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Coronavirus Cruise Ship Quarantine Continues; Interview with Trump Campaign Advisor Mercedes Schlapp; Trump Ends Trusted Traveler Programs for New York State Residents. Aired 10:30-11a ET
Aired February 06, 2020 - 10:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[10:31:26]
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: Here in the United States, 12 people are infected with coronavirus, just a few of the more than 28,000 cases now around the world. The latest person diagnosed in this country is now isolated at home in Wisconsin, after being exposed to the virus in China.
Hundreds of Americans are now quarantined at military bases, in California, after returning to the States from China on two flights, chartered by the U.S. government. Two more chartered flights carrying U.S. citizens will arrive at military bases in Texas and Nebraska a little bit later today.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: Governments around the world, taking some pretty draconian steps now. Overseas, two cruise ships with more than 7,000 passengers are now quarantined off the coast of Hong Kong and Japan, some 400 Americans among those passengers. And three Americans in the ship near Yokohama, Japan have now tested positive for the coronavirus.
CNN's Will Ripley joins us from there now, live. Will, how long are they going to be confined on these ships? And what are the conditions like there?
WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Jim. At least 14 days, is what people are being told. And, you know, you mentioned 12 cases in all of the United States? There are at least 20 confirmed cases on the Diamond Princess cruise ship behind me.
You have 3,700 people on there in very close quarters, and all of the remaining healthy passengers -- and keep in mind, there are still, you know, more than a hundred samples that haven't been tested yet. So that number, which doubled from 10 to 20 in one day, could very easily continue to rise.
But the rest of the people on board that ship are telling us, they don't really feel safe there. They say they don't mind being quarantined, but they don't want to be quarantined, first of all, in these often very tiny and cramped cruise ship cabins. If you've ever taken a cruise, the cabin is where you sleep and, you know, change clothes, and then you get out into the public areas, you enjoy the shows and all of the different amenities on the ship.
But those are all shut down on the cruise ship. People have had to stay inside their rooms. You know, they're trying to figure out how to bring everybody their food, breakfast has been arriving sometimes 2:00 in the afternoon, you know, with staff members in full protective gear and goggles.
HARLOW: Oh my God.
SCIUTTO: Jesus.
RIPLEY: You know, passengers are understandably uncomfortable. And, yes, things could be a lot worse. But, you know, things certainly aren't getting any better on that ship, or the one in Hong Kong.
SCIUTTO: Wow, wow --
HARLOW: Wow, that's amazing --
SCIUTTO: -- that's amazing.
HARLOW: I mean, I've been on cruise ships, and most of those cabins are on the interior and they are tiny, they are -- they are tiny, tiny cabins. Well, what --
RIPLEY: No windows.
HARLOW: No windows, tiny, tiny quarters. What can you tell us about that second ship that's being quarantined, just south of you off the coast of Hong Kong?
RIPLEY: So that is a little bit of a different case, Poppy. Because unlike this ship, where you actually have people testing positive for coronavirus on board, on that cruise line, it was actually passengers on a previous cruise that ended up testing positive for coronavirus. Therefore, as a precaution, they have, you know, the ship -- it's the World Dream -- just kind of sitting there in Victoria Harbor right now.
What this really does is it shines a light on, one, the vulnerability of passengers when they're on a cruise ship because of the fact that you're breathing in the same air, you're around people in very close proximity, that's why these viral illnesses tend to spread so quickly on cruise ships.
Which is really frightening in the scenario that we're seeing right now where you have this virus, to which there is no known cure or treatment at the moment. You know, they're still testing. And so that's obviously very unnerving for the people who are now quarantined on these ships.
And also, you know, a lot of the people who have been dying from coronavirus are people over the age of 60, the vast majority. And guess who's the most popular demographic for cruises like this? Senior citizens.
SCIUTTO: Yes. Just what an experience for them. Will Ripley, good to have you there, thanks very much.
[10:35:00]
Well, with the impeachment trial now behind him, President Trump, shifting his focus to 2020. Next, we're going to have one of the president's senior campaign advisors to take us through what we can expect from him on the campaign trail.
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SCIUTTO: Welcome back. President Trump, attacking Democrats and Republican Senator Mitt Romney, one day after his impeachment trial in the Senate ended with his acquittal.
A short time ago, at the National Prayer Breakfast, the president called into question Romney's faith. Of course, Romney cited his faith as a reason for him making the decision to vote to convict President Trump.
But as impeachment moves into the rearview mirror, the president is about to ramp up his re-election push, one official telling CNN to expect at least one rally a week, now, for the rest of the year.
Joining me now, Mercedes Schlapp, she's senior advisor to the Trump 2020 campaign. Mercedes, appreciate you taking the time this morning.
MERCEDES SCHLAPP, SENIOR ADVISOR, TRUMP 2020 CAMPAIGN: Thank you for having me.
SCIUTTO: I want to start with the president's comments at the Prayer Breakfast. Normally, meant to be something of a respectful event although, let's be honest, it's been political in the past. But the president, taking it in a direction here, attacking Romney and calling into question, it seems, his faith or the reason he gave -- his faith -- as making this decision here.
I wonder, do you question Mitt Romney's faith?
SCHLAPP: I don't question his faith. I think that it's kind of odd that he would use his faith as an excuse to go after the president, especially when we know that there's a personal vendetta against the president. You know, we know Mitt Romney --
[10:40:04]
SCIUTTO: How do you know that?
SCHLAPP: -- has been envious of the president's success. Well, I mean, it's very clear. Look, Mitt Romney has decided that he is going to be that outlier in the Republican Party, and go against the president. That is just where he has positioned himself. He wants to be more accepted by the Acela corridor and be the senator of the Acela corridor rather than the senator of Utah.
So there is definitely the sense, with Romney, that he has, from the beginning, even before President Trump was elected, that he was going to use his faith, his moral ground to make the case against the president even being elected in the first place.
SCIUTTO: Well, listen, to be fair, he did sit down with the president as he considered him for secretary of state early on.
But, yes, he was the only Republican to vote --
SCHLAPP: Right, he asked for specific favors from the president, so he wanted the president to endorse him for his Senate bid because there was a conservative who was running against him in the primary, and the president stood by Mitt Romney.
And, yes, they did meet at that moment for the secretary of state --
SCIUTTO: OK.
SCHLAPP: -- position. And it just shows that he -- Mitt Romney has no loyalty.
SCIUTTO: Well, he made a case that he was having loyalty to his faith.
But let's set that aside for a moment because Mitt Romney was not the only Republican senator who criticized -- let's be clear -- the president's behavior here. And you had several Republican senators -- Susan Collins, Lamar Alexander, Rob Portman -- saying, even as they voted to acquit the president, that his behavior was inappropriate and that they believed the president learned a lesson from impeachment.
Did the president learn a lesson here?
SCHLAPP: Look, the president did no wrong. And I think for these senators, they -- you know, they have the right to have their opinion on this matter. But you've got to ask the question, does this rise to the level of impeachment? Were the senators going to say, let's just lower the standards of impeachment so pretty much anything stands up to those high crimes and misdemeanors standards, which impeachment calls for. Or removal, in this case.
And it just is, I think, very disappointing --
SCIUTTO: But that's --
SCHLAPP: -- when you look at the facts, these -- Democrats said there was overwhelming evidence. The senators reviewed the evidence and it was very clear that the Democrats --
SCIUTTO: Well, no.
SCHLAPP: -- couldn't even get a majority on this issue.
SCIUTTO: There's a difference there because they said the behavior was inappropriate, did not meet the standard.
And I just want to say, Senator Ted Cruz -- who, at least for the last couple years has been a strong defender of the president -- he bluntly told the White House, according to a story on CNN this morning, to drop the claim there was no quid pro quo. A quote in that story, "'Out of a hundred senators, zero believe you on the argument there is no quid pro quo,' Cruz said, and told the defense to stop making it.'"
I mean, no quid pro quo is central to the president's defense there. So what it appears, is that yes, they said it didn't meet the standard for high crimes and misdemeanors, but that it was a quid pro quo and that it was inappropriate. What's your response?
SCHLAPP: Again, you know these senators are going to have their own opinions on this matter. But what we know are the facts, and that's that the president was transparent from day one. We know that the president of Ukraine made it very clear that he felt, quote-unquote, "no pressure" on the call. And thirdly is the fact that they got the military aid, something that President Obama never gave them.
So we know that the foreign aid was released, and we can go and start rehashing these details over and over again --
SCIUTTO: We do know --
SCHLAPP: -- what we know to be fact, Jim, is that these Democrats, from day one, have made a decision to start this cycle of investigations. This is what they started since the president was elected.
SCIUTTO: Just --
SCHLAPP: Six of those seven House managers have said that they wanted the president impeached. So this is their political strategy.
If the Democrats want to continue down this --
SCIUTTO: I get --
SCHLAPP: -- road of impeachment and political strategy, they will continue to lose independent voters who are very tired, and even those disgruntled Democrats --
SCIUTTO: OK, that's -- before we get to that, because I do --
SCHLAPP: -- who are very tired with these political games by the Democrats.
SCIUTTO: I do want to ask about 2020. But point of fact, Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, he made the point that it was congressional authority and threats that got the administration to release that aid, not the president's desire. That the Congress threatened they were going to pass legislation to require it because they had already authorized that aid.
But let's get to 2020 here. Because we should note that even in the midst of this divisiveness, Democrats and Republicans actually voted together on USMCA -- of course the priority of the president -- but also judicial reform here. And I wonder, as folks at home listen here, are there, do you believe, areas of agreement between the president in Election Year and Democrats? Legislation that they could agree on this year.
SCHLAPP: Look, I would hope so. When -- during my time at the White House, what we encountered was Democrat obstruction. We worked -- we tried to work with them on a comprehensive immigration reform, and the Democrats didn't want to work with us on this issue. We wanted to work with them on infrastructure, and Nancy Pelosi walked out of the room.
So we have tried to work with the Democrats on these issues. We -- actually, we were thrilled that finally, USMCA got off of the desk of Nancy Pelosi, and it was finally passed. Why? Because those Democrats in those key states were saying, my guy -- you know, my constituents need it, we need this to get done.
[10:45:18]
During my time in Iowa, I'll tell you, I spoke to hundreds of individuals and they basically were saying, every time you mention USMCA, it was a big win. It was a big win for the president, but most importantly, it was a big win for this country and for our farmers.
SCIUTTO: Yes. And a rare case of bipartisanship, we should note.
Final question, because --
SCHLAPP: Yes.
SCIUTTO: -- Stephanie Grisham, of course, the spokesperson for the White House, was just on the air on another network, a short time ago. And she said, in response to particularly Romney's vote here, but in her view, the people should pay for opposing the president on this. Do you know what exactly was -- she's threatening there? She threatening payback for a senator like Mitt Romney, for instance?
SCHLAPP: The payback is that the president is going to win re- election in 2020. I will tell you, there are Democrats out there, there are independents out there who are tired with the political shams of these Democrats. They are wasting the people's time, wasting our tax dollars.
Let's get back to the business of the people, let's find common ground and work on big initiatives like infrastructure, like bringing down drug -- prescription drug prices. There is so many areas that we can work on.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
SCHLAPP: The problem is, is that the Democrats are going to have to let go of their obsession with trying to remove this president. The same way Nancy Pelosi ripped up the president's State of the Union speech, is the same way that these Democrats asked the Senate to rip up the ballots of millions of Americans. They need to stop that --
SCIUTTO: OK, we should --
SCHLAPP: -- and let's get back to work.
SCIUTTO: Point of fact, that there has been a bill for drug prices but hasn't moved, and Democrats supported that.
But, Mercedes Schlapp, I do appreciate the time and hope we can have you back on the program soon.
SCHLAPP: Thank you so much.
HARLOW: Travelers in New York, now feeling the impact of a new Trump administration policy that specifically targets New York residents. What prompted the decision and what the state plans to do about it.
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HARLOW: Sad news to report. This just in to CNN, the Chinese whistleblower doctor who warned the public about coronavirus in December of last year has died as a result of it.
SCIUTTO: Yes. He tried to get the word out early, he was silenced, to some degree, by the government there. Let's go live to Beijing, CNN's David Culver.
David, your team was in touch with this doctor early on. Tell us what happened here.
DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, that's right. My producer (INAUDIBLE), who's in the room right here. I mean, this is shocking for a lot of people here.
In fact, Jim and Poppy, one of my colleagues says that they have never seen a time when Chinese social media was so unanimous in mourning a loss. This is exploding right now on Chinese social media.
This guy, back in December, he sent a WeChat group message, just to his friends, colleagues, classmates from his medical school. It got screenshot and it went viral.
He, instead of getting praised for discovering what he thought was a SARS-like illness going around, got pulled in by police, told, do not ever say this, keep quiet. Well, that ended up leaking, once we found out this was actually something. Even the supreme court in China vindicated him towards the end of his life now.
I mean, it's just incredible to see the outpouring, even the World Health Organization, Jim and Poppy, speaking out on his behalf.
SCIUTTO: Just a shame.
HARLOW: I'm so sorry -- so sorry to hear that --
CULVER: Yes.
HARLOW: -- and his efforts meant so much, right? He was trying against the government, against all odds to get the word out about the enormity and the gravity of this. David, thank you for that. SCIUTTO: Well, this morning, a new Trump administration rule is
affecting every New York State resident enrolled or trying to enroll in what's known as Trusted Traveler Programs such as Global Entry, speed you through immigration. The Department of Homeland Security is now banning those residents from participating in those programs.
HARLOW: The acting DHS secretary says this is because of New York's Green Light Law that allows undocumented immigrants to apply for driver's licenses.
Our national correspondent Brynn Gingras is at JFK International Airport, here in New York, with more. What can you tell us?
BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Poppy and Jim. I can tell you that we have seen a steady stream of people coming here to JFK, arriving for their appointments, some scheduled months ago, and getting turned away by officials here on the ground, with very little explanation of what is happening.
And that's really not all that surprising, considering even, we've learned from sources, that officials on the ground weren't told about this policy change until late last night. And this is really after the fact of the acting Department of Homeland Security, acting secretary Chad Wolf, going on "Fox News" and explaining this letter that he sent to the New York DMV about this policy, the changes in this policy.
Now, who is it affecting? Well, it's going to affect four different Trusted Traveler programs including Global Entry: the people that are applying to this program, and also those people who are trying to re- enroll in this program. So those, to be clear, who already have their Global Entry of TSA PreCheck, for example, as well, they're not going to be affected.
Now, the reasoning in this letter that Wolf gives -- or the department gives is essentially saying, in response to the Green Light Law that went into effect here, in New York, back in December. That law allows undocumented immigrants -- as, Poppy, you said -- the right to get a motor vehicle license, a DMV license without giving all that information to immigration officials.
And this is in response to that, the administration essentially saying that they can't do the proper background checks in order to give approval to these specialized programs, also saying it will impede, quote, "ICE's objective of protecting the people of New York from menacing threats to national security and public safety."
[10:55:11]
Of course, the governor, aware of this letter, and now also saying this is political retaliation and looking into possible legal implications of all of this -- guys, back to you.
SCIUTTO: Yes, it does raise a hard question about the politics of this because if you've already been through the process and approved --
GINGRAS: Yes.
SCIUTTO: -- how would the state's broader policy affect that?
Brynn Gingras, we know we'll continue to follow the story.
We are expecting to hear from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in just minutes. It's the first time she will take questions from reporters since the Senate acquitted President Trump.
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