Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Biden Faces Increasing Pressure To Diversify His Cabinet; L.A. Mayor: "Time To Hunker Down, It's Time To Cancel Everything"; Conservatives Flock To Parler, Accuse Facebook, Twitter Of Censorship. Aired 12:30-1p ET
Aired December 03, 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]
JAMAAL BOWMAN (D-NY), CONGRESSMAN-ELECT: Bruce Reed is a deficit hawk and a master of austerity budgets. So we cannot have anyone like that in the Biden cabinet, especially as we deal with the coronavirus and as we deal with an economic depression and racial reckoning in our time. So when I hear names like that, I get worried. But so far, I see diversity and ideology. I would like to see more progressive chosen, particularly as we look at a position like Secretary of Education, which obviously I'm passionate about.
DANA BASH, CNN HOST: I mean Bruce Reed is definitely a moderate. Rahm Emanuel, he would argue he considers himself a progressive, and he's in line with most of the things that you believe.
BOWMAN: Well, progressives don't close elementary schools. Progressives open up more schools and lower class size and invest in public education. And they don't bend each of the charter school lobby, so I disagree with that.
BASH: OK. Mr. Bowman, I want to ask you about something that President Obama said this week. He made some news when he warned activists not to use what he calls, snappy slogans like defund the police. You tweeted the following in response. You tweeted, damn, Mr. President, didn't you say Trayvon could have been my son. In 2014, Black Lives Matter was too much. In 2016, Kaepernick was too much. Today, discussing police budgets is too much. The problem is America's comfort with black death, not discomfort with slogans. And quickly I want to play for you something else that President Obama said in a different interview this week when asked specifically about defunding the police?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No. Because I think the phrase implies that somehow we could do without the police, or that the police are the only source of our problem. But what I would do is rethink how we do policing in a lot of communities.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: So what do you know others are saying is it's the branding, defund the police. It's bad messaging, because it turns people off to the real reforms that you are trying to put forward. What is your response and your take on that? Do you think there's something to that?
BOWMAN: Defund the police does not mean abolish the police. It means a dramatic reduction in the number of police in our poor communities, and particularly our poor black and brown communities. Historically, when our communities have needed jobs, they didn't bring those jobs, they brought us police. And they created a system of mass incarceration. And we live in a country where if you're black or brown, you're more likely to be killed by police and more likely to be incarcerated, and more likely to not afford bail.
So we're focusing on this slogan, defund the police. But where are the resources to bring jobs into our communities, where are the resources to fully fund our public schools, where are the resources to deal with the issue of housing and food insecurity. We're not talking about any of that, we're worried about a slogan.
And lastly, only 5 percent of police work is focused on violent crimes, rape, homicide, aggravated assault, the other 95 percent can be handled by other agencies, mental health institutions, domestic violence professionals, et cetera. So we've been doing policing all wrong for decades. In some cities, 40 percent of the budget goes toward policing. And police are terrorizing black and brown communities. The evidence is clear across the country. So we have to do something different, and not allow Republicans to flip a talking point on his head and make us respond to it.
This is about reimagining our country and building back better in a way that uplifts black communities and not leaves them oppressed.
BASH: Well, I look forward to seeing the kind of legislation you put forward now that you are actually going to be a member of Congress, and how you're going to use your voice in the United States House of Representatives. Thank you so much for joining me. We have a lot more to talk about. And I'm sure we'll be able to do that in the weeks and months ahead.
BOWMAN: Thank you so much.
BASH: Thank you.
And a programming note, President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President- elect Kamala Harris joined Jake Tapper for their first joint interview since winning the election. You can watch this CNN special event tonight at 9:00 p.m.
[12:34:16]
And up next, the Mayor of Los Angeles telling his residents to hunker down and cancel everything.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BASH: And now to California where the number of new cases in coronavirus is so alarming, the Governor is now considering new stay at home restrictions. Hospitalizations in California are rising steeply more than tripling since mid-November. The Mayor of Los Angeles warns if hospitalizations continue at their current pace, L.A. County will run out of hospital beds by Christmas.
Now for the upcoming holidays, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti is asking residents of the city to cancel everything. Let's get straight to L.A., that's where CNN Stephanie Elam is. So my question is, are people there listening, Stephanie?
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Dana, we were just noting me and my producer Jack Hanna, we're just looking out on the street and there's a lot less cars out there today. So maybe people are actually listening to this because the numbers are terrifying.
If you take a look at what California reported for their daily numbers for coronavirus cases 20,759, that's the one day number that they came out with, a new record there, also hospitalizations, more than 9,300 people are in the hospital in California. That's also a record there. These are scary numbers that we're looking at. And when you take a look at Los Angeles County as well, they are very concerned. They're saying that right now they have about 122 ICU beds that are available in a county of about 10 million people.
[12:40:11]
This is why we are already at stay at home order here in Los Angeles County. And this is also why the entire state of California, 99.2 percent of the population is living in the most restrictive tier and why they're very much concerned that they might have to put in more controls because the virus is spreading rapidly.
And Dana, I just really wish that people could spend some time talking to people who've recovered from the virus or who have lost loved ones, maybe then they would understand why it's so important for them to play their role.
BASH: Absolutely. Just listen, listen to the stories. Unfortunately, there are lots and lots of them. Stephanie, thank you so much for that reporting at a record breaking 100,000 Americans are hospitalized because of coronavirus, that's even before we see the impact from the Thanksgiving holiday. CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield says he's worried about how the healthcare system will hold up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ROBERT REDFIELD, CDC DIRECTOR: December and January and February are going to be rough times. I actually believe they're going to be the most difficult time in the public health history of this nation, largely because of the stress that's going to put on our healthcare system.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: I want to bring in Marvin O'Quinn. he's the president and chief operating officer of CommonSpirit Health, which runs hospitals in 21 states. First, Mr. O'Quinn, walk us through what you're seeing at your hospitals.
MARVIN O'QUINN, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, COMMONSPIRIT HEALTH: Well, across the board, we're seeing increases in patients and every one of our hospitals. We are now up to roughly 2,100 positive cases in our hospitals. That's an increase of almost 70 percent since November 11th. We're seeing about 70 to 100 new cases every day.
BASH: Wow, 70 percent increase since November 11th. So the obvious question is are you going to be able to handle it if it gets worse, because public health experts are expecting an even bigger surge in the next couple of weeks post-Thanksgiving?
O'QUINN: Well, clearly, we are very concerned. But we feel that we have done all the things necessary to be able to manage it. We expected this through our own modeling and obviously the national modeling that we've been tracking. So we spent the summer getting ready. We built our own testing capacity lab in Arizona. We have 90 to 100 days of PPE on supply in inventory. We bought, you know, 600 or more ventilators for across our system.
And we have adopted new staffing models to allow us to get -- keep as many people working as possible, because that's the main issue for us is the staffing. We have the physical capacity to expand beds and we can also double patients up in certain rooms. The real issue for us is, will we be able to get the nursing staff and the physician staff to take care of his patients?
BASH: Well, that that is really one of the questions right now. And in fact, on that note, I want you to listen to Michael Osterholm, who serves on President-elect Biden's COVID-19 advisory board. He is worried about the quality that hospitals can provide to patients even if they do have the extra beds and so forth, that you're talking about. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, BIDEN COVID-19 ADVISORY BOARD: Right now we have stressed our health care workers staff to as far as we can. And it will get to the point where the quality of care will be severely hampered if in fact, we don't have these health care workers. So you may get a bed in a hospital. But will you get the kind of trained health care workers that can care for you?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: Does that concern you as the COO of a major hospital company?
O'QUINN: Well, what concerns me is the fatigue factor that's going to impact our staff. Clearly, our staff and the staff at all the hospitals are well trained and prepared to manage this time for patients. And we learned a lot in the fall, well, not the fall, but in the spring, about how to manage these patients.
The issue is folks are just getting tired. And they work a lot of hours and a lot of consecutive days. We've offered programs for staff to help them deal with the trauma of managing and seeing so much depth and all the mortality that they're dealing with. And our staff are availing themselves of that. So I'm comfortable that our people will do a very good jobs at taking care of these patients is just the issue of, will we have enough of them?
[12:45:05]
BASH: Well, thank you so much to you. Thank you for every health care worker who works in your hospital and hospitals and across the country it is the level of exhaustion is just not something any of us can wrap our heads around. Thank you so much for sharing what's going on there. And I appreciate it.
And up next, Trump supporters they're fleeing Facebook to Twitter to join in uncensored platform. We're going to have more on that next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:50:14]
BASH: Just today Facebook announced it will remove any debunked claims about coronavirus vaccines. CNN business reporter Dhoni O'Sullivan reports on how these measures to cut down on misinformation are chasing many online users to sites where they can post anything.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAKE, TRUMP SUPPORTER: I've been suspended by Twitter a few times.
KARI TINGLEY, TRUMP SUPPORTER: I got sick of Twitter.
ED TINGLEY, TRUMP SUPPORTER: We got censored too much.
K. TINGLEY: Censored.
E. TINGLEY: She was in jail every other day, Twitter jail.
JAKE: We just want to exist. We just want to be able to be a part of the conversation. We want to be able to speak on the platform without being labeled, without being besmirched. I mean, it is toxic out there.
DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER (voice-over): Convinced that tech companies are biased against conservative views. Some Trump supporters have turned to Parler. It touts itself as a free speech social network, one with far fewer rules than Facebook or Twitter.
JOHN MATZE, PARLER FOUNDER & CEO: Every time Twitter or Facebook takes authoritarian steps to curate content and act as a publication. It drives more people to our platform, which is a town square.
O'SULLIVAN (on camera): So how is Parler different?
K. TINGLEY: You can have free speech. You can say whatever you want. You can voice your opinions.
E. TINGLEY: As long as you're not getting people riled up to go out and actually make threats on people --
K. TINGLEY: And incite violence, which we don't, never have, never will. Then we just go and have our free speech on there.
O'SULLIVAN: What is something you could say on Parler, that you wouldn't be able to say on Facebook?
E. TINGLEY: That the coronavirus is not as deadly as everybody says it is.
K. TINGLEY: And you could literally post that on Twitter and get in Twitter jail for that.
O'SULLIVAN: But you could post it on Parler.
K. TINGLEY: Yes.
E. TINGLEY: Yes, no problem.
O'SULLIVAN: I mean, the CDC says we should be wearing masks. You don't accept that?
E. TINGLEY: No.
K. TINGLEY: No.
O'SULLIVAN: You said you were in Facebook Jail.
KIM ASHWORTH, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Yes.
O'SULLIVAN: Could you explain to our audience what Facebook jail is and how did you end up in there?
ASHWORTH: Let's see. I posted something about the Proud Boys. It was taken down. It's racist. I wasn't allowed to post for about I don't know, I think it was 48 hours. You know, it's every time you write something that they disagree with.
O'SULLIVAN: Why have you been suspended from Twitter?
JAKE: Pass.
O'SULLIVAN: I mean, have you said racist stuff? I mean, there's ways you get suspended from Twitter being racist, sharing hate. You share stuff like that?
JAKE: No, absolutely not, absolutely not. No, it's just stating a disputed opinion.
O'SULLIVAN: So given example of a disputed opinion in the case of you getting suspended.
JAKE: No.
O'SULLIVAN: Ben, what is Parler?
BEN DECKER, ONLINE RADICALIZATION EXPERT: Parler is the latest alternative social media platform.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Ben Decker, an online radicalization expert compares Parler to a dive bar.
DECKER: Before the pandemic, we used to go out to baseball stadiums and watch games as a community. If you started cursing or infringing upon the experience of another fan, you were removed from the game? And where did you go to watch the rest of it at the dive bar next door, where the behavioral standards are lax and it's OK to share opinions that aren't OK to be shared around others.
O'SULLIVAN (on camera): So if somebody is pushing very hateful, maybe dangerous rhetoric, do you worry that that could lead to offline violence and then having a platform that allows for people to post and promote certain hateful viewpoints that that could be dangerous.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, obviously, anything can be dangerous. I live with my mind free enough to know that any situation can spiral out, out of control. But the whole idea of people sharing their ideas with each other and I don't see how that leads to real world violence.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Spokesperson for the El Paso mayor's office --
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): But violent speech online can lead to real world violence, 8chan a platform that preached free speech, but let hate run amok was linked to mass killings in El Paso, Texas and Christchurch, New Zealand.
DECKER: In other echo chambers like Parler, there are no dissenting opinions. So constantly beliefs, ideas, new narratives are just further reinforced by others. And these are the kinds of places that facilitate an unintentional radicalization process.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Facebook and Twitter deny their bias against conservative ideas, and instead are cracking down on misinformation and hate. But Parler has seen a spike in downloads since Election Day. And most of its users appear to be on the right.
Have you say, you're using it?
JAKE: No, but I've been messed around a little bit. But it's never any fun when it's just us. You know it just turns into an echo chamber and it's never any fun because we can't mess with guys like you. You know what I mean? It's no fun when it's just us, you know, saying what we know to be true to each other.
[12:55:16]
O'SULLIVAN: Chant on the lips, when there's no lips on the platform.
JAKE: I don't want to own lips. I want to have a discussion. I want to talk to people. You know what I mean? I want to engage. I want to have, you know, a discussion. But it's totally -- it can't happen the way things are going.
O'SULLIVAN: And can you not have that discussion on Twitter or Facebook right now?
JAKE: Not if you want to keep your account.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BASH: Thank you, Donie O'Sullivan for that eye opening and important report. And thank you for joining us. Brianna Keilar, rather, picks up our coverage after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
