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Jones Family Singers Survived COVID-19; Stimulus Negotiations Continue; Biden Team to Receive First Briefing Today. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired December 07, 2020 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Spiritually charged gospel revival is the Jones family calling. Pentecostal preacher Fred Jones trained his children early in the power of music.

Some dads wanted basketball teams. Your dad wanted a band.

ERNESTINE RAY, JONES FAMILY SINGERS: He wanted a band, and he got a band.

LAVANDERA: Long ago, Jones and his seven children started dazzling their small-town Texas church. But in the five years before the coronavirus pandemic, the Jones Family Singers found a worldwide audience, touring hundreds of U.S. cities and nine countries. They're featured in an upcoming documentary, "Jesus and the Jones."

FRED JONES SR., LEADER, JONES FAMILY SINGERS: It means literally the world, it is our world. This is what we do, this is who we are.

LAVANDERA: The pandemic brought the Jones family high-flying gospel performances to a sudden halt. To keep the music alive, the family performed this virtual concert in late June.

Fred Jones says he started feeling sick during the show. What no one in the family knew at the time is that many of them would leave the performance infected with COVID-19. Jones and four of his daughters got sick. About a week later, the pastor and three daughters were rushed to the same hospital.

SABRINA FREEMAN, JONES FAMILY SINGERS: All of us began to get sick after my dad got sick. It was like, you know, what's going on?

LAVANDERA: Must be a surreal experience, you're just seeing everybody in your family --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I was --

LAVANDERA: -- boom, boom, boom, you know, going down.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- so sad, yes. RAY: We are a close family anyway, but during that time, we all

pulled together.

LAVANDERA: The Jones sisters spent four days hospitalized, but their 71-year-old father was struggling to breathe, and with a dangerously high fever that left him delirious.

JONES: They said I was saying stuff that made no sense. Or they'll say we going to pray -- don't pray for me, I don't want no prayer.

LAVANDERA: And you're a pastor.

JONES: Yes, that's what I'm saying.

(LAUGHTER)

And one of my friends told some of the others, said, that ain't him. Say, he's under attack.

LAVANDERA: Jones thought he had been in the hospital four days and wanted to go home.

JONES: The lady said, excuse me, Mr. Jones, I hate to tell you but you've been here 14 days. Man, that broke my heart. Time got away from me just that fast.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's all right, Dad, it's me.

LAVANDERA: When Fred Jones returned to the healing hands of his family, he had lost 30 pounds, was weak and emotional.

JONES: I love you all.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We love you too, Dad.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We love you.

JONES: I love you all.

LAVANDERA: Sabrina Freeman says a faithful song, written by her brother who died this summer of heart failure, helped the family survive.

FREEMAN: He wrote a song, "I Can See the Sunshine," you know, through all the rain.

And that song really brought us to where we at now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you for everyone who worked so diligently.

LAVANDERA: Five months after getting sick, Fred Jones struggles to breathe at times but be vows the Jones Family Singers will regain the full power of their soulful rhythms and return to the stage.

(END VIDEOTAPE) LAVANDERA (on camera): And Poppy and Jim, even five months after the family endured this battle with the coronavirus, many of them are still dealing with the effects of that virus. Fred Jones has to use hearing aids, he believes it's a result of the high fever that he experienced. Another daughter has severe painful swelling in one of her legs, just the bizarre kind of aftereffects of this pandemic. And as you can imagine, the family just so anxious for all of this to be over so they can get back out on the road again -- Jim and Poppy.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, of course they are. Ed, what a story, thank you very much.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: We wish that family a quick recovery.

Well this just in to CNN, a federal court in Michigan has thrown out the latest lawsuit seeking to overturn election results in the state, shutting down efforts led by Sidney Powell, a former Trump close Trump adviser who has since been officially disavowed by the campaign.

The judges determined that the lawsuit was full of, quote, "nothing but speculation and conjecture," and that Powell and her clients' goal of forcing the state's electors to vote for Trump, even though Joe Biden won the state, was not only impossible, it was also meant to disenfranchise voters. It's the latest in a long string of court losses for the Trump campaign as it continues to push these baseless allegations of election fraud.

[10:34:57]

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Well, it is such a critical week on Capitol Hill. Congress is racing to just keep the government funded and open, and racing to pass desperately needed aid for millions of Americans whose lives depend on it.

SCIUTTO: Right, so Manu Raju's on the Hill with lawmakers this morning. Manu, we've heard the optimism the last several days. Sad fact is, you and we have heard that before. Are they going to get to a deal here on a new stimulus package?

[10:40:00]

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's still an open question about whether something ultimately gets passed. They are negotiating -- over the weekend, they've spent a number of days negotiating, hours on the phone, Zoom meetings and the like.

This is a bipartisan group of senators that have been trying to hash out an agreement among themselves, and once they get an agreement then we'll see what the Republican and Democratic leadership decides to do, how much of that agreement can they -- will they agree to pass, how much will the rest of Congress, will they get behind that idea as well. So there are a lot of hurdles to go over. And two big sticking points

remain, I'm told from sources who are involved with the discussions. One is about state and local funding, something Democrats have been pushing for some time, Republicans have been resisting. Also liability protections for businesses and others that reopen during the pandemic. Republicans want that, Democrats have been going back and forth. Those are two issues that have been dividing the two sides for some time, they still have yet to get an agreement.

But other (ph) major issues within this bipartisan proposal overall that they've generally agreed to the outlines of it, including how to deal with enhanced unemployment benefits, $300 a week. They want to call for a pause on student loan payments, they also are trying to advance an eviction moratorium in addition to a new round of the Paycheck Protection Program, the popular small business loans that have since dried up, as well as money for vaccine development and distribution and for contact testing and tracing.

But this is all tied up too in the large negotiations for keeping the government open. Remember, government funding runs out at the end of this week, and there's talk on Capitol Hill of extending that for one additional week so they can try to fund the rest of the government and tie into that this COVID relief package that so many people are waiting for.

So there are a lot of disagreements that are things -- parts that are moving on Capitol Hill, a lot of disagreements that they have to iron out and other big things including a major defense bill that Congress is trying to approve -- will approve, but the president's expected to veto that -- all coming to a head here in this last crunch as Congress tries to finish up and so many people around the country are waiting for relief -- guys.

HARLOW: They've got a lot of work to do and they need to do it all this week. Manu, thank you very much.

Joining us next are two men who are desperate for Congress to do their job --

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HARLOW: -- and to act. One is set to lose his unemployment benefits just three days after Christmas, the other, afraid he's going to lose his business for good if he does not get more help soon. Jeff Good, three restaurants in Mississippi; Sean Blair has been furloughed from his job at a carpet cleaning business since March.

Good morning, gentlemen, we're glad you're here. Of course we wish it were under better circumstances, but you are the people that Congress has a duty to help and to do it as soon as possible.

Sean, if we could just begin with you, I mean, it's been -- since March 27th, you got furloughed, you had the $600 a week extra benefit, that's been gone now for some four months. You're almost going to lose all of your benefits just three days after Christmas. And as we understand it, you've had two family members with COVID and one of them passed away. I mean, you -- I'm so sorry, and your situation is so dire. If members of Congress are watching, what do you want to tell them?

SEAN BLAIR, FURLOUGHED SINCE MARCH: Quit playing politics with people's lives. I mean, COVID doesn't care who you are, it doesn't -- it kills indiscriminately. And I just want people to look back and say, like, hey, people need help. You see a lot of people going on lockdowns, going back, we're worse off than we were in March and there's no relief.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Jeff, you own businesses. You say if you don't get more stimulus, you will likely have to close your restaurants for good. It was already a struggle when the first round of stimulus was passed. You know the questions about how that money was allocated, there were a lot of big companies who took it, didn't put it where it was meant to be. Tell us what particular aid is necessary and helps the most for businesses like yours.

JEFF GOOD, CO-OWNS AND OPERATES THREE RESTAURANTS: I appreciate that so much. And, you know, Sean's and mine are two sides of the same coin. I'm in the position where I'm able to provide an incredible livelihood for a lot of folks including myself.

And to no fault of our own, to Sean's, to mine, to none of us, this has happened. And the first shutdown was horrific, and ended up in -- I had 184 employees, we let 182 go. And there was no way to fund. Restaurants don't have bank accounts. We're -- independent restaurants, we're hand-to-mouth each day.

So when you don't have the money, even a Paycheck Protection Program, which allowed us during the summer to get started again and get going, it had a short-term effect, it was an eight-week program. And now we are nine months into the pandemic and we're looking into, as Sean mentioned, a really dark time.

So, Jim, to answer your question specifically, more stimulus is really needed for this economy. If we don't pay it now, we're going to pay it more later. And I -- my heart goes out to Sean for the loss of his job. I'm trying to keep -- I have 155 folks I brought back now. I want to keep every one of them employed, so a stimulus bill is the only way to make up right now for what I have.

[10:45:09]

It's Christmas, we had a few parties that were booked up and ready to go over the past couple months, with people looking to do Christmas during the October timeframe, saying maybe a little corporate party? They're all cancelled, and we're looking at tightening.

So more stimulus, and specifically there is an act that deals with my industry, the restaurant industry. It's called the RESTAURANTS Act. And Senator Wicker from Mississippi is one of the champions, 50 senators, 215 House members on board, it is a targeted, extra, specific relief that will help restaurants make it to April and May.

So PPP is so needed for all businesses, Main Street, but we need something on top of that or else when you go to get your bagel or you go to try to get a lunch on the corner, or the mom-and-pop diner, we (INAUDIBLE) make it.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HARLOW: You know, Sean, there has been some talk but not a whole lot of action on even more targeted stimulus, you know, specifically for black communities that have been hit disproportionately hard from COVID from the health perspective and from the economic perspective. Can you speak to that again if members of Congress are listening?

And on top of that, you know, for you, I know you're basically relying on your girlfriend's income right now, which is very challenging. And I know you want to be at work. So what would you do with that stimulus?

BLAIR: I would continue to pay bills. I mean, that extra $600 a month, like some people thought that, you know, people were just lounging around and sitting at home because they were getting extra money? That helped me pay my bills, it helped my -- you know, stay on track with my mortgage, pay my homeowner's association bills, you know, my utilities because they're really, really high. And you know, that extra money wasn't -- you know, people used that. It was just to sit around.

HARLOW: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Jeff, oftentimes, there are members of Congress who watch this broadcast. We've been up to their offices, they keep CNN on. They're still at loggerheads on a couple of issues here, and we know the track record on this, right? It's been months since they've been able to pass something. Speak to them now, tell them what's on your mind.

GOOD: I just -- for 26 years, I started from nothing. My partner and I, high school buddy, we created our first restaurant, we raised the money. This is before GoFundMe and Kickstarter, we did dinner parties at my house, we invited people in.

I was a computer salesman. I had a dream to own my own business, and we opened BRAVO!, then we opened Broad Street, we opened Sal & Mookie's. We had these three restaurants 26 years, it's 184 people.

This is about, you know, talking about Sean and the extra stimulus, what we found out when we started reopening and inviting people back to work, they didn't want to sit on the couch. Human beings don't want to be idle, they want to come to work.

So if I don't have the ability to make revenue because our revenue's capped because our dining rooms are closed or we can't do outdoor dining or we can do outdoor dining, we can only do takeout? When you have a 5,500-square-foot or a 6,000-square-foot business at $25 to $30 a square foot for rent, business that's set for dine-in and you can't do dine-in? I've got leases, loans, debts.

So the begging is, take a look at the reality of what a Main Street business, and all of the purchases we make from farmers' products to groceries to equipment to labor to services and all of that is based -- in the restaurant industry -- on our ability to have Jim and Poppy come and have lunch with us. And if you don't have lunch with us, we have no revenue.

And I've -- we are not the industry to ask for anything, never. But this is a once-in-100-year pandemic, and we're looking at a situation where if there's any more slowdown, we just don't know. So I beg additional stimulus, RESTAURANTS Act, please. And we'll do our work and keep going.

SCIUTTO: Let's hope folks are listening.

HARLOW: Yes, and you shouldn't have to beg. And Jim and I will come and have lunch with you on the other side of this at some point, I can promise you that. Let's hope you don't have to write that letter to your employees again, the hardest thing you ever had to do, I know, letting them go.

We hope that help is coming for both of you. Jeff, Sean, thank you very much --

BLAIR: Thank you.

[10:49:27]

HARLOW: -- and we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: All right, well finally today, members of President-elect Joe Biden's transition team will receive their first briefing from the Pentagon's intelligence agencies.

SCIUTTO: CNN's Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon with more.

There were reports, Barbara, of these being deliberately delayed. Were those true, what has changed this week?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Pentagon, Jim and Poppy, really pushed back against that narrative that anybody was deliberately delaying these intelligence briefings.

That being said, we now know that over the next two days, the Biden transition team will get some highly classified briefings from key military intelligence agencies including the Defense Intelligence Agency and those agencies involved in things like satellite intelligence, cyber, communications intercepts. These are some of the most sensitive topics that they will start bringing the Biden team up to date on.

Deeper than that, there are a number of issues here at the Pentagon that the Biden team is facing, including of course looking at President Trump's decisions about withdrawing troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, what they may want to do about that; cybersecurity remains a very significant issues across the board; reining in Iran and North Korea's nuclear programs.

[10:55:08]

China and Russia, this is really where the focus of the Pentagon has been and that is going to cost money. And in this budget-constrained era, how much of the $700 billion defense budget will actually be devoted to that and what other priorities in spending will the Biden team have -- Jim, Poppy.

HARLOW: Yes, a critical briefing to say the least. Barbara Starr, thank you for the reporting at the Pentagon.

And thanks to all of you for being with us this Monday, we'll see you back here tomorrow morning. I'm Poppy Harlow.

SCIUTTO: And I'm Jim Sciutto. NEWSROOM with Kate Bolduan starts right after a short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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