Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Gold Star Mother Reacts To Russian Bounty Allegations; FDA Says Coronavirus Vaccines Need 50 Percent Efficacy Or Better; Oklahoma Police Officer Dies After Traffic Stop Shooting. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired July 01, 2020 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: A hoax created to hurt him and the Republican Party, a hoax created by journalists, he says. He also spent a lot of time tweeting his own post this morning, including this where he uses a racial slur once again, against Elizabeth Warren, saying that he's going to veto a defense spending bill if it contains an amendment to strip the names of Confederate generals from U.S. military bases, which I believe had bipartisan support.

But nothing on the exponential surge of coronavirus cases across the country. CNN's Kaitlan Collins, she's joining me now for more on this. Kaitlan, when you kind of take this in total, is the President trying to ignore the pandemic? Is he given up?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I think in the President's view, he's trying to move on from it and put the pandemic behind him. We've seen that in recent weeks as he's tried to get back to this normal presidential schedule.

But, you know, what's notable about this, Kate, is that the stark contrast you're seeing from his own health official as they testified on Capitol Hill yesterday, issuing these blunt concerning warnings about where they think the country is going, which Dr. Fauci said is the wrong direction.

And then the silence from the President on this where he's not even, you know, pretending to put this at the top of his priority list. And it's, you know, for the last several months, of course, Vice President Pence has been in charge of the Coronavirus Task Force. That's something the White House often points to.

But for the President to be totally silent in the last few days, as we've seen such a sea change around the country with these cases, surging these infections surging and rising across the country states having to reverse or pause they're reopening. Certainly something not the administration wanted to see. And the Vice President going to visit the areas that are hardest hit like Arizona, where he's in today.

And the President just has not matched that messaging coming from health officials or even come close to doing so. One of the things he did tweet about this morning was that press conference from Joe Biden yesterday, accusing him of using teleprompter when he was taking questions from reporters.

But Kate, what he notably did not respond to was the crux of Joe Biden's criticism against him, which is he was basically mocking the President for saying he was this viewed himself as this wartime President because of the pandemic. And Joe Biden saying that he believes that he has surrendered that and he is in retreat.

And basically saying that he has led Americans down with his leadership on the pandemic by washing his hands of it and putting it behind him, that is scathing criticism coming from someone that the President is going to be up against for election in just a few months. And the President did not respond to that in any substantial way today, as he was tweeting those multiple tweets, you know, in the early hours before 8:00 a.m.

BOLDUAN: Kaitlan, appreciate it. Thanks for putting all together, really appreciate it.

So while Washington is debating, and there's still a lot to be learned about the intelligence behind the alleged Russian bounty plot. The President has made his opinion very clear, as I mentioned off the top. He's calling it a hoax. He is saying that he -- first, he said he wasn't briefed. And then the White House says he did get briefed.

And now he says he doesn't believe the intelligence and that it was a hoax created by journalists, reporters, the media. One gold star mother has a very different view, Becky Whetstone. She tweeted this, my son was a marine killed in Afghanistan. If I learned Russia put a bounty on his life and the U.S. didn't take serious, decisive action, then hell hath no fury like a mother scorned. Bless the families who face this reality.

Lance Corporal Benjamin Whetstone Schmidt, he was just 24 years old when he was killed in Afghanistan in a friendly -- and friendly -- by friendly fire in 2011. His mother, Becky Whetstone, she's joining me right now. Thank you so much for being here, first and foremost. Thank you for your service and for the service of your entire family.

I read your tweet today and I have to say it, one, broke my heart. And I think that was the conclusion of everyone who read it. But also it reminded me of something that must not be lost in this, the men and women and their families that are serving our country overseas right now in harm's way. What was your reaction when you started seeing the reporting that was coming out, the reaction from the President that he -- the intelligence was in his brief? He says he didn't know about it -- he didn't know anything about it.

BECKY WHETSTONE, SON KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN IN 2011: Well, I think when a gold star parent hear something like that, it terrifies us because we need -- we families and our loved ones need to know that they are being taken care of that the -- that they will not come into harm's way.

And so when I heard this, I'm thinking OK, so this situation happened. We need to know, what are you going to do about it so it will never happened again? And that's what all of our -- all of us who've lost loved ones overseas, we -- they usually died because of something -- some mistake or something. And we need the peace that comes with knowing that that situation was resolved and it's never going to happen again.

[12:35:16]

So when he's denying it, and saying he didn't know about it, it scares us because it makes us think that, you know, if he's not in charge of keeping our loved ones safe, then who is? I see him like a captain of a ship. And it's like he's saying he didn't know about this major threat. But he's going to take us on a ride on his boat, yet he's not going to check the weather or look at his maps to keep us out of harm's way.

So, it makes us all not feel comfortable with our children, our loved ones serving and that they're keeping them as safe as possible and that it's something like this can come up, there's going to be no consequences to it. We need to see the action.

BOLDUAN: Yes. And does it -- it is -- it was striking as I've watched this over the past couple days to notice that the President has not addressed military families since this all started coming out. He's called it a hoax. But he has said nothing to the effect of what I've heard from other leaders, which is, if this assessment would bear out, then I'm going to do this or I promise this or here is my message to those serving overseas right now. Does that bother you?

WHETSTONE: It bothers me. We need someone who's strong that reassures us they're on top of intelligence, that they're doing everything they can to keep our loved ones out of harm's way. So when something comes up like this, and we're hearing not only is he denying that it's even real, he has no plan to do anything about it, like actions need to have consequences.

You know, when my son was killed, what I needed to know, you're going to feel anguish your whole entire life. But you will feel a little better if you find out that whatever situation happened that killed your child is not going to be -- it's not going to happen again or that there will be justice.

So when I when I read about this situation, I thought, we need justice. We need to know that this is taken care of. Otherwise, we don't feel like our loved ones are safe serving under you.

BOLDUAN: And it has me thinking and it's almost impossible to have to think this question, which is, if you had found out that your son had a bounty on him, and the President didn't do anything about it, I don't know -- what would you do?

WHETSTONE: Well, you know, it -- what comes with that is rage. You know, many gold star parents do feel rage that -- there's been a lot of injustices for many of us in the deaths of our children and stuff and we feel rage, you know. And so that's kind of what happens. And I don't know what the answer is for it.

You know, I remember back in George Bush's day when some gold star, I think it was a gold star mom or a military mom used to like camp out at the entrance of Bush's house to try and, you know, remind him that there's human beings that are -- that have loved ones and that are serving and just keep remind the human side to it.

So, you know, the only thing that will lessen that rage is to know that whatever mess happened, it's mopped up, fix it, resolve it, so we won't think our loved ones died in vain. If my son was killed with this bounty thing and there was no consequences to it, I need to know that something good came out of it. I need to know that no other family is going to suffer like we have.

So, you know, you're hoping that this will be fixed and resolved. And that's the good that comes out of it. But in a situation like this, there's no resolution. There's no social justice, you know. So it's, it's extremely nauseating. I mean, I want to say the feeling I had about the whole thing was just nausea, because that's what gold star families feel when they hear of another maiming, another death, or a situation where their loved ones didn't have the equipment or didn't have the management or whatever that kept them as safe as they can possibly be.

BOLDUAN: Yes. And your beautiful son, Lance Corporal Benjamin Whetstone Schmidt, he has not forgotten, his service was not in vain. And thank you for your service. And thank you for coming on today. It's never easy, but thank you.

WHETSTONE: Thank you for giving us a voice.

[12:39:51]

BOLDUAN: Thank you. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: Pfizer announcing today positive early data from its coronavirus vaccine trial, 45 people took part in the study. And according to Pfizer, the side effects reported for pain in the injection site fever or sleep disturbances. And according to the drug maker, antibodies were found in every patient who received the vaccine either 28 days after receiving a large single dose or seven days after receiving a second smaller dose.

This all comes as the FDA is announcing that any potential vaccine will need to have and show at least 50 percent efficacy, that from the Food and Drug Administration.

Joining me right now is Dr. Paul Offit. A man who knows a lot about vaccines, he's the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. It's good to see you again, Doctor. Your reaction to this early data from Pfizer on their vaccine trial?

DR. PAUL OFFIT, CO-DEVELOPER OF ROTAVIRUS VACCINE: We'll, again, it's an early data. So you know that they had very good immune responses, immune responses that neutralize the virus, that's great. We still don't know whether or not that means that you're protected against the disease. And we're only going to know that when you do the so called big pros effective placebo control, a phase three trial that involves about 30,000 people.

So but it's good, it's good. And the side effects weren't trivial. I mean, you had as many as half people -- 50 percent of people developing fever, and then the symptoms associated with fever, like headache and muscle pain and chill. So, but again, when you're trying to prevent a disease that's killing hundreds of people every day, you know, a day of fever is not, it's not a big deal.

BOLDUAN: So talk to me that about this announcement from the Food and Drug Administration, that any vaccine is going to need to show at least 50 percent efficacy, is 50 percent low? Can you explain what that means?

[12:45:04]

OFFIT: Yes, 50 percent is low. It means that half the people that get the vaccine would be protected against moderate to severe disease, meaning that you would be protected from being hospitalized or protected from dying. So that, you know, not bad, but I think we can do much better than that.

As Dr. Fauci said yesterday, he thought that this vaccine could be about 75 percent effective, which I think is probably closer to the truth. Remember, the flu vaccine is about 50 percent effective. But you're protecting against the disease that this year in the United States caused about 50 million cases, 700,000 and up to 60,000 deaths. So, even 50 percent is still in advance.

BOLDUAN: So what does it actually mean because I was going to ask you how it compares to other vaccines that we see? So if the flu vaccine is about 50 percent, like how effective is the rotavirus which you developed or the measles vaccine, like how does it compare in the scope of very huge diseases that that we've been able to develop effective vaccines for?

OFFIT: It would be very low. That's why I think we can do better. If you look at the measles vaccine, if your two doses of measles vaccine, 97 percent of people are protected against any form of disease for the rest of their life, the rotavirus vaccine also that 90 percent, the human papillomavirus vaccine also in the mid 90 percent range.

So those are fairly typical vaccines, the flu vaccine is low and we can do better with this vaccine than 50 percent.

BOLDUAN: And overarching all of this I've been wanting to ask you about your very interesting opinion piece that you wrote recently in the "New York Times" about concerns that with what you're seeing from the administration that the President could push for a vaccine and try to pressure it to be pushed through for political purposes quickly. Does what you're hearing come out of the FDA does this -- does it make you feel any better or worse?

OFFIT: No. Dr. Stephen Hahn said yesterday, who's the FDA commissioner, is he said that he is not going to approve the use of this drug through emergency use authorization unless it is shown to be safe and effective.

When he said the word effective that by definition meant that you had to do a big phase three trial proving efficacy now, as time goes on, I just hope he means it and as long as he meets it, then I think American citizens will be protected against putting out a vaccine before we really know how safe it is or how effective it is.

BOLDUAN: Yes. And as and as these big trials continue, I bet they're going to be leaning on you to get your take if you think it's happening the right way. Thank you, Doctor.

OFFIT: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Still ahead for us. Two police officers shot in Tulsa, Oklahoma, one of the officers died, the others in critical condition right now. How an early morning traffic stop went very clearly terribly wrong.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:52:21]

BOLDUAN: In Oklahoma, a police officer has died. Another is in critical condition after being shot during a traffic stop. Sergeant Craig Johnson was a 15-year veteran of the Tulsa Police Department. And he leaves behind a wife and two sons.

CNN's Brynn Gingras is joining me right now. Brynn. what happened here?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. It was a traffic stop that happened, Kate, on Monday morning in the early morning hours and Sergeant Johnson was with another officer who had just started doing patrols for the Tulsa Police Department.

As you mentioned, Johnson was a 15-year veteran. And they pulled over this suspect to somehow the three men got in some sort of scuffle according to police and shots were fired multiple times by the suspect. Both of those officers were actually hit in the head and they both went to the hospital. Both underwent surgery. And as of now, of course we know Johnson passed away.

And Aurash Zarkeshan, the other officer, we're hearing he's actually responding to doctors and there is hope for him. But the police chief, you know, Kate, talking about how they are people too. They are wearing uniforms. They have different jobs. But certainly saying, you know, you need to remember, we're people too, as he kind of talks about the fact that there's so much tension between the community and police.

And of course, this is a devastating outcome for their police department there in Tulsa. Now, there is a memorial being set up around the Tulsa police car that's really growing by the moment.

BOLDUAN: Another thing that is going on with regard to police right now the New York City just passed a budget that is cutting nearly a billion dollars from its police budget. This of course is coming amid calls for just that to redirect money from the police department to elsewhere in the city to better help minority communities, this being called from many folks. What more are you learning about that, Brynn?

GINGRAS: Yes. I mean, this is a issue that we've been hearing about, as you said, protesters in the streets saying defund the police. We've been seeing it here in New York. It seems that this decision that was made, it's still not making everybody happy.

If you talk to the police, you know, they're concerned because this means that they're not going to have a July recruiting class, which is more than 1,000 officers. They're seeing more retirement, so they're going to have less police on the streets, which was something they were really concerned about.

If you talk to the protesters, they think that this is just a shuffling of money, and this isn't actually giving toward what they were hoping to do, which is really changing the way policing is done. But I want you to hear from the Mayor, he was on New Day this morning. He talked about that billion dollars and then even more money that's going to be redirected to youth communities. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D-NYC, NY): Our young people need to be reached. They all need to be policed, not only a billion dollars, you're talking about, another half billion bound that to create recreation centers, places young people can go that are positive, to create broadband access for young people in public housing. We've got to do a lot of things differently if we're going to change the reality for so many of our young people in the society. And one of the places we were able to find that money was in our police budget.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:55:17]

GINGRAS: And there still just so many concerns, Kate. I mean, you're looking at those numbers there. That's the number of shootings that we're seeing in New York City. You could see 188 within the last month, compared to last year around this time, 82, that's 129 percent increase just nine shootings overnight after that budget was passed.

So there's a lot going on here in New York City and across the country with this dialogue, of course.

BOLDUAN: That's for sure. Thanks, Brynn.

Our coverage continues as America faces a fourth of July like no other. Coming up, the mayor who made the call to shut down Miami's beaches.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:00:00]