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FOX Questions Expertise of Pandemic Expert Bill Gates; Nurse Erin McIntosh Discusses Threat of Nurse's Strike in California over Work Conditions; Seniors in Florida Among 1st in the State to Get Vaccine; Mar-A-Lago Neighbors to Trump: Spend Your Post-Presidency Elsewhere. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired December 16, 2020 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[13:30:00]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: But back to coronavirus restrictions. People are losing their livelihoods. Kids are out of school. They are isolated. Millions and millions of Americans are hungry.
So, yes, there's a legitimate debate to be had about restrictions. Why are schools closed and restaurants open in many places? Can restaurants and businesses improve conditions so that they can promote a safer working or in-door dining experience?
Should the government keep them afloat if they can't? How do you balance the economic toll with the human cost?
But FOX and FOX Republicans paint any restriction as a government seizure of your freedoms.
And now they are attacking a billionaire whose wealth they normally champion, whose foundation is donating nearly $2 million to deliver vaccines to poor countries.
More than $100 million of that money from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation donated to manufacture vaccines.
Gates has also donated billions of dollars over the years to focus on, what? Global pandemics.
But don't tell that to Planet FOX's doctor for hire.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. MARC SIEGEL, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: By the way, Tucker, if you had me on, that network -- that network has on a computer expert to talk about COVID instead of a physician?
Imagine if you had me on to talk about computers. You wouldn't do that, right? You have me on to talk about COVID. TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS HOST, "TUCKER CARLSON TONIGHT": Good point.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Now that is rich coming from Dr. Marc Siegel, celebrity doctor of internal medicine, not to be confused with celebrity doctor of epidemiology, by the way.
True, he isn't exactly the geek squad member you want mixing your laptop. But ask yourself if he is really the M.D. that you want at your bedside?
As we've shown you before on this program, his medical advice ranges from sycophantic to potentially homicidal.
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SIEGEL: This virus should be compared to the flu because, at worst, at worst, worse-case scenario, it could be the flu.
Regarding this fall, the 1918 second wave? I've been monitoring Australia. It predicts that we're not going to have a big second wave.
Under 70, it's almost impossible you are going to die from COVID. And yet, fear messaging continues.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Every person, woman, man, camera TV, they say that is amazing.
SIEGEL: I spent an hour with the president. That is not a cognitive example. But at least that was in person. That wasn't via a video screen. And I got the impression of somebody that is very cognitively advanced.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Now, this FOX doc also likes to wildly speculate on the conditions of others despite his own advice.
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SIEGEL: To Speaker Pelosi, who is not a physician, I wish you would stop pontificating on the president's health, given that, not only is she not a physician but she hasn't seen his chart.
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KEILAR: So even though the doc hasn't seen Joe Biden's charts, by his owned admission --
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SIEGEL: I haven't examined the former vice president. I don't have a clinical diagnosis to make.
(END VIDEO CLIP) KEILAR: But that is not stopping him from casually diagnosing Biden on national TV as being on drugs and maybe having silent strokes because he had an aneurysm 30 years ago.
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SIEGEL: I want to put forth some ideas tonight. They are not proof. They're not even theories.
President Trump says, you know, we should have drug testing before debates. And I'm thinking why would he be saying that?
Well, let me tell you one reason, Tucker. There's a study that shows that for people who have mild cognitive thinking or memory problems, you know what helps? Speed. You know what helps? Adderall.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Well, now the doc is bothered about CNN interviewing Bill Gates as an expert on pandemics.
Well, perhaps the good doctor needs a simple medical procedure known as having his ears cleaned.
Because Bill Gates has been sounding the alarm on infectious diseases and pandemics for decades, in medical journals, on television, in lectures, like this one that he gave more than five years ago.
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BILL GATES, CO-FOUNDER, MICROSOFT: Today, the greatest risk of global catastrophe doesn't look like this. Instead, it looks like this.
If anything kills over 10 million people in the next few decades, it is most likely to be a highly infectious virus rather than a war. Not missiles, but microbes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: But if the FOX doc doesn't think that Bill Gates is an expert on pandemics, let's check out the experts that FOX looks to for discussions about coronavirus.
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DONALD TRUMP JR, SON OF PRESIDENT TRUMP: I went through the CDC, I kept hearing about new infections. But I was like, why aren't they talking about this. Oh, oh, because the number is almost nothing.
GERALDO RIVERA, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Why not name the vaccine The Trump? You know, make it like, have you gotten your Trump yet?
DR. RAMIN OSKOUI, CARDIOLOGIST: Lock downs and mandating mask mandates are probably slowing the onset of herd immunity.
LYNETTE HARAWAY, FORMER FOX NATION CONTRIBUTOR: Somebody is deliberately - it's real. But is somebody deliberately spreading this thing here.
This does not make sense at all.
DR. PHIL, TALK-SHOW HOST: The fact of the matter is, we have people dying, 45,000 people a year dying from automobile accidents, 480,000 from cigarettes, 360,000 a year from swimming pools, but we don't shut the country down.
[13:35:12]
SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST, "HANNITY": The pandemic is not spiraling out of the control as they projected nightly. It is the worst pandemic since 1918. Losing one life is way too many. The situation is getting better, not worse.
DAN BONGINO, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: You can take your mask mandate and shove it right up your ass.
LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST, "THE INGRAHAM ANGLE": Now we're reading stuff about how you can damage yourself by wearing a mask --
(CROSSTALK)
INGRAHAM: -- because then you're breathing back, you know, potentially microbes --
(CROSSTALK)
BRIT HUME, FOX NEWS SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: This is why you won't wear a mask. You don't want to look funny.
CARLSON: We now know, thanks to blood testing, that the virus is not that deadly.
JESSE WATERS, FOX NEWS HOST: The thing in New York was you had very low-income people in very tight quarters that are touching a lot of handles and doorknobs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Speaking of doorknobs, that is exactly what he and his pals are, on the doors that swing open every day to an alternate reality known as Planet FOX.
And next, I'll be speaking to a nurse who is threatening to strike at a California hospital over the conditions there during this pandemic.
And neighbors of Mar-a-Lago telling the president don't live here permanently. But do they have a case?
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[13:41:09]
KEILAR: The strain on some California medical workers is going from the breaking point to the picket line. Nearly 2,500 nurses in southern California say that they will strike
Christmas eve through January 3rd. And they say it is because of poor work conditions and in-efficient planning during the pandemic.
This is a strike that will impact these three hospitals right here.
And the nurses there say that they have now declared, quote, "an internal disaster" - or pardon me, the hospital have - "an internal disaster and will limit their services in order to ensure there are enough nurses to care for patients with the highest needs.
I want to talk now with rapid response nurse, Erin McIntosh, who works at Riverside Community Hospital and is a bargaining team member of the local nurse's union there.
Erin, this is serious business striking during a pandemic. So tell us what are your demands, what has brought you and these thousands of nurses to this point?
ERIN MCINTOSH, RAPID RESPONSE NURSE, RIVERSIDE COMMUNITY HOSPITAL: So our demands are simply safety, accountability and staffing. Our issues that -- we want to make it clear that our issues existed long before the pandemic hit.
We estimate that last year in April, we were 340 nurses short. And the pandemic has just exacerbated those issues.
KEILAR: So I just want to be clear, you are not asking for money here?
MCINTOSH: Our demands are mostly safety and accountability. Yes, that's correct. I know that HCA comes across they just want to offer us more money. But our community, we feel, deserves better.
KEILAR: So money is part of the demand, but that is not enough, is that what you're saying?
MCINTOSH: Honestly speaking, I don't think that any amount of money is -- values what the nurses have been put through. But we're not asking for money. What we really want is safety and accountability.
KEILAR: So we know that some of your complaints have to do with not enough testing, unsanitary conditions, and a lack of protection for nurses.
So let's go through that. Testing, how often are you getting tested, how often are nurses being tested?
MCINTOSH: Currently, right now, we're being tested if we need to. I think most of our issues -- I'm not sure where you received that information. Most of our issues are strictly about unsafe staffing.
Our nurses are being put on a ratio and being given an unsafe assignment.
So due to Governor Newsom's waiver, which allowed nurses to take on more than they safely could, the hospital was given a pass. What that means is that the hospital doesn't have to respond to any fines.
And nurses are being told that we have to take on more than we safely can, all the while still being disciplined, unsafely taking care of our patients, and putting our licenses at risk.
KEILAR: So that is the concern, that -- so what do you want to see put in place for protections then?
MCINTOSH: Mainly, we want more support. At a time when the pandemic hit, HCA made cuts to travelers, cuts to per-diem staff, they removed charge nurses from bedside care and placed them in management positions.
We want people to start showing up and helping. Throw on a pair of scrubs and help us out so that we can safely take care of our patients.
KEILAR: So you just want the numbers increased, which you said was a problem even before the pandemic.
Your hospital did release a joint statement with other hospitals involved in response to the impending strike and this is what they said, quote:
"Given the current COVID-19 surge and the national nursing shortage, it is unconscionable that the union would urge nurses to abandon the bedside and ask them to sacrifice wages from several lost shifts. It is also surprising that they would take an action that may endanger patients, a decision that their own constitution and bylaws state that they should avoid."
[13:45:09]
How do you respond to that?
MCINTOSH: So I respond to that in that the HCA has put us in this position.
When the pandemic started, they made cuts in staff. They short-staffed us. They continue to flex-staff home when we need help.
So basically, what I'm saying is they have recorded record profits at a time when we need more help. We just need more support.
KEILAR: Erin, thank you so much for coming on and talking to us about this. We know what you are doing is getting a lot of attention. So we really respect your perspective.
MCINTOSH: You know, this really did come along as an ethical dilemma for all of us nurses. But we have to take a stand for our patients and our community because they deserve better.
KEILAR: Look, we've heard some of the complaints from nurses represented by your union. They feel that actually many of them have been infected. I know some at your hospital have died.
There are concerns about infecting patients who didn't come in with COVID as well.
This is a very difficult time for hospitals. And we thank you for the work that you do. Thank you.
MCINTOSH: Thank you.
KEILAR: So we have some breaking news here. Elderly residents at the Woodland Senior Living Facility are becoming some of the first Floridians to receive the coronavirus vaccine.
And that is where CNN's Rosa Flores is.
Tell us how this is going to go down here, Rosa.
ROSA FLORES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, it has been a very emotional and historic day here in Florida. Governor Ron DeSantis announcing that these are, indeed, some of the first seniors around the country to get the vaccine.
I want to show you the video because our cameras just captured it. This is Vera Litley (ph). She is 88 years old and she has lived at the John Knox Village for about 16 years.
Now she is not the first here at John Knox to get the vaccine. The vaccinations started about 9:00 a.m. But she is among the first to get this vaccine. After she got the vaccine, she said that she was feeling well.
Now, I should add, Brianna, that we had so many questions for Governor Ron DeSantis about the vaccinations and about getting information from the state regarding COVID. And he literally just left without taking any questions from the media -- Brianna?
KEILAR: No questions. And I know you had a lot, Rosa. You've asked many of him over the following months.
Rosa Flores, thank you so much, live for us from Pompano Beach.
President Trump's soon-to-be neighbors in Florida are not thrilled about his relocation plans. Some even taking legal action in an effort to stop him from moving to Mar-a-Lago. We'll discuss that next.
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KEILAR: President Trump's plan to relocate to Mar-a-Lago after he leaves the White House is not sitting too well with his Palm Beach neighbors.
CNN has learned that they don't want Trump there to the extent that some are taking legal action in order to try to keep him out.
Kate Bennett, our CNN White House reporter, who is digging into this legal showdown, is here with us now.
And so, Kate, these neighbors have sent a letter. It is sort of like a cease and desist. What can you tell us about it?
KATE BENNETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: It is sort of like that. What it is, is sort of reminding the town that Donald Trump, when he agreed to switch the private Mar-a-Lago estate into the private Mar-a-Lago club, agreed that he would not be a resident there for more than a consecutive three weeks.
So any member, himself included, could not live there for more than 21 days.
So that agreement is now being put back into the forefront with a letter from neighbors' attorney saying, remember this agreement that you signed, you cannot be legally a resident of the place where ostensibly you will move as soon as your presidency is over in January.
So it is sort of between a rock and a hard place. Donald Trump has had a contentious relationship with the town of Palm Beach for many, many years since he purchased the property in 1985, going back and forth in all sorts of legal battles.
So this becomes another effort by the residents and the neighbors, whose lives have been disrupted, they say, by his presidency, to prevent him from moving there permanently.
KEILAR: And this dispute also complicates planning for the Secret Service after Trump leaves office.
BENNETT: Absolutely. There's are lot of apparatus that need to be put in place by the Secret Service to protect a post-president in his post-presidency.
The Secret Service is familiar with Mar-a-Lago. They were establishing already some guidelines and plans to protect the president long term there.
The president cannot live there any longer in a long-term way that the expedition of having to get the Secret Service up in running for wherever he does live.
KEILAR: And if it's not Mar-a-Lago, where would the other post- presidency housing option be?
BENNETT: Well, that is the real puzzle here because, as we know, Donald Trump and Melania Trump have made Florida their permanent residence.
They moved from New York to Florida and established Mar-a-Lago as their permanent residence. Which means that they have to live there six months out of the year.
But the town is now saying, hey, don't forget, you can't live there permanently. So they're sort of between a rock and a hard place.
If Donald Trump wants to fight this, and history shows that he typically does like to fight these things, he could try, it could become a legal battle.
[13:55:00]
He could move to one of his other properties. There's Doral. He might face the same incidents there. Or he could buy his own private home in the Palm Beach area or somewhere else nearby and that would alleviate that.
I think all of those options are ones that he is not looking forward to.
The family has to make renovations -- the first lady has been overseeing them -- improvements and updates to their private quarters at Mar-a-Lago in preparation for moving down there in January. She has looked for schools for her son, Barron.
For all intents and purposes, the plan is for the Trumps to move to Mar-A-Lago. Now this could be a real legal puzzle for the president moving forward.
KEILAR: Indeed.
Kate Bennett, thank you so much for taking us through it. We appreciate it.
And we have some breaking news. Congress is on the verge of reaching a deal on a stimulus package that is likely to include much-needed checks for Americans. We'll have details ahead.
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