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RFK Jr Testifies Despite Democrats' Protests; IRS Whistleblowers Face Lawmakers In Public Hearing; Massive Tornado Leaves Path Of Destruction In NC; Supply Chain Experts: NC Pfizer Plant Damaged In Tornado Could Worsen Drug Shortages; Police: Can't Verify "Missing" Alabama Woman's Story. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired July 20, 2023 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

DANIEL DALE, CNN REPORTER: Yes, of course, I'm not the boss of deciding what is racist or anti-Semitic. But can tell you with certainly that Mr. Kennedy has made comments that Jewish and Asian groups have described as such.

He recently claimed, as you went over, that Covid-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and black people and people who are most immune are actually Jews and Chinese.

Here's how the CEO of the American Jewish Committee responded. He said, "Robert Kennedy Jr's assertion that Covid was genetically engineered to spare Jewish and Chinese people is deeply offensive and incredibly dangerous.

"Every aspect of his comments reflect some of those abhorrent anti- Semitic conspiracy theories throughout history and contributes to today's dangerous rise of anti-Semitism."

And groups fighting anti-Asian hate also described this nonsense as hateful and offensive.

And Kennedy was previously denounced by Jewish groups for the other comment you heard here, the one about Anne Frank. It's a truly ludicrous comparison.

It was last year. He was attacking vaccine mandates. He said that, quote, "Even in Hitler's Germany, you could cross the Alps into Switzerland, you could hide in an attic like Anne Frank did."

Anne Frank, of course, was murdered by the Nazis. More than six million Jews murdered by the Nazis.

Kennedy was denounced by both the Auschwitz Museum and Memorial and the U.S. Holocaust Museum for this. And he eventually apologized. So I'm not sure what he's denying now. He admitted he made the comments and he apologized for them.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: There's another moment during his testimony that he's now seeming to change previous statements over, and that is his view of vaccines. He denied today that he ever spoke out against vaccines.

Let's listen to that moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I've never been an anti-vaxx. I have never told anybody, I've never told the public to avoid vaccination.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Dale, that's not true.

DALE: It's not true at all. In two ways. A two-part statement. First of all, this is one of America's most prominent anti-vaxxers. He's an anti-vaxxer. There's no doubt about it.

Second of all, he's on record saying to avoid vaccinations. In fact, an NBC News reporter found a comment and tweeted about it today where he, Kennedy, in 2021, said that he even encounters strangers on hiking trails and tells them not to vaccinate their babies.

Listen to that clip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KENNEDY: Our job is to resist and to talk about it with everybody. If you're walking down the street -- and I do this now myself, which is I see somebody on a hiking trail carrying a little baby and I say to them, don't get them vaccinated.

He heard that from me. If he hears it from 10 other people, maybe he won't do it. Maybe he will save that child.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DALE: Pretty clearly, anti-vaxx. Of course, this isn't his only anti- vax comment. He has relentlessly promoted the baseless notion of a link between childhood vaccines and autism. He's attacked Covid-19 vaccines as unsafe. They are safe.

He's even asserted in recent comments that the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 wasn't a flu at all but was caused by vaccine research. It was not.

He asserted there's strong evidence that HIV was caused by vaccine research. It wasn't.

This is a vehement anti-vaxxer pretending today that he's not anti- vax.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Really unbelievable.

SANCHEZ: Yes. Clearly --

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: A lot of stuff there.

Yes, thank you for putting that all together for us, Daniel. Really appreciate it.

Yesterday, two IRS whistleblowers went before the House Oversight Committee and alleged that Hunter Biden got special treatment from the Justice Department as it investigated the president's son.

We had Republican Congressman Pete Sessions, who is a member of that committee, on the program and he made a false claim responding to a question that I asked him about the U.S. attorney for Delaware, David Weiss, who was appointed by then-President Trump, kept on in his role by President Joe Biden, and has now brought tax and gun charges against Hunter Biden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: He said that Merrick Garland granted him, quote, "ultimate authority" over this matter, including responsibility for deciding where, when and whether to file charges.

He wrote in a letter to Congress that he never requested special counsel status but rather explored becoming a special attorney under a different statute.

So let me ask you again, because that is obviously contradictory to what we're hearing from the whistleblowers. Do you think David Weiss is lying?

REP. PETE SESSIONS (R-TX): Well then, you need to have whoever helped you for this presentation today -- and then there was a follow-up letter where he corrected himself and a third letter that corrected himself that said he did not then have that ability, that he was provided specific content, that that would not be happening.

So he got back, honestly, with Senators, they were involved, and the House Committee on Ways and Means and James Comer, Government Reform and Oversight, and sent three letters in total that corrected himself each and every time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[13:35:11]

KEILAR: No he didn't. No, David Weiss did not correct himself each and every time in the three letters he sent.

There was no follow-up letter where Weiss corrected himself and said he did not have that ability, as Sessions said.

In fact, Weiss reaffirmed his authority in his letters to Republican members of Congress, who were seeking information about the Hunter Biden probe, which was then and is still an ongoing criminal investigation.

June 7th, in response to a letter that Republican Congressman Jim Jordan, wrote, Weiss said, quote, "I want to make clear, as the attorney general has stated, I have been granted ultimate authority over this matter, including responsibility for deciding where, when and whether to file charges."

Jim Jordan responding, saying Weiss' response was, in a nutshell, insufficient.

And June 30th, Weiss responded with more detail, reiterating his earlier statement and saying that he was assured that he would be granted the necessary authority in the District of Columbia, the Central District of California, or any other district where charges could be brought in this matter.

On July 10th, responding to an inquiry from Senator Lindsey Graham, he disputed whistleblower claims that he requested special counsel status. Quote, "I have not requested special counsel designation."

And once again, he asserted his authority and said that he had, quote, "never been denied the authority to bring charges in any jurisdiction."

After the show, I followed up with Sessions' office and am still awaiting an on-the-record comment about why the congressman misrepresented U.S. attorney David Weiss' communications with Congress.

There are legitimate questions about how foreign entities or outside groups use money to try to influence those who are close to politicians.

That's why Obama White House officials raised concerns about Hunter Biden's activities towards the end of the Obama administration.

But Republicans broadly are already facing criticism for inconsistency, their fixation on the actions of the president's son without proving any link to the president himself.

And while turning a blind eye to the at least ethically questionable behavior Trump family members and the former president himself as they benefitted financially from his presidency and continue to do so as he runs for the White House yet again.

Because if this is really about getting to the facts, you don't lie about them.

Boris?

SANCHEZ: Still to come, a tornado ripping through parts of North Carolina injuring more than a dozen people. Now we're learning damage to the Pfizer plant there could make the country's historic level of drug shortages even worse. We're going to take you to there.

And is UPS on the verge of a strike? New details on negotiations and what it could mean for your packages if there is a work stoppage.

Stay with CNN NEWS CENTRAL. We're back in just moments.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:42:41]

KEILAR: Now to some of the other headlines that we are watching this the hour.

A rare deadly shooting overnight in New Zealand just hours before the opening match of the women's World Cup. Authorities say a gunman killed two people at a construction site where he worked. The suspect later found dead after a police shootout. Officials say there's no known connection to the tournament, which began as scheduled this morning.

Also, contract negotiations are set to resume next week as more than 300,000 UPS workers prepare for a potentially historic strike. Experts say a walkout of that size could cause supply chain issues. It could cost the economy billions.

Both sides say 95 percent of the deal has been reached, including UPS agreeing to give drivers air conditioning. You heard that right. But there are key disagreements around worker pay.

Officials in Pennsylvania say they will try to resume their search for two missing siblings who were swept away in a flashflood. And 2-year- old Mattie Sheils and her 9-month-old brother, Conrad, went missing Saturday in the deadly flooding roughly an hour north of Philadelphia.

Rough weather conditions this morning forced police to call of their search for a second day. But just a short time ago, they did announce that the search is back on.

Boris?

SANCHEZ: We're also tracking more severe weather across the country, including devastation from a massive EF-3 tornado that touched down in North Carolina. The storm reaching wind speeds of 150 miles an hour.

Here's a look at some of the damage right outside of Raleigh.

CNN's Dianne Gallagher is on the ground for us.

Dianne, what are you seeing where you are today?

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Boris, this is what an EF-3 tornado can do. We are in Dortches, North Carolina. Just behind me, this is the town hall here, if you can see much of it through the snapped trees. This is where the National Weather Service says the tornado came here in Nash County, west of Hanover.

If you pan over through the snapped trees in this area, it left this in its wake. You see houses like this one back here. There were people inside at the time that the tornado came here, just about 24 hours ago, around lunchtime yesterday.

[13:45:57]

This is what you've got everywhere. It's siding, it's insulation, it's trees. It's peoples' homes.

Look, I want to give you a better idea. If you look over here, you can see, completely removing homes from their foundations.

And we want to be respectful. This is someone's life scattered out along their front lawn. I spoke to the woman who lived there. She was inside that house with her daughter and her grandchildren.

She said it got dark, she saw trees that started flying out the window, and she rushed to get them to a safe place. They survived. They were uninjured. But she said the trauma they're experiencing from what they survived is very serious at this point.

There's another concern here in Nash County. I want you to look at this aerial footage we have of the Pfizer manufacturing plant in Rocky Mount. It took a serious hit from this tornado yesterday.

It's one of the largest employers here in Nash County. It is closed until further notice, we are told by officials

But perhaps even more serious that has supply chain experts concerned. This facility is one of the largest sterile injectable manufacturers in the entire world. It manufactures more than 25 percent of all sterile injectables used in hospitals in this country.

Pfizer said it is still assessing the damage, Boris. They do not -- or they're not ready at least to tell us exactly what was damaged and to what extent and how long they're going to have to be closed.

There are a lot of questions about what the impact may be, the ripple effect across the country, at hospitals. Especially, again, as supply chain experts say, we are already experiencing a drug shortage in this country. The fear is this may exacerbate it.

Here in Nash County, the concern is, again, it's one of the largest employers here.

There are people who right now are picking up pieces of their homes, trying to put their lives back together and recover from this. But there are also thousands of people here who aren't sure the next time they will be able to go back to work. That's a fear we spoke to a lot of people about here.

We saw people dropping off water and supplies at the Red Oak Baptist Church here for those who may need it. It is hot and they're out working and trying to salvage what they can at the moment.

SANCHEZ: Extensive damage there with potentially far-reaching effects.

Dianne Gallagher, in Nash County, North Carolina, thank you.

Brianna?

KEILAR: A really strange twist in what is already a strange mystery surrounding an Alabama woman who disappeared and then turned up days later saying she had been abducted. Police are now talking publicly about what Carlee Russell was searching for online before she vanished. We'll have those details next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:52:20]

KEILAR: Police in Alabama are expressing their doubts about Carlee Russell. She's the person who called 911 saying that she saw a toddler walking on the highway or near the highway and that she was going to stop and check on them.

Then, she went missing. And then she turned up two days later saying that she had been kidnapped, according to family members.

Now, police say they just cannot verify most of her initial statements. And they're revealing details about online searches that the 25-year-old made before all this happened.

CNN's Ryan Young is following what has become quite a few twists and turns here.

Ryan, tell us what you're learning.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, a lot of twists and turns, if you think about the 49 hours that are still unaccounted for. Where did the woman go for that period of time?

We talked about the 911 call, as she was driving down 495, she said she saw a toddler. We know that police used GPS to figure out that she still traveled another 600 yards, six football fields, before coming to a stop. So, they made the point of saying, if she was looking for a child, how could that happen?

Then they went into what she was searching on the Internet, from "Taken," to how to steal from work. All these put all of this into question.

In fact, listen to the chief talk about some of the details she told detectives.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICK DERZLE, CHIEF, HOOVER, ALABAMA, POLICE DEPARTMENT: She said the male had orange hair with a big bald spot on the back.

She said she was able to escape the 18-wheeler and fled on foot only to be captured again and put in a car. She claims she was blindfolded but was not tied up because the captor said he did not want to leave impressions on her wrists.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Yes, Brianna, what a story. When you think about this, she said she escaped more than once and, at some point, she ran through the woods and she was able to make it home.

But police also say she stopped at Target to buy snacks and took a robe from work and none of that was found inside the car where they found her wig, her Apple watch and her phone.

So, there are questions after all the man hours that were spent looking for this young lady. You've got to think, more than 50 officers, you had community members, you had a drone in the air, you had a canine unit from a neighboring police township trying to find her.

And all the Internet and the money that was put forth for someone to try to find this young lady. And all of this, the story did not add up. The parents were on television begging for her return.

And now we have all the questions and the fact that she has not talked to police after they requested to talk with her one more time.

So many questions in this. The Internet search, and searching "Taken" stood out in a lot of people's minds. This is something that a lot of people want to know what happened and why. We just don't know right now.

KEILAR: We're getting answers though that you shared with us there.

[13:55:00]

Ryan, thank you for that report.

Boris?

SANCHEZ: A federal grand jury investigating Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election is meeting right now. So, could the former president be indicted a third time? We're live outside the federal courthouse when CNN NEWS CENTRAL returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:00:01]

SANCHEZ: A federal grand jury meeting behind closed doors right now as they investigate former President Donald Trump's role in efforts to overturn the 2020 election.