year by year, track by track, sneaker by sneaker, tweet by tweet, he shows us why we should follow and why we should tune out. Like so many people, I kept finding ways to carve the artistry from the artist even though I knew they were one and the same. Then one day I just stopped. I didn't cancel him. I didn't suggest anyone else cancel him. I just stopped. It just stopped working for me.

Talk to me about how you got to this place, LZ.

GRANDERSON: It was hard. You know, I'm a Gen-X black guy from Detroit, so hip hop has always been present in my life growing up, it's shaped my worldview in a lot of ways and it continues to shape my worldview because these artists, these rappers, they aren't just entertainers and musicians, they're also storytellers and our grills. They're supposed to help document what happens in the world as artists are supposed to do. But in hip-hop, it's particularly important to black people.

And so I wanted to talk about this journey because to see Kanye go down this path also hurts me as a hip-hop fan because I used to love Ye. I used to love his music. I could not wait for the next track like a lot of people. But there comes a point in which you need to understand that you're supporting everything else that goes with it. You know, if you watch a Woody Allen film, you might enjoy Woody Allen, but he's got some issues, right? The same thing with Michael Jackson, same with R. Kelly, we all have the personal responsibility of asking ourselves, you know, is this working for me? What this person -- what this artist is doing in addition to the artists, is this just working for me? And when he got to Kanye, I just arrived at no.

BOLDUAN: But you say specifically that you don't -- you're not telling people to cancel him. You just don't -- but just don't listen to him. Is it -- and just pose the question to yourself, is it working for you? Others though are saying he needs to be canceled. Mega agent Ari Emanuel wrote in the Financial Times that companies need to stop working with him because he has not gone the path of really showing that he is apologetic. Writing this. Those who continue to do business with West are giving his misguided hate an audience. There should be no tolerance anywhere for West's antisemitism. What do you think of that, LZ?

GRANDERSON: I agree. There should not be intolerance for West's antisemitism. However, that's a personal thing. And I think that the best thing that I could do with my platform is not to tell people what to think about Kanye, but to ask themselves, are they taking the time to think what they think about Kanye?

[11:55:01]

In other words, don't just check the box by saying oh, he just be himself. Really listen to what he's saying. Really understand how he's using this platform in the context of a post-2020 America with everything we know that's going on in terms of hate crimes, in terms of antisemitism, in terms of racism, and there's a major issue in Los Angeles right now when you think about the racism of the city council. So, we're in a climate right now, that's very, very tense.

And what Kanye is flirting with isn't necessarily healthy. And so, I asked people, you know, the cancel movement thing, you can't cancel someone as big and as powerful as Kanye. I think that's a silly conversation to have to begin with. But what you can do is as individual leaders and fans of his, do you appreciate, do you support what he's doing right now with his platform?

BOLDUAN: Yes. And I encourage everyone to read LZ's column on this. It applies to many more things than just what's going on with Kanye right now, which is big enough. It's great to see you, LZ, thank you.

And thank you all so much for joining us today. "INSIDE POLITICS" with John King, after this.

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