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Pompeo Quarantining after Coming into Contact with Someone with COVID; Alaska Health Worker Suffered Allergic Reaction from Vaccine; Will Americans Get Choice Between Pfizer, Moderna Vaccines?; Russian Foreign Minister: Navalny Poisoning Report "Funny to Read"; Biden Officially Announces Ex-Rival Buttigieg as Cabinet Pick; Trump Seeks Special Counsels Before He Leaves Office to Ensure Investigations of Hunter Biden, Claims of Voter Fraud. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired December 16, 2020 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Now, just yesterday, he was scheduled to host a holiday reception here at the department for families of U.S. diplomats who served in places where they can't bring their families along. He did not attend that reception.

And just today, he was scheduled to host two separate diplomatic receptions for foreign ambassadors here in Washington with his wife. Both of those were canceled.

And we should note that folks here at the State Department were frustrated that he was even hosting those receptions because they were fearful that they could be places where the coronavirus could spread.

And tomorrow, Pompeo, we reported, was supposed to meet for the first time face-to-face with Joe Biden's pick for secretary of state, Tony Blinken. That in-person meeting will not happen. We're trying to figure out if it will happen.

Virtually, the State Department not telling us who Pompeo came into contact with who could have potentially given hip COVID-19. He has tested negative. But we're still working to learn more -- Brianna?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Kylie, thank you so much.

A British tabloid is reporting an explosive scene on the U.K. set of Actor Tom Cruise's new movie "Mission Impossible, 7."

In an expletive-ladened rant, Cruise scolded crew members for not practicing proper social distancing guidelines that they were supposed to and it was caught on tape.

The British tabloid "The Sun" released the audio and CNN has listened to "The Sun's" recording and Cruise can be heard saying this: Quote, "I don't ever want to see it again ever. And if you don't do it, you're fired. If I see you do it again, you are F'ing gone. And if anyone on the crew does it, that's it."

He goes on to say, "We're the gold standard. They are back there in Hollywood making movies right now because of us. Because they believe in us and what we're doing."

"We're creating thousands of jobs, you M.F.ers. I don't ever want to see it again."

Then he also says, "You can tell it to the people who are losing their F'ing home because our industry is shut down. It won't put food on their table or pay for their college education."

"That is what I sleep with every night, the future of this F'ing industry."

This incident reportedly happened on location at a Warner Brothers Studio outside the London. Warner Brothers, like CNN, is owned by Warner Media.

CNN has contacted Cruise's publicist and film producers, Paramount Pictures, for comment. We have not received a response on that.

The "New York Times" reports that Paramount declined its request for comment.

British media also reported that Cruise shelled out nearly $700,000 of his own money to rent a ship so he could create a quarantine bubble for the cast and crew.

I want to talk with Dr. Paul Offit, the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He is also a member of the FDA Vaccine Advisory Committee.

And, I mean, I do want to point out, Dr. Offit, that this film that Tom Cruise is the star of has suffered production delays because of COVID outbreaks.

They have had to do contact tracing. And they suffered some issues because of obviously how it would delay things. He is trying to keep people working and protected.

But that was a tongue lashing. I wonder your reaction to it was.

DR. PAUL OFFIT, DIRECTOR, VACCINE EDUCATION CENTER, CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA & MEMBER, FDA VACCINE ADVISORY COMMITTEE: Good for him. I think that he is exactly right.

You know, we -- in America, this is a country that was founded on the basis of individual rights and freedoms. And so people claim freedoms, like ones they don't have, like this one, for example.

It is not your freedom to catch and transmit a potentially fatal infection. When people proudly take their masks off, as they did in that

motorcycle biker rally, that is not their freedom. It affects not only you, but people with whom you come in contact.

Good for him. I mean, I think he should have that rant pretty much on a daily basis and let everybody in this country hear this.

KEILAR: I want to ask you something about the Pfizer vaccine because there has been another allergic reaction and this one is the first in the United States. It was a health care worker in Alaska.

Doctors said that she had no known history of severe allergic reactions to vaccines.

So does it signal a bigger problem with the safety of the vaccine?

OFFIT: I think that it is something that we obviously need to look at.

There were several people in the United Kingdom who had a severe allergic reaction and had a history of severe reactions.

Currently, the CDC recommendation is that, if you've ever had a severe reaction, you shouldn't get the vaccine.

So if you get it, you have to wait for 30 minutes in the area. And if you've never had a severe reaction, you have to wait for about 15 minutes because one out of a million people can have a reaction to the vaccine.

What we need to find out is what specifically seems to be inducing the allergic reaction.

Remember, even for this person, or patient, who has never had an allergic reaction before, she would have been instructed to hang around for about 15 minutes during which time, usually, if you will have an allergic reaction, you have one.

[14:34:58]

KEILAR: So you can obviously be aided by medicine.

I want to ask you about the second possible vaccine we're expecting. It seems like it is moving through, the Moderna vaccine candidate that's expected to receive emergency use authorization.

Which means then you'll have two vaccine options that are available. There are some differences between the two.

And I wonder if Americans are going to have a choice on which one they get. And should they have a choice?

OFFIT: Well, for now, it doesn't look like there's any major differences in terms of the key things, two things, which is safety and efficacy.

There are some smaller differences, the length of time between the first shot and the second shoot, the amount, the dose of messenger RNA is different. One can be given down to 18 years, the other down to 16. There are some storage and handling differences.

But I think, for all practical purposes, there's not a lot of vaccine out there.

So I think that you will be asked to get the vaccine that the area where you are getting it has. I don't think that there's a choice for right now.

KEILAR: Dr. Paul Offit, thank you so much for being with us. Great to see you.

OFFIT: Thank you.

KEILAR: Russia has weighed in on CNN's exclusive investigation into the poisoning of Alexie Navalny. Why the foreign minister calls it, quote, "funny to read."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:40:22]

KEILAR: Russia's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, is laughing off the results of an exclusive CNN/Bellingcat investigation into the nearly fatal poisoning of Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny.

Navalny fell ill on a four-hour flight to Moscow last August and he nearly died.

Our investigation found evidence that Russia's federal security service, the FSB, had an elite team that specialized in deadly nerve agents, like Novichok, and that the team had been trailing Navalny for years.

CNN's Clarissa Ward has more on this probe and the reaction in Russia.

Clarissa, tremendous report. Tell us more about Sergey Lavrov's efforts to downplay what you found in this investigation.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, Brianna, we should point out that this is well over 48 hours after this report first came out.

And all we've heard during those two days is essentially radio silence. No response from the Kremlin. No response from the FSB. And not a peep either from Russia media.

And then today, finally, we hear from the foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, speaking to journalists. He said simply that the report was basically funny to him.

He went on to say that he had come to expect such things from the West and that it was proof of a lack of ethics and in convention of legal norms internationally. And he went on to say that the fact that Moscow has been silent about

this should not be interpreted as an admission of guilt. He said that any -- this would be a flawed approach obvious to any sane person.

But what is missing from him, amid the bluster, is an actual response to the allegations that we have put to the Russian government, to Russian security forces, that we still have not received any response to.

KEILAR: And Alexei Navalny echoed something that he said to you as well after seeing the findings of your report, which was news to him. He said that he is certain that Vladimir Putin knew that he was a target of the FSB.

WARD: Yes. And he said that to us as well. And certainly, when you look at the power structures of the people involved with this operation, it does go up to, you know, the very dizzying heights of power here.

No one has complete transparency or a complete sense of the powers that exist within the Kremlin. And so it is difficult to say.

But certainly, everyone will be watching very closely tomorrow because President Vladimir Putin will be giving his annual press conference. It sometimes runs four or five hours long.

These questions are not freely asked. They are submitted in advance and cherrypicked, highly curated. So it's not clear if anyone will even be allowed to ask about this.

But certainly, there will be a lot of people waiting to see if President Putin will finally come out and address the elephant in the room and answer the question as to what these operatives were doing and what their role really was in the poisoning of Alexei Navalny.

KEILAR: And if he doesn't address it, that, too, would be telling. It would be interesting to hear him comment on it.

Clarissa Ward, thank you so much for this follow up on your amazing report. We appreciate it.

WARD: Thank you.

[14:43:48]

KEILAR: A big announcement from Joe Biden's team today. Pete Buttigieg nominated for transportation secretary. See what happened.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:48:25]

KEILAR: President-Elect Joe Biden is making history, nominating former South Bend mayor and 2020 presidential candidate, Pete Buttigieg, to the position of transportation secretary. And if confirmed, Buttigieg would be the first Senate-approved openly

LGBTQ cabinet secretary. He is, at age 38 -- also would be the youngest person nominated to Biden's cabinet.

CNN's M.J. Lee is in Wilmington, Delaware.

M.J., tell us what your sources are saying about this nomination.

M.J. LEE, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, it is not lost on the Biden team that this is a barrier-breaking nomination for all the reasons that you just stated.

But Biden was also emphasizing that this is not just about Pete Buttigieg, that he takes a lot of pride in the fact that he has made a number of appointments and nominations now that have broken sort of the first-ever barriers.

And that he feels good about the fact that he is making good on his promise to make sure that there's unprecedented diversity in his future administration.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our cabinet doesn't just have one first or just two of these firsts but eight precedent- busting appointments.

And today, the first-ever openly gay nominee to lead the cabinet department, and one of the youngest cabinet members ever.

The Biden-Harris cabinet will be an historic cabinet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: Buttigieg himself talked about the nature of his own nomination. He said he was thinking back on his 17-year-old self when he had not told his family and friends that he was gay. He thought he wanted to be an airline pilot.

[14:50:07]

And he wondered, are there other 17-year-olds who are watching this announcement and thinking about what might be possible for them.

I just want to note another moment from this event where Biden was talking about infrastructure being a top priority for him and something that the transportation secretary would take on.

He made a point of saying that, in the past, big infrastructure projects have gotten bipartisan support in Congress.

It seemed like he wanted to send a message to Republicans in Congress that this is one area where he expects and hopes to get some bipartisan support when he is president. KEILAR: And, M.J., Biden did take a couple of shouted questions from

reporters before he walked off the stage. What did he say?

LEE: He did. He was asked once more about when he was going to get this COVID-19 vaccine. And he essentially said, look, I don't want to be cutting the line. But he emphasized he does want to do this in public.

This is something they have been emphatic about, wanting to use this as an exercise to earn the public's trust when it comes to the vaccine.

He was also asked about the stimulus negotiations. He said he was encouraged by what he has been seeing in Congress.

But you know, in the past, he has said whatever gets done before the end of the year, that's only going to be the beginning.

He knows once he is president, he will have to get more done with the future Congress -- Brianna?

KEILAR: M.J. Lee, thank you so much, live for us from Wilmington, Delaware.

Our breaking news coverage will continue. Congressional leaders on the brink of a $900 billion relief bill, but will the help come in time to stop the huge wave of evictions that are expected in January?

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:56:29]

KEILAR: Just in, new CNN reporting on the investigation of President- Elect Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden.

We have Kaitlan Collins at the White House with some new reporting about how President Trump is viewing this.

A little bit with an ax to grind, it sounds like, Kaitlan.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Certainly. And we're coming to go an end of Donald Trump's presidency where, in these last five weeks where he's in office. We know that sources have been saying that there's a lot the president wants to get done.

And there's one thing the president has been talking about with multiple advisers, we've learned, and that's appointing special counsels to do some investigations that the president wants to make sure are done long after he's out of office.

And one of the things the president has talked extensively about is looking into those baseless claims of voter fraud that the president has been spreading for weeks, of course, since the election.

The attorney general said they looked into it and have not uncovered any widespread evidence of that so far.

But the other thing, as you noted, is into the president-elect's son, Hunter Biden.

Which, of course, Joe Biden was asked about earlier today when they were announcing Buttigieg as the transportation secretary. And he said he's confident that his son hasn't done anything wrong.

But what we're hearing from our at the White House sources, Brianna, is the president has raised this several times, talking about having a special counsel to continue this investigation into Hunter Biden that CNN has already extensively reported is underway, but also into the president's claims of fraud.

Whether or not this is going to happen is still an open question, because it's not up to the president to appoint a special counsel, though he has asked in recent days if he can actually do that.

It's up to the attorney general. And we know the attorney general currently, Bill Barr, is leaving his job in a week from now.

So whether or not his deputy who will take over would actually go through with it is still a pretty big question that remains inside the White House.

KEILAR: OK, so if -- you know, if he wouldn't go through with it, the president could fire him, right, or would he be able to -- it sounds like he's inquired about appointing a special counsel himself?

Is that even something he can do?

COLLINS: Based on what we know, it's up to the attorney general to do so. So he certainly could fire, of course, Jeffrey Rosen, who is going to be taking over for Bill Barr.

He's currently the deputy attorney general. He'll be the acting attorney general once he's in that capacity.

So whether or not he would actually follow through with that is still an open question.

He's not someone that has this long relationship with the president. They're not very close. But whether or not he would actually go through with it is another matter.

That raises the question: Would Trump fire him if he didn't do what he wanted?

One of the reasons we've been reporting that the president was hesitant to fire Barr when he so clearly wanted to over the last several weeks is, Brianna, there's no obvious successor so take Barr's place.

That's still the case with Jeffrey Rosen in charge as the acting attorney general once Bill Barr leaves. So it's still a lot of the uncertainties. But what we do know is that, right now, the president is more unpredictable than he has ever been in his presidency, which is saying a lot.

And that's what you hear when you talk to people who are speaking with the president often.

So they do not know what the president is going to do, but they do know this is something he's talked about.

Of course, now it's been reported in the media, so the Justice Department is well aware this is something the president has been discussing himself.

KEILAR: He's obviously still smarting from impeachment and the Russia investigation. I know your reporting shows that he basically sees this as payback.

COLLINS: Yes, because he is still spurned by that investigation from Robert Mueller, of course, and possible ties with Russia in his campaign. It's something the president has continued to fume about.

[15:00:00]

So the way he talked about these special counsels is, if I had a special counsel into me, why don't we have one into these matters that I care about.

KEILAR: Kaitlan Collins, great reporting from you and your colleagues. Thank you so much for sharing with us.