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Over 1,000 Former DOJ Officials Call on Barr to Resign; Thousands of Democrats Turn Out for First-Day of Voting in Nevada; Fears Grow Over Potential Nevada Caucus Malfunction; 14 Americans Test Positive for Coronavirus After Being Evacuated; Evacuated Americans Share Video of Journey Home; One American Chooses to Stays in Japanese Cruise Ship; 99 New Cases of Coronavirus on Quarantined Ship in Japan. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired February 17, 2020 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:12]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Good Monday morning. I'm Erica Hill in for Poppy and Jim. Welcome to this special edition of CNN NEWSROOM.

We begin with breaking news this morning. Fourteen Americans just evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship have now tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Now they were part of a larger group of 300 U.S. citizens taken off that ship and flown overnight to military bases here in the United States. Just days before the evacuation, those same passengers had tested clear. They will now be kept in isolation.

Meantime back on board that ship, 99 additional people have tested positive for the virus today. That is the largest single-day jump yet. Here in the U.S., the clock actually restarts, even for those folks taken off the ship who still show no symptoms, it is now two more weeks in quarantine.

We're covering this breaking story with our team around the world and here in the U.S. Let's start with CNN correspondent Lucy Kafanov, who's in Fairfield, California, at Travis Air Force Base where one of those flights came in.

Lucy, good morning.

LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Erica, good morning. Both planes touching down overnight. The one in Texas just a few hours ago. The one right here in Travis late last night. Now we know that while the ordeal of being trapped in the Diamond Princess cruise ship since February 5th might be over, as you point out the clock restarts for all of those evacuees who just arrived.

The ones at the Travis Airfield behind me will be staying at a facility on the base called the West Wind Inn. It's also home to more than 230 evacuees, American evacuees, and their families, from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus. Even though all of the evacuees are staying in the same facility, the new ones will be kept separate so as not to infect the other passengers. Some of whom, the ones from Wuhan, are actually going to be released as early as tomorrow.

Now as for those 14 infected passengers, that's something that has a lot of folks shaking their heads because initially the U.S. said no one who is sick is allowed to board the evacuation flights. We're learning that it turns out that U.S. officials apparently found out that those 14 people were infected after those 14 passengers disembarked from the Diamond Princess cruise ship and were already on their way to the airport to get on those charter flights.

The decision was then made to allow them to board those planes. They were kept in a special isolated area. And it's unclear now whether they're going to remain on base or be taken to hospitals for more treatment. But again even though the folks here now are facing two more weeks in quarantine, it's probably a relief to be off that ship because as you point out overnight 99 new cases of the coronavirus.

A lot of questions about whether it's effective to keep people trapped on those ships for quarantine -- Erica.

HILL: It's certainly one of the questions being asked this morning. Lucy, thank you.

I also want to bring in CNN's Will Ripley who's live in Yokohama, Japan.

So, Will, several passengers have shared video of their trip home exclusively with CNN and you have a closer look at all of that for us.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Erica, yes. And really, look, these people have been through so much. And I know it's all relative and there are some people who say, OK, boohoo. They came -- went from a cruise ship, got on a plane. But, you know, imagine if you had spent tens of thousands, in some cases, of dollars for a luxury vacation that you have been saving up for, some people on their honeymoon, and then you end up stuck in your cabin, sometimes cabins without windows, for nearly two weeks.

And you're told repeatedly like more than a dozen times by the U.S. embassy that once you put in your time on the cruise ship, and that's it. You're free and clear and you can go home. Then you find out that the U.S. government is coming to your rescue, which is something that a lot of passengers have been calling for for days. They've been asking for the U.S. government to fly them out from the cruise ship because the number of cases has continued to spike.

I mean, look at the last three days. 67 cases on Saturday, 70 on Sunday, then 99 today. The largest single-day jump that we've seen to date. 169 cases in just the last 24 hours, the largest concentration of coronavirus anywhere in the world outside of mainland China. Yes, you can understand why people want to get off the boat. The CDC saying that people on the boat face a higher risk of infection. Fine.

But then they find out they're going to get on these flights, and then they're told that they have to do another quarantine. And frankly, it's such an emotional roller coaster where you can see the reaction of a woman from Utah who's been sending us a lot of these pictures from her journey home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAREY MANISCALCO, CRUISE SHIP PASSENGER: They have sent over a dozen e-mails assuring us that there would not be this additional quarantine. And they just told us that we'd be re-quarantined for 14 more days. I've just lost a whole month of my life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIPLEY: And this was not as simple as just getting off the ship onto some buses and onto a plane. It took almost 10 hours, Erica, for those passengers from the time they started disembarking from the ship.

[09:05:03]

They were sitting on those buses hours and hours. Maybe some of the delays were because they were learning of the 14 new cases. Either they were sitting on the buses or already on the way to the airport. But then they get on this plane and it's a cargo hold that they're sitting in that's been converted essentially. There's portable toilets, temporary seats that don't look particularly comfortable and they're sitting in really close proximity to other passengers.

And then they learn that there are 14 people on the plane who have tested positive who are being held in this kind of isolation chamber thing. And they hope it works. But, you know, you can understand people feeling pretty frazzled, feeling exhausted. But I can tell you that we've been text messaging with passengers for now at the air force base in -- at Travis Air Force Base in California. And, you know, they felt like once they landed, there is that sigh of relief.

You're back in your home country. You can -- you have doctors that you can actually communicate with easily, you can eat a hamburger maybe. And so hopefully this ordeal won't be quite so bad as the one that they just came from here in Japan.

HILL: We'll continue to follow it. Will, appreciate it as always. Thank you.

At least one American passenger chose to watch those buses leave for the planes to take his fellow passengers to the U.S. while he stayed on board the Diamond Princess.

Joining us via skype to explain why, quarantine passenger Matthew Smith.

Good to have you with us. It's a Monday this morning. You tweeted earlier today, and I'm quoting you here, "The decision not to be evacuated was the best decision ever." You tweet that out this morning. This morning we also learned that there are an additional 99 cases now on board the ship with you. Do you still stand by that decision?

MATTHEW SMITH, PASSENGER ON DIAMOND PRINCESS CRUISE SHIP: Absolutely. I stand by it because the Japanese health officials established the quarantine here. They are following through with their plan on that quarantine. And if they are comfortable letting us out with more than 1,000 Japanese citizens that are on board, then I'm good with that. And so I do stand by it. Because we're maintaining an isolation in our cabin that I know is sufficient to prevent any infections from here.

HILL: So you mentioned that you're maintaining that isolation in your cabin. Are you concerned at all, though, at these cases that are continually being reported? Again, 99 this morning on board.

SMITH: I'll tell you one reason why I'm not. I think a common misconception is that as cases are announced that somehow new infections, each announcement representing more recent infections. And I haven't seen any facts to bear that out. One reason for the jump in the number may be that the Japanese have brought on board additional labs to process tests. I don't know when the tests were taken. And so I don't know that the 90 is a new infection.

HILL: So it sounds like you're not concerned about how it may potentially be spreading. What kind of information are you getting from the Japanese in terms of information about these cases to your point, information about testing, or where they stand and how they are feeling about the quarantine? What are we telling you?

SMITH: Well, I'll tell you, we're not getting information on how many new cases there are. I'm not sure why that is. The captain provides us most of our information that he then relays information from the health officials. They originally were telling us the number of new cases and they stopped that. They just tell us that new additional cases of passengers are being disembarked to hospitals.

What we have in terms of the information of what the Japanese feel about their quarantine is that they are going forward with their plans, which were a 14-day quarantine and the only thing they said now is if you haven't been tested yet with a throat swab, you're going to have a throat swab. They were due to complete those all tonight. And then they're going -- if you come up negative and the 14 days are passed, they are going to let you off.

HILL: So I'm sure you're anxiously awaiting that day. Give us a sense, and I know you've said and anybody who's, you know, been following you on social media, you feel very fortunate. You have a larger cabin, you have access to the outside because you have a balcony. That's obviously not the case for everyone, especially in those interior cabins. But what does it mean for you to be quarantined on this ship for two weeks?

SMITH: It is nothing short of a completely surreal experience. And I told someone the other day, I thought it was like the episode of a 'Twilight Zone" inside an episode of "Outer Limits" in a painting by Salvador Dali because you can't ever imagine anything like this. And you feel light years away from two weeks ago when you were here on a luxury cruise.

HILL: And what sort of interaction do you have, even with staff, to get your meals? SMITH: Staff is all the interaction we have. Since we have the larger

balcony, we are not a part of the groups that go outside, so we have not intermingled with any passengers since before the quarantine was established.

[09:10:05]

If there are people outside on their balconies, we stay inside because we just want to maintain the best isolation that we can. The staff comes by at least three times a day, there are three meals served and there are additional deliveries with various other items, fresh towels, obviously, and other things.

HILL: Right.

SMITH: But the staff that works the halls are fully down to masks, gloves and carrying hand sanitizer, so we feel very comfortable in our interaction with them, which we keep free from in any event.

HILL: Matthew Smith, appreciate you taking the time to join us and we'll be checking in again. Thank you.

SMITH: OK. Thanks very much.

HILL: So you look at this situation, why do health officials believe it's a good idea to bring these now infected, as we've learned, some of them infected coronavirus patients, back to the U.S. especially as, as we're seeing here, more cases popping of we learned this morning despite the quarantine on board that ship?

CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now.

So, yes, help us put this all in perspective, Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. And perspective is absolutely what we need right now, Erica. So if you think back to Ebola, which is a way more dangerous disease than this one, we brought infected Americans back home. It's what the State Department does. They give people the option of what they want to do. The gentleman you just talked to is opting to stay on the ship. Other people are opting to get on that plane.

I think, you know, a question that is certainly on everyone's mind, and one of my colleagues, Lucy, referred to this a little bit ago, is why did we think that a quarantine on a cruise ship was going to work? Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institutes of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, addressed that point yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF ALLERGIES AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: If you want to stay in Japan, your last chance would be to get on the plane and leave or you stay there. When you come back to the United States, importantly, they are still subjected to a 14-day quarantine. And the reason for that is that the degree of transmissibility on that cruise ship is essentially akin to being in a hot spot. A lot of transmissibility on that cruise ship.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: All right. Dr. Fauci, we just heard him say that cruise ship was a hot spot. It's unclear why anyone thought that it was a good idea to use it as a quarantine. We heard the passenger just say to you, Erica, there's staff bringing him clean towels, there's staff bringing food. Well, that staff is not quarantined. They have to work to keep the laundry and the food and everything else on that ship working. So they're not in quarantine. Are they now spreading or have they been spreading this disease around? This hasn't been a full quarantine. If the staff is not quarantined, it's not a full quarantine.

HILL: Great points, Elizabeth. Appreciate the perspective as always. Thank you.

Still to come this morning, more than 1100 former prosecutors and other DOJ officials calling on Attorney General Bill Barr to resign. Why they say his actions have damaged the Justice Department.

And we are less than a week away now from the Nevada caucuses. Early voting already under way. So will it be anything like the chaos we saw in Iowa.

And nearly a million refugees, mostly women and children, fleeing the fighting in northern Syria. We'll take you inside their desperate journey to safety and bring you the story in a way only CNN can. Stay with us.

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[09:15:00]

ERICA HILL, ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: In a scathing unprecedented letter, more than 1,100 former DOJ officials are now calling on Attorney General, William Barr to resign. It comes as the Justice Department is under heavy scrutiny over its handling of recent high-profile cases involving associates of President Trump. Joining me now is CNN's Shimon Prokupecz. So, Shimon, the letter actually follows an extraordinary week, to put it mildly, at the Justice Department --

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME & JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, mildly --

HILL: But then seeing this come out, I mean, this really caps it off --

PROKUPECZ: I think you hit it right in the sense that this is unprecedented times. You have a Justice Department that's really in the middle of a political storm like they haven't seen in quite some time. You have the Attorney General now getting knocked around, basically -- even internally, we don't know everything internally. But there are a lot of people on high levels, all sorts of different levels, not just the line assistants, but on high levels of the Department of Justice who are very unhappy with what's going on. And so, what we saw this week, and also, unprecedented, you saw some

1,100 prosecutors, former prosecutors, senior level people at the Department of Justice, former folks with years and years of experience. You're talking about dozens and dozens of prosecutors with dozens of years of experience writing this letter, essentially calling for the Attorney General to resign.

But more importantly, what they say in this letter is that -- and just going to go ahead and read this part to you. It says that they call on "DOJ employees to follow the heroic example of those four prosecutes to resign from the case, and be prepared to report future abuses to the Inspector General, the Office of Professional Responsibility and Congress to refuse to carry out directives that are inconsistent with their oaths of office, and if necessary to resign and report publicly in a matter consistent with professional ethics."

Essentially, this is when you -- they're talking about folks resigning, if they feel that they're not -- that they're being asked to do things, walk out, report to the public -- much of what we've seen in other situations with people who work for the White House. They want folks to come out and tell the public exactly what's going on at the Department of Justice.

And for them, this is a very challenging time -- and you know, for the Justice system, this is a very challenging time because we're hearing so much of concern, not only from prosecutors, but there's also concern from the other side, from a lot of defense attorneys about what's going on. So, we'll see, tomorrow is a big day for the Roger Stone case, maybe there's a conference call.

HILL: Right --

PROKUPECZ: And then the sentencing is supposed to take place, Thursday, we'll see if that happens. So --

HILL: Yes --

PROKUPECZ: It's a big week ahead.

[09:20:00]

HILL: It's a big -- we'll see, you're right --

PROKUPECZ: Yes --

HILL: But definitely a big week ahead. Shimon --

PROKUPECZ: Yes --

HILL: Thank you. Also with us, Shan Wu; former federal prosecutor, Shan, you actually signed that letter along with some 1,100 other folks. I think the most important question that is, is why? Why did you put your name on that letter?

SHAN WU, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: I put my name on the letter because it's two reasons. It's a historic time, and I wanted to be on the right side of history. I want to be able to tell my two daughters that I did what I could at this very challenging time for our country. And number two, I know what it's like to be a prosecutor and it's a great job, but it's a hard job. It's very challenging.

And I wanted to show support for all of the DOJ employees, not just the prosecutors, but all of the employees who work every day, trying to get things right. And they need and they deserve the support of their leadership. And right now, the leadership is undermining them. So that's why I signed.

HILL: As Shimon was just telling us, that there is concern that goes up the food chain within the DOJ. And that folks in high-level positions are concerned about not only the integrity of the department, but the reputation of the department heading forward. In the letter, you call on folks who are seeing behavior or other instances they feel falls out of the norm, does not apply with the manual, the justice manual, that they call it out.

That they reported where it needs to be reported. Do you think that will have an impact, and do you think part two of that, people feel that they can especially on the heels of what we saw with the whistleblower, for example?

WU: I think it will have an impact because I think one of the hardest things for people in a whistle-blowing position is that they feel isolated. And I think the purpose of this letter which has, you know, a thousand or more people and the cumulative experience, you know, you're talking about in the hundreds of years. The purpose is to let them know that we have their backs.

Other people have been there, and share these views and they're not going to be isolated by themselves if they stand up. There are lots of mechanisms for doing that. The simplest is going to your own direct supervisor and telling them about your concerns. But there are mechanisms there, and hopefully, they'll feel that they have support behind them, they'll be able to go forward and stand up.

HILL: In response to the letter, Mark Meadows tweeted, "how many of these same officials claiming to be principled said a word about James Comey and Andy McCabe, and others who got caught red-handed by the IG report." What's your response to that?

WU: That's just very silly to raise it. I mean, the people who signed this are people who served in two different administrations. I served under both a Republican as well as a Democratic administration. And you know, you know, there's lots of talk about lack of bipartisanship. Well, here is a great example of bipartisanship. People who served on both parties, but their purpose in serving was the public service, and that's why they signed on to this letter.

HILL: Shan, you only get a yes or no. Do you think Barr will resign?

WU: No.

HILL: Shan, we always appreciate it, always good to talk to you my friend, thank you. WU: Good to see you.

HILL: Thousands of folks in Nevada casting their votes already ahead of Saturday's caucuses. New concerns though rising that the state could see some of the same chaos as Iowa.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:25:00]

HILL: The Nevada caucuses are just five days away and a strong turnout for early voting, could signal a successful showing for Democrats, more than 18,000 Nevada's Democrats showing up for the first day of early voting over the weekend. Many of them waiting in long lines for hours. There are still concerns this morning about the state's ability to report those results come Saturday.

The state's Democratic Party decided to scrap a pair of shadow ink apps in the wake of the Iowa caucus mess, and instead will use what it's calling a caucus calculator. Now, volunteers are actually still in the process of being trained on using that calculator. Joining me now, CNN political commentator and host of "You Decide" podcast, Errol Louis and Susan Paige; Washington Bureau Chief of "USA Today". Good to see you both this morning.

Errol Louis, we look at where we're at now, heading into Nevada, there are some concerns about how these results are going to be reported, how prepared folks are. What was learned, especially when we hear one Democratic aide actually put it this way to the "Washington Post", quote, "it feels like the state party is making it up as they go along. That's not how we need to be running an election." Do you think lessons were learned out of Iowa?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I don't think so. I think the lessons were observed, and I see this as frankly a car crash in the making. The level of difficulty, if you go through the rules, if you read through what they have posted online about how they're going to run this thing, I don't see any way this can possibly run smoothly, honestly, Erica.

Because they're doing early voting, which is a fine reform. It's great to sort of get those out first. But now, the information from that early vote has to be conveyed individually to every precinct in Nevada before they can really start to do this, and it's not clear how that's going to happen. They're going to be handing out iPads, they're going to be some pre-tabulated fields on a Google form, which is not even under the control, frankly, of the Democratic Party -- you know, if you're using an app like that.

And then they're going to start doing the regular caucus process of people changing lines, changing alliances, tabulating to see if they have 15 percent of whoever happens to be in the room plus the early vote. They've really raised the level of difficulty so high. We should not expect to get full and final results on Saturday.

HILL: Buckle up once again. At least you've warned us at this point, Errol, as we look at what's going to happen --

END