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Oklahoma Board of Education Approves Rule Requiring Families to Prove U.S. Citizenship When Enrolling Students; CDC Ordered to Cut Contact with WHO After Executive Order; Gazans Stream Home on Second Day of Open Crossing; Kansas Facing Worst Tuberculosis Outbreak in U.S. in Decades. Aired 3:30-4p ET
Aired January 28, 2025 - 15:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:30:00]
RYAN WALTERS, OKLAHOMA STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION: I support President Trump's decisions on how to enforce immigration policy.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: That's not what I asked.
WALTERS: You are asking me a question, a hypothetical, when we're dealing with potential criminals --
KEILAR: It's not hypothetical. You made it clear, Superintendent.
WALTERS: No, no, no. I told you about a terrorist in our school last year.
KEILAR: You said it's not hypothetical, sir.
WALTERS: I told you about a terrorist in our school last year, and your defense would say you wouldn't remove him because he's a terrorist in a school. Of course we're going to take it on a case-by- case basis. We're going to work with the Trump administration.
We have fentanyl deaths over 600 times up in our state. Of course we're going to deal with that.
KEILAR: I'm talking about children, sir.
WALTERS: The person arrested by Homeland Security as the terrorist in our school last year was a student. And so that's where it's so important to have this information, work with law enforcement. We're going to bring law and order back. It is sensible. It's common sense.
KEILAR: So you'll only remove -- are you saying you'll only remove --
WALTERS: Your viewers are going to hear that.
KEILAR: Are you saying you'll only remove children from schools if they are suspected terrorists?
WALTERS: I'm saying that we are going to work with the Trump administration to enforce their anti-illegal immigration policy. That includes giving them information about students in our schools, families enrolled in our schools, so they can make the decisions on how to deport families together and how to identify criminals in our school system.
KEILAR: Superintendent, thank you so much for being with us. Obviously, a lot of questions about how this is going to play out. A lot of people watching Oklahoma, a lot of people in Oklahoma with a lot of concern.
Superintendent Ryan Walters, thank you.
WALTERS: Thank you.
KEILAR: We'll be right back.
[15:35:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Effective immediately, all CDC staff are ordered to cut off communication with the World Health Organization. The directive came in a memo viewed by CNN. It says the stop work policy is in accordance with President Trump's executive order issued day one of his presidency withdrawing the United States from the UN- backed health agency.
Federal law requires one year of notice before U.S. support for the organization can be withdrawn. Trump's order claims that legal notice of withdrawal was given during his first term, back in 2020. So this withdrawal can happen immediately.
Let's discuss with CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner. Doctor, thanks so much for sharing your afternoon with us. Zooming out, what has been the benefit of coordination between the CDC and the WHO, and have there been any issues with it?
DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: All right, so let's start with what the CDC is charged with in the United States. They're charged with basically protecting the health of this country. And to do that, they partner with worldwide agencies like the WHO, whose mission is to promote global health security.
And the World Health Organization is on the ground in places around the world where it's hard for the United States to operate. And the World Health Organization, in conjunction with the CDC, in the past year, for instance, has been instrumental in putting out a Marburg outbreak in Africa, again, working to suppress the Mpox outbreak in Africa. There's currently an outbreak of Marburg in Tanzania.
And the United States works with the World Health Organization to suppress these outbreaks and keep those, you know, potential pathogens from coming to the United States.
I think, you know, the CDC wears many hats, but I think one of the most important hats it wears is that of an intelligence agency. And the intelligence it gets in terms of worldwide health threats to this country, in many cases, comes from the WHO.
I think the Trump administration has had a lot of issues, perhaps, with the handling sort of the worldwide management of the COVID-19 pandemic. And potentially how cozy the World Health Organization has been to China. But if the U.S. pulls out of the World Health Organization, it's going to leave a big void. And who's going to fill that void? Is it China?
SANCHEZ: It is a significant question. And you're right, the administration is citing mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, a failure to adopt reforms, an inability to remain independent, as you said. I do wonder if the administration is seeking to perhaps persuade the WHO into reforms or move them in a certain way, if this is the most effective method.
And also what you make of those claims. Are those claims well-founded?
REINER: Well, I think if you look at some of the statements made by the World Health Organization in the early weeks of the pandemic, they were strangely supportive and laudatory of the Chinese, you know, efforts in the early days of the pandemic. And I think the World Health Organization is an imperfect entity, but they are a crucial partner for the United States.
For instance, next month, the CDC and the World Health Organization are scheduled to meet to talk about influenza strains that should be included in U.S. vaccines for next year. So again, this kind of collaborative health intelligence is crucial to the health of the United States. And I think pulling out of the World Health Organization threatens the health of the United States.
[15:40:05]
Look, the CDC, in conjunction with organizations like the World Health Organization, try to keep these sort of mini-outbreaks of really lethal agents like Marburg virus, which is a very nasty cousin of Ebola, from coming to the United States. And if we've learned anything from the COVID pandemic is that it doesn't take long for pathogens, new viruses, to travel around the world. We're interconnected. There's no way to close the door. You know, and trying to sort of pull back, you know, into our borders and pull out of organizations like the World Health Organization is like locking a screen door.
SANCHEZ: Dr. Jonathan Reiner, very much appreciate you sharing your perspective with us.
REINER: My pleasure. Thank you.
SANCHEZ: Still to come, thousands of Palestinians displaced by the war in Gaza are returning home now as the Hamas ceasefire and hostage deal with Israel continues to hold. We have a live report for you from Tel Aviv in just a few minutes.
[15:45:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KEILAR: Right now, bittersweet moments in Gaza. It is day two of Israel's reopening of the corridor that divides northern and southern Gaza, and tens of thousands of Palestinians are returning to their homes for the first time in months. Many of their neighborhoods are completely devastated, reduced to rubble in the war between Israel and Hamas.
But now, President Trump announcing from Air Force One that he'd like to see Palestinians living somewhere else.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... more than a million and-a-half people moved out of there ...
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I'd like to get them living in an area where they can live without disruption and revolution and violence so much.
It's -- it's -- you know, when you look at the Gaza Strip, it's been hell for so many years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Trump also says he plans to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu very soon.
CNN's Jeremy Diamond has more from Tel Aviv.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, discussions are underway for Prime Minister Netanyahu to travel to Washington and meet with President Trump. We're told that this meeting could happen as early as next week, but it's certainly expected in the coming weeks. If so, Netanyahu would be the first foreign leader to travel to the White House to meet with President Trump since his inauguration.
And that, of course, speaks to the importance of that relationship for both men, really. This potential meeting would come at a critical time, not only as the ceasefire in Gaza has now taken hold, as Israel and Hamas prepare to negotiate the next phases of the ceasefire. And questions abound about whether or not the ceasefire will be extended beyond the six weeks and whether all of the remaining hostages being held in Gaza can ultimately be released.
The Israeli Prime Minister also has strategic foreign policy goals that he would like to achieve. There are discussions, of course, in Israel about whether Israel would carry out strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities. We know the Israeli Prime Minister obviously wants the U.S. president's support for that.
And President Trump has been eying this broader regional cooperation between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Netanyahu is also at a pretty precarious political moment as well, as his right-wing coalition expressed opposition to the ceasefire agreement that we are now in. Meeting with Trump could help him shore up some of the support that he has been losing from the right wing of Israeli politics.
Now, beyond that, we know that the Israeli government has now learned from Hamas that eight of the 33 hostages set to be released during this first phase of the agreement are indeed dead. Israel has not confirmed exactly which of those hostages are among the eight but obviously has transmitted to some of the families that they have serious concerns about the fate of their loved ones.
We are expecting three hostages to be released this coming Thursday, including one of the last female civilian hostages being held in Gaza, Arbel Yehud, and the last female Israeli soldier, Agam Berger, both set to be released alongside a third hostage on Thursday and three more hostages set to be released on Saturday.
Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Tel Aviv.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: And still ahead, health officials in Kansas City, Kansas area are racing to contain the worst known outbreak of tuberculosis that the U.S. has seen in decades. We'll have that next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Right now, dozens of people in the Kansas City, Kansas area are being treated for active tuberculosis infections. Officials are calling it the largest documented TB outbreak since the 1950s. At least two people have died since the first cases were reported more than a year ago.
Let's get the latest from CNN health reporter Jacqueline Howard. Jacqueline, how big is this outbreak and what are officials saying about the potential for it spreading even further?
JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: Boris, what we know so far about this outbreak, officials in Kansas say that so far there have been at least 67 people who've been confirmed to have active tuberculosis infections and 79 people have latent infections, meaning that they're infected but it's not causing disease, they're not getting sick, so they're not able to spread the bacteria to others.
But Boris, as you mentioned, as part of this outbreak, sadly two lives have been lost and this is an ongoing outbreak, an active investigation. Officials do say that there could be more cases out there but the overall risk to the general public is still very low.
For this to spread, you really need prolonged close contact and we also know that the cases that have been identified are being treated and health officials in Kansas say they're working with and following CDC guidance. But again, Boris, this is ongoing so we can expect to hear more from Kansas health officials moving forward.
SANCHEZ: Yes, undoubtedly a situation to continue monitoring. I also wonder how these new changes from the Trump administration regarding health communications might be impacting the situation there and in other places.
HOWARD: Exactly. That's something that experts are kind of questioning and discussing at the moment because when we see outbreaks like this, we sometimes do expect to hear from federal health agencies and we have not heard information from the federal level regarding the outbreak in Kansas.
[15:55:00]
Again, health officials in Kansas say that they are working with and following CDC guidance, but many experts are saying that when we see outbreaks like this it's helpful to get that national voice, to get that perspective on what this means nationally. So that is a discussion, Boris, that's happening among experts at the moment, kind of thinking, discussing, and speculating how does the current halt on communications, how is that playing out with this current tuberculosis outbreak?
SANCHEZ: Jacqueline Howard, thanks so much for the update.
When we come back, the Gulf of America is now Google official. We'll discuss.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: A sea of change is coming to Google Maps. The online giant says it's going to comply with President Trump's executive action that renames the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.
[16:00:00]
SANCHEZ: In a post on X, Google explained that it has a long-standing practice of applying name changes when they've been updated in official government sources. The name will be tweaked when the geographic names information system is updated. Google apparently also is going to change the name of Mount McKinley, the nation's highest peak from Denali.
Remember, former President Barack Obama renamed the Alaska landmark to Denali in 2015 as a nod to the region's native population who had been calling it that for way longer than anybody had called it Mount McKinley.
KEILAR: That's right. And "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts now.
END
