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Guidance on Asymptomatic Testing Restored to CDC Web Site; Joe Rogan Accuses Left-Wing Activists of Starting Fires, Law Enforcement Says Not True; NYT's Nikole Hannah-Jones Discusses Trump Calling the 1619 Project "Ideological Poison". Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired September 18, 2020 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[13:30:00]
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It says, if you have had a close contact, a close exposure to someone with COVID, you should be tested even if you don't have symptoms.
This is very basic. Very basic science. If you have had close contact, been within six feet of someone 15 minutes or more who later turned out to have COVID, you should get tested even if you don't have symptoms.
Because those symptoms may be on their way or they may never appear. But either way, you should be tested to protect yourself and to protect those around you.
That's the way it was before. And then a few weeks ago, they changed it to say, hmm, you don't need to necessarily get tested. We're leaning now that came directly from the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington. The CDC didn't review it.
Now they're changing it back to science instead of the way Washington wanted it -- Brianna?
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: This interference by political appointees now appears overturned. Very good news.
Elizabeth, thank you so much for bring it to us.
A tragic development in these California wildfires. A firefighter who went missing while battling the El Dorado Fire east of Los Angeles has been found dead.
That fire in the San Bernardino National Forest was sparked by a smoke device that was used at a gender reveal party on Labor Day weekend.
The firefighter at this point has not yet been identified.
Law enforcement and fire crews had been searching for a missing person who was part of the missing Hot Shot crews. We know that. The cause of death is under investigation.
This El Dorado Fire burned more than 19,000 acres. It is one of about 59 large uncontained fires that are burning on the coast right now. In Oregon, nearly a million acres burned and there are 27 active
fires.
Yet, some are making it a political issue. Joe Rogan taking aim at what he called the madness of protesters in Portland, even claiming that left-wing activists have been arrested for starting the fires.
Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE ROGAN, HOST "JOE ROGAN" PODCAST: There's a madness going on there. You want to talk about the madness of crowds. That is -- it exemplifies that right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
ROGAN: And it's to me -- they have arrested people for lighting forest fires up there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
ROGAN: They've arrested left-wing people for lighting these wildfires. You know, air quote, activists. And this is something that's also not widely being reported.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: It is not being widely reported because it is not true. What has been reported is that there are local and state officials all through that region who have been coming out and refuting these conspiracy theories.
I'm joined by Miguel Marquez to break this down.
These are claims that have been circling, Miguel, that Antifa members are responsible for the fires.
But like I said, you have law enforcement officials who have been coming out publicly and saying that's not what's happening. They have been trying to dismiss these allegations.
What more are you learning?
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Look, this is happening at every level. It's just not true. Whether it's Douglas County or Jackson County or Clackamas County, the sheriffs there, the FBI have investigated some of these things.
They are begging people, stop posting and spreading false information. If you heard it from a friend who heard it from a friend and you stick it on Facebook, that's not good information. It is not helpful.
These agencies not only are they fighting fires, the destruction coming through here, but they're also protecting large swaths of the areas throughout the fire-burned areas in Oregon. That's National Guard down there. They have police and sheriff's
offices in other areas.
But they are begging people to stop spreading this stuff because it is not true.
There was one report of six people being taken into custody in one county. It never happened! They said they were Antifa individuals. Never happened.
They have had about 30 major fires burning in Oregon right now. Most of them are lightning caused, that they have determined what caused them.
Two are under investigation for human cause but it's not clear whether those are even arson at this point.
There was even a rumor at one point that there were people stashing gas in -- this was in Clackamas County -- stashing gas in the forest. And they were afraid they were going to start fires with it. It turned out it was good Samaritans who were helping others keep their generators running.
Sheriffs across Oregon and certainly the counties that are affected are just begging people to stop sharing bad information, stop calling in with bad information.
And know what you're talking about if you're going to report something. They want to hear it but you have to have seen something and you have to know what it is you're talking about.
Because it is a sign of the times. There are just -- you know, people are angry, upset. Emotions are running high. People have lost their homes. You can understand the anger to some degree. They want somebody to blame.
But they're asking people to stop with the rumors, stop repeating them, stop posting them to social media. And let officials investigate these fires. Every single one of them is under investigation.
Lightning is a big cause. They had massive winds through here, which caused a lot of electricity poles to go down. And electricity and transformers blowing may have been a part of this, as well.
[13:35:06]
Some of them may have been human caused but it doesn't necessarily mean arson. It could be somebody mowing their grass, pulling a chain, something that would have sparked off a fire.
The good thing is we have rain here in Oregon, especially along that western side of the Cascade Mountains where a lot of those big fires are. So things are looking up here in Oregon -- Brianna?
KEILAR: That is very good news.
Miguel, thank you so much for that report.
The president defends Russia while slapping down his own FBI director as Christopher Wray warns that Moscow is right now attacking the elections to hurt Joe Biden.
Plus, the creator of the 1619 Project about slavery history will join me to respond to the president calling it ideological poison.
And just in, the American Pediatrics Group is now warning young athletes with moderate COVID symptoms, like a prolonged fever, to get heart exams. We'll have that ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:40:51]
KEILAR: This week's CNN "CHAMPIONS FOR CHANGE" series has been highlighting innovators who came up with fresh solutions to big problems. And today, we meet a young Dutch inventor dedicated to removing trash from oceans and rivers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOYON SLAT, DUTCH INVENTOR: When I was 16 years old, I wanted to get my scuba diving license. And I was just really, really surprised because I just saw more plastic bags than fish.
That then kept me asking the relatively simple and benign question: Why can't we just clean this up?
I would say I've been an inventor all my life really. And that kind of started something that got a bit out of hand.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our mission is to rid the world's oceans of plastic.
DIMITRI DEHEYN, RESEARCH SCIENTIST, SCIENCE INSTITUTE OF OCEANOGRAPHY: The ocean has very broad circulations of water masses. And, over time, the currents pick up the pieces of plastic and then they converge towards the Great Pacific Patch between Hawaii and California.
The problem with plastics is huge. And what this young man has done is to awaken us at this problem.
SLAT: We launched System 001 from the San Francisco Bay, headed to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. We've put so much hope on catching plastic with that first system. And it didn't work but it broke down.
We are just learning to walk. The plastic is within arm's reach really.
The idea is to accept that and to say, OK, we are going to make mistakes.
Within a few weeks at sea, we learned more than years behind computers doing simulations. What we are trying to achieve has, by definition, never been done
before.
In about half a year, we were already out again in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch with System 1-B. Where it was successful in capturing the plastic, we also need to stop new plastic from entering the oceans in the first place.
Our research has found 1 percent of rivers is responsible for 80 percent of all plastic that's entering the ocean around the world.
So by stopping plastic in rivers, we hope to not address the big global plastic pollution issue but really help make life better for the people that live near the problematic rivers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
RENATA CORREIA, ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER, THE OCEAN CLEANUP: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE). Saying that they don't fish here anymore, only downstream, because here the water is so contaminated, they can't use the water anymore.
SLAT: The Interceptor is a fully solar-powered autonomous cleanup system that uses the current of the rivers to collect the plastic.
Quite satisfying.
We have three Interceptors cleaning rivers. One in Indonesia, one in Malaysia, and one in Dominican Republic, getting out tons of plastic every day.
And in parallel, we brought the first plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch back to shore to recycle into beautiful sustainable products with which we then aim to achieve funds to continuation of the cleanup.
When we started out, I thought that perhaps the real problem wasn't necessarily technology but more the public willingness to make something like this happen.
I learned that that actually wasn't true. That people do really care.
Honestly, it's been hugely humbling and inspiring to see the amount of people that are behind us and count on us to succeed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Be sure to tune in to the "CHAMPIONS FOR CHANGE" one-hour special. That is tomorrow night at 10:00 Eastern.
President Trump is expected to hold a news conference after CNN learned politics, not science, was behind changes to CDC guidelines about who should get tested when it comes to coronavirus. These are guidelines that the CDC just reversed.
[13:45:09] Plus, a Kansas City Chiefs fan who attended the game testing positive for COVID-19 and now those that sat near that individual are in quarantine.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:50:29]
KEILAR: President Trump is now vowing to, quote, "restore patriotic education" to our school. He announced it would be done through a new executive order called the 1776 Commission. And 1776 marking the year the Declaration of Independence was signed.
Now, the president, speaking at the White House conference on American history, rebuked efforts to review history, calling it toxic propaganda and ideological poison.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's no better example than the "New York Times'" totally discredited 1619 Project. This project rewrites American history to teach our children that we were founded on the principle of oppression, not freedom.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: The creator of the acclaimed "New York Times'" 1619 project is joining us again today, Nikole Hannah-Jones, a Pulitzer Prize winner and staff writer for the "New York Times."
It's great to see you again.
First off, this executive order speaks to a misconception I know you have tried to address that is being propagated about what the 1619 Project is. It's not an attempt to rewrite history on when this nation is founded.
If the president had read the essays in this, what do you think would be an honest take away of what they're about?
NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES, STAFF WRITER, "THE NEW YORK TIMES" & CREATOR, 1619 PROJECT: The 1619 Project is about giving us the history and the understanding to see how slavery was foundational to America and the way the legacy of slavery still permeates modern society.
Of course, we know 1776 is the founding of the country. The project does not argue it's not the founding.
But what it does argue is we have largely treated slavery as an asterisk, as marginal to the American story. And this project is trying to place slavery at the center, where we believe it belongs.
KEILAR: Why do you think the president -- and, look, millions agree with him -- are so resistant to this examination of what slavery has meant to this nation, even when you look at present day and it's right before you. You can see the fallout from slavery very much today. Why is there this resistance?
HANNAH-JONES: I mean, this is a very challenging history, of course. We are raised to believe that America was founded on these ideas of liberty and freedom.
So, to have to grapple with the fact that we were also founded on slavery, it's very difficult, but that is the truth.
And it's very ironic that President Trump would be saying that he needs to vindicate true American history by attempting to cover it up.
We have to be able to grapple with both the good and the bad of this country. And American school children and educators are able to understand a complex history about this country and its founding.
KEILAR: And what do you think about -- there's actually some discussion about whether basically schools using the 1619 Project, which is founded very much in fact, whether they can be penalized.
HANNAH-JONES: So, the president doesn't actually have the ability to control what is taught in local school districts. Curriculum are decided on by local school boards and by the state.
And there's a federal law against federal intervention into the way that local communities set their curriculum.
So, we know this is really Trump's effort to bring 1619 into the culture wars. He's clearly running on a nationalistic campaign that trying to sow racial division. And he sees this as a tool in that arsenal.
KEILAR: Nikole, thank you so much for joining us to talk about this.
HANNAH-JONES: Thank you so much.
KEILAR: Coming up, why Dr. Anthony Fauci says the U.S. may not have to worry about a double whammy of coronavirus and flu after all.
Plus, the growing list of Trump officials who are speaking out and endorsing Joe Biden.
[13:54:37]
And we're waiting to hear from President Trump from the White House. We'll bring that to you live when it happens.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: Today, on "HOMEFRONT," our digital and television series where we try to bridge the civilian/military divide, and bring you stories of military families, we're talking about burn pits.
These are giant burning trash piles sometimes acres in size that the military used to burn waste in Iraq and Afghanistan. And the smoke from burn pits contains known cancer-causing chemicals. After his successful advocacy for 9/11 responders, Jon Stewart is
championing the military heroes exposed to these toxins.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JON STEWART, COMEDIAN & FORMER HOST, "THE DAILY SHOW": Our veterans lived 24 hours a day, seven days a week next to toxic smoke, dioxins, everything. And now they're being told, hey, man, is that stuff bad for you? I don't know. We don't have the science. It's bull (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Stewart is joining a string of congressmen and veteran advocates in promoting a bill that would support veterans who were exposed to these harmful fumes.
Former vice president and Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, has repeatedly shared that he believes his son Beau's fatal brain cancer was burn-pit related.
Beau Biden was an Iraq War veteran and he died at just 46 years old in 2015.
In March, we spoke with retired staff sergeant, Wesley Black, who, at 31, was diagnosed with terminal colon cancer related to burn pits.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[13:59:52]
WESLEY BLACK, RETIRED STAFF SERGEANT: The V.A. failed me, personally. It's my story. They failed me in diagnosing me with colon cancer because I was outside of the parameters of the typical person who has colon cancer.
And I'm essentially -- you're essentially looking at a dead man walking.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
