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Investigators Say, Nashville Blast Likely A Suicide Bombing; Millions Of Americans Face Imminent Loss Of Key Benefits If Trump Doesn't Sign COVID Relief Bill; One In 1,000 Americans Have Died From COVID-19; Trump Admin Makes Final Push To Finish U.S.-Mexico Border Wall; Food Banks Struggle To Meet Demand Across The Country. Aired 8- 9p ET

Aired December 26, 2020 - 20:00   ET

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

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[20:00:00]

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Dana Bash in Washington.

Breaking news out of Nashville this hour where authorities now believe yesterday's explosion was the likely result of a suicide bombing. That's according to two law enforcement sources with direct knowledge of the investigation. The blast which happened in the early hours of Christmas morning shook the city, damaged dozens of buildings and injured at least three people.

A new video obtained by CNN appears to show the same R.V. that was at the center of the explosion in Downtown Nashville previously parked outside this home in Antioch, Tennessee.

CNN Crime and Justice Correspondent Shimon Prokupecz is on the scene in Nashville for us. And, Shimon, the fact that this may have been a suicide bombing, how has that changed the investigation?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, for one thing, that it's done, is that there's no manhunt. There's no one to search for in connection with the bombing and at least the threat has been minimized. And we've heard that from the FBI today and from the police here. This was something that they really wanted to stress. While they weren't confirming any information publicly, they did want to stress that there was no threat and that people should try to go on living their lives and they should not be afraid, certainly of being downtown in Nashville.

So that was the big message here from law enforcement. They're continuing their investigation, sifting through a lot of the debris. The belief is that the person responsible for this likely died during this bombing. They have human remains. They are trying to confirm the identity of the person with DNA, so they have human tissue, they have some other items that they've collected. So they're waiting for DNA and other evidence to try to confirm the identity of the person.

One thing though that we've seen a lot here today is that law enforcement has actually been -- it's been calm for them here. We haven't seen any kind of searches. We haven't seen any kind of activity from law enforcement. All that they have been really doing here from the FBI to the ATF is combing through the debris, which stretches for blocks.

And they're now going to really start in the coming days, focusing in on the blast site where this explosion took place outside that AT&T transmission building. That is also a focus for investigators. They want to see if that building, Dana, was the target.

BASH: Shimon, thank you so much for that reporting. I appreciate it.

And joining me now is Jim Schulman, the vice mayor of Nashville. Mr. Vice Mayor, thank you so much for joining me. What is the latest that you were hearing about this investigation?

VICE MAYOR JIM SHULMAN, NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE: Well, so the investigation is moving fairly quickly. We just have heard that there's been a lot of activity down in Antioch, which is in Southeast Nashville. Law enforcement is going through this house very, very carefully and we'll see. They have not said exactly, you know, they haven't really given us firm answers yet. I know they spent a lot of time also downtown on Second Avenue where the explosion happened and they're trying to piece this thing together. I will say that they seem to be moving fairly quickly on it though.

BASH: Are you hearing anything about a motive?

SHULMAN: No. You know, we heard there was a press conference today at 1:00. I think everybody was watching hoping that they would get some answers. I think the authorities are being very careful moving quickly, but also not willing to say anything quite yet until they can figure this thing out. Such a strange event, where it was located and obviously right across from the AT&T communication data center.

BASH: Yes, and are you hearing anything about that, about the location in which this apparent suicide bombing happened?

[20:05:06]

SHULMAN: No. I was listening just a little while ago and they were thinking maybe if it was a suicide bombing, and they haven't indicated that yet either, maybe they might find some information, they haven't really disclosed anything about what they found in this individual's house. I think we're just going to have to wait and see.

And we may know sooner rather than later. They really have moved fairly quickly. They just haven't provided a lot of specific detail. A lot of the information we're getting is from Twitter, information that's being expressed in different ways. We're trying to keep up just like everybody else.

BASH: So I got to ask about the residents in Nashville. People must be really shaken up by this.

SHULMAN: I think Nashville is tired, just like the rest of the country. But we had a tornado, if you remember back in March. That just devastated lots of areas of the city. And so we started having to try to get through that. And then we immediately got hit right about the same time with the pandemic, and so people -- we're still trying to clean up from the tornado.

At some point, a couple of months later, we had some major wind storms that came through and here we come at the end of 2020 and we finally are seeing the light of a new year and getting hopeful that we can get back on our feet. Our tourism industry has really taken a tremendous hit, and now we have this. And it's just something else.

BASH: Absolutely. I mean, you just went through so many things that your city has gone through. I mean, the whole country, the whole world is going through a lot, but if you add the tornadoes and the wind storm that you talked about and the pandemic, it's really wreaking havoc down there in Nashville.

What is your message to the residents of Nashville right now?

SHULMAN: So I would tell you that I lived through the 2010 flood and through the tornado. People are very strong here. They find ways to come back very quickly. I give you an example. I went over to the East Community Center this afternoon which was set up by the American Red Cross to deal with anybody who needed either resources or a place to stay and they had just a couple of people come through. It was really nice that the Red Cross did it. It was a great place to have it. It was close to downtown.

But people are resilient. You know, personally, we've lived through this before. Fortunately, not a lot of people injured, we had three. I think they're going to recover. So that's a good thing if you can say anything good. But we're pretty strong. Nashville is a very strong place and we work together very quickly and we'll get through this, like we have every other thing that's come through.

BASH: Nashville is a great town, it's one of my favorite towns in the country. I appreciate it. And you're right, I mean, especially looking at those photos and the video of the damage, it is remarkable, really a miracle that more human damage wasn't done. So thank you so much, Jim Schulman, the vice mayor of Nashville, I appreciate it.

SHULMAN: Thank you.

BASH: And I want to go now to Phil Mudd to get reaction on the investigation. He is a CNN Counterterrorism Analyst and former senior intelligence adviser at the FBI. Phil, good to see you. Merry Christmas to you.

PHIL MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: Thank you.

BASH: So, given what we know so far from sources to our Shimon Prokupecz, to Evan Perez, what are you -- put your investigators hat on, what are you looking for next?

MUDD: Boy, the pieces of this, Dana, are coming together pretty quickly. Obviously, the first piece today was the identification of the individual and it appears with the DNA material and the search of the house that the identification probably is either done or close to done. Once that happens, the investigation is going to blow up in a couple of directions. But, first, it's going to be the imminent threat. That is, is anybody else involved in this conspiracy?

The sense in terms of the law enforcement talking to Nashville telling people to sort of relax a bit tells you that they don't think there's a broader conspiracy. Then you have follow-on questions about whether people were aware of this, where did the explosive material come from, did anyone know about this in terms of a conversation with the individual who did this and are those individuals partly responsible for this.

And, of course, the question I think is already answered, the question I would have immediately, which is, is there an overseas nexus that might have been involved in training somebody else. A ton of questions that are moving quickly on but we don't have quite answered yet.

BASH: And we're sure that we know the answer to the last point you made.

[20:10:03]

I mean, we know that there's no -- or we believe that there's no active manhunt going on. That's according to law enforcement sources. But just because we can't see it, it doesn't mean that there isn't something along those lines going on behind the scenes, right?

MUDD: I agree with you. And I would say even if you're 99 percent certain if there's not a follow-on tail on the snake (ph), you're still going to search the 1 percent. We always -- when I was in the business, we'd talk about the 1 percent. But the fact that professionals are coming out reassuring the local community tells me that they're pretty confident.

Even if you have a sort of hint of a concern that there's an overseas nexus year, in that case, I personally would not want to be going out to the local community of Nashville and say, it's okay on the 26 of December. You're still going to say, we have some work to do before you and clean up some of these before you get out and reassure people, Dana.

BASH: So what happens next in the investigation?

MUDD: There's a ton of work. Regardless of whether you determine whether this was one individual who has a motivation might include somebody who's emotionally disturbed. Remember, in the Las Vegas case, that huge shooting a few years ago, I would have bet my paycheck you could have figured out a motivation. We never really -- the FBI never really figured that one out.

A ton of work here, obviously, the work in the neighborhood to figure out what all the materials were, there are going to be a lot of people doing the physical information. There's residue on that. What was the explosive? How was the explosive put together? The interviews of people, family,

friends, neighbors who knew this individual looking for everything from the potential for conspiracy to motivations, looking through social media, laptops, cell phones. So even if tomorrow we say we think on the outside that we have a pretty good picture, they got weeks of work on the inside.

BASH: Well, you mentioned explosives. I mean, that, right there, looking at the damage, this was, I don't know if you will call it sophisticated but a very powerful explosive device or devices that this apparent suicide bomber used. What is the way that it looks, given your experience? What does it tell you about what was used and how easily it could have been obtained?

MUDD: The way it looks doesn't tell me much yet. I mean, if you look at things like, for example, going many years, Oklahoma City, you don't necessarily need a sophisticated device to get this kind of damage, but there are a lot of questions you've got to answer. The first, of course, is did anybody help in the creation of the device but then there's a broader question that goes into how you put out warnings to people.

For example, if this is a kind of material that's readily available, for example, in a store that might sell fertilizer, is there anything that feds or locals can do to say, we should be controlling this more? There are bigger policy questions that emanate from this. But right now, I think the immediate question is going to be on that inner circle conspiracy, the people doing explosives are often in a different room.

BASH: Oh, and do you think it's possible, I know maybe I'm asking you an unanswerable, but you do have a lot of experience with this kind of thing, that this person could have acted alone to cause this kind of damage without any help from anyone else?

MUDD: Yes, I do. I mean, we had a category of person we called EDPs, emotionally disturbed persons. That is American people, myself included on this evening, the day after Christmas are saying, why did this happen?

A lot of stuff I saw was what we call, again, EDP, somebody who had a motivation that made sense to themselves, they might have some basic technical skills to get fertilizer and build a bomb, to get a timer. You can find some of that stuff on the internet. I think there's a decent chance this person could have acted alone.

But, again, you've got to go through a lot of interviews and then read interviews when you find discrepancies between people. And that stuff takes a long time, Dana.

BASH: Phil Mudd, thank you so much for your expertise. I appreciate it.

And President Trump has the coronavirus relief bill hanging in the balance with millions of Americans set to lose critical benefits if he doesn't sign the bill tonight. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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BASH: Tonight, while President Trump it tweeting on any number of topics, he is all but ignoring the crisis that is just hours from hitting 12 million Americans. After months of negotiations and a bipartisan bill that has gone through Congress, none of it may matter because for those 12 million people, unemployment is about to run out.

The stimulus relief payment they were counting on isn't coming at least for now in any amount. And the eviction protection that many need is not coming. It is disappearing and that is possibly going to happen if the president continues his Christmas getaway in Mar-a-Lago without signing the bill or even vetoing this bill now with him in Florida.

Also with him is Jeremy Diamond, who is in West Palm Beach, Florida. Jeremy, any sign that we'll hear from or see the president this evening on what he plans to do here?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Dana, there is a lead for the day, which means that we are not expecting any public appearances by the president this evening. There's always, of course, the possibility that he could take to Twitter, as he has been throughout the day.

We do know that the massive piece of legislation was flown down from Washington, D.C., on Thursday and it is with the president at Mar-a- Lago. But whether or not the president will actually sign that legislation or veto it, we still do not know.

We do know, however, that the president does appear to be digging his heels in four days after he made that threat to torpedo this $900 million of desperately needed coronavirus relief, the president taking to Twitter today to say this. I simply want to get our great people $2,000 rather than the measly $600 that is now in the bill.

But, Dana, if that were true, then the president could have acted on this weeks ago, months ago, even, by getting on the phone with the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, but the president didn't do that. He only started complaining about this legislation, calling it a disgrace after it was passed by overwhelming bipartisan majority in both Houses of Congress.

And we really cannot overstate the kind of impact that the president's refusal or even just delay to sign this legislation is having. 20-plus million Americans currently unemployed during this holiday seasons, 8 million Americans have slipped into poverty over just the last six months.

And the president could provide some relief, perhaps not as much relief as many Americans hoping for, but some relief for those Americans with unemployment benefits, for those Americans hoping to get those stimulus checks, whether it's $600 or $2,000 and he could just sign this legislation and provide some of that relief. But for now, at least, it seems, Dana, that the president's goal here is simply to sow chaos and lash out at those leaders in Congress who have abandoned him in his fight to try to overturn the results of the 2020 election which he lost.

[20:20:05]

BASH: Very important last point, explains a lot. Jeremy, I agree with you. Thank you so much for that report.

And I want to bring in Senior Political Analyst Ron Brownstein, he is also a Senior Editor at The Atlantic. Ron, thank you so much for joining me.

So, OK, the president is saying what he's saying on Twitter. You saw what Jeremy was referring to. As far as we know, he hasn't picked up the phone and called Mitch McConnell to say the Democrats on Monday, so two days from now, are going to call his bluff because they actually agree with him that they believe that people should get more money, not $600 but $2,000 in stimulus relief payments.

Is there any chance that this play that he's got could work, that there's enough support for the president and what he wants that Republicans will back what he is doing and rush something like this through? Any chance?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Boy, so far, it seems very unlikely. The Republicans have resisted a payment of this sort all the way through, as you know that (INAUDIBLE). And then on the flipside, if he does actually veto it, whether they could get the votes to overturn or to override that veto on the other direction from Republicans is very problematic

I mean, I think if you look at all of these pieces, torpedoing this legislation at 11:59, the pardons that he issued to cronies, the efforts to overturn the election, the demands on his outgoing attorney generals to appoint special prosecutors into his political opponents. When you add up all the pieces of what we're seeing since the election, it really feels like the final hours of some tin-pot dictatorship abroad, like a Samosa or a Noriega or a (INAUDIBLE) in final hours, as the walls closing in, angry, addled, vengeful, kind of lashing out in all directions. And, frankly, it is embarrassment for America at this point.

BASH: Yes. And the pardons are one thing, but what we're talking about here is a lifeline, literally, a lifeline for so many Americans for whom he is still the president of the United States. And as you said, and as Jeremy was saying, he has said for some time that he wanted more money. Republicans -- his fellow Republicans in Congress have largely been the ones resisting.

So, does he actually think that he's going to make a difference here or is it possible -- I know I'm asking you to look into a crystal ball that you may or may not have, you are good, Ron Brownstein, or is it possible that he has just got to get this out and he'll sign it at some point?

BROWNSTEIN: It's hard to imagine that he really thinks it's going to change the bill. I mean, this -- the fact that he was disengaged from these negotiations for months is really of a piece. It's parallel to the fact that he has essentially walked away from dealing with the pandemic at all.

I mean, we are living through a Pearl Harbor or a 9/11 a day in terms of death tolls, in case loads that were really unimaginable even in the worst days of the spring. And the president has essentially walked away. He is AWOL from his job. He is leading Americans on their own. And he was the same way in these negotiations.

So, the thought that he is doing this out of some principled desire to change the trajectory of the bill as opposed to kind of lashing out again, as part of all the ways that I've mentioned, that we've seen since the election, which is just kind of tearing at the fabric of the democracy, you know, it's just hard for me to imagine if he thinks he's really going to get what he wants here.

The choices will be to sign the bill or to let it die and to impose hardship on 10 to 14 million people whose unemployment will expire, 9 million or so Americans are behind on their rent by the best estimates and their eviction protection ends. We are talking about mass disruption and chaos but it is consistent with the way he has approached all of this looking it through only of the lens of what can it do for me.

BASH: No, you're exactly right. And our colleague, Manu Raju, reported last week, I believe it was, that Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, said to colleagues that part of the reason why they finally agreed to push it through what they actually did get passed was because of the fact two Republicans on the ballot for the special election in Georgia were hearing about it and they were hearing -- they were getting pressure because they're incumbent Republicans to actually get something done.

So what impact do you think this delay or maybe even the death of this will have on those two races which will determine the balance of power in the Senate?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Look, I mean, the Senate races have become so tribal, so tied to attitudes about the president that the effect may not be great.

[20:25:06]

I mean, in the last two presidential cycles, 16 and 20, we literally have one race so far that did not go the same way as the presidential race. In that state, Susan Collins this year is the only one to win a Senate race in a state that voted the other way for president.

But at the margin, the idea that this level of chaos could go -- the president could allow this level of chaos, could allow the benefits to lapse, Republicans, by kind of put the country in this position by waiting so long to make a deal with Democrats, so close to the deadline of the benefits lapsing, you've got to think that, at the margin, that is a powerful argument for Ossoff and Warnock, the two Democrats there, who basically have been centering their case on the argument that if Mitch McConnell continues to control the Senate, the state will not get the coronavirus relief that it needs. And I think that if this falls through, it could be exhibit A in their case.

BASH: Ron Brownstein, always good to talk to you. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

BROWNSTEIN: Happy holidays, yes.

BASH: You too.

And America has reached a sobering statistic in the coronavirus pandemic. 1 in 1,000 Americans have now died from COVID-19. And even with the vaccine distribution, we're not out of the woods, more on that ahead.

You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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BASH: We're following breaking news out of Nashville where investigators believe the Christmas morning R.V. explosion that injured three and damaged dozens of buildings was likely a suicide bombing.

[20:30:05]

That's according to two law enforcement sources. This is brand-new video taken from a nearby restaurants security camera that shows fresh footage of the blast impact as it happened.

Earlier today, authorities were at a home in Antioch Tennessee's, south of Nashville to carry out what they're calling court authorized activity. The RV and a photo released by law enforcement appears to match an RV scene at this site in a Google street view image from before this year. According to an official a tip about the RV lead law enforcement to this location.

And a heartbreaking line was crossed today in the United States. The coronavirus pandemic has now killed one out of every 1,000 people in this country. The number of COVID deaths in the U.S. today hit 331,000 and it keeps rising.

Also today, data from Johns Hopkins University shows that this month, December, is now the deadliest month in the United States since the pandemic began. As of today, more than 63,500 people in the U.S. alone have died this month from COVID. And there are still five days left in December.

Pope Francis, this holiday weekend, is pleading with those in control of distributing the coronavirus vaccines to make them available to everyone. In his annual Christmas message, the pope begged countries and medical companies to put competition aside and share vaccines with the world's most vulnerable and needy. Let's talk about the vaccine rollout with our medical analyst, Dr. Esther Choo and Dr. William Schaffner, Professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University. Thank you so much to both of you for joining me.

And, Dr. Choo, I just mentioned that we have confirmation that this month, December, is now the deadliest of the whole pandemic. Two vaccines are now rolling out, there is hope. And it's happening across the country and a few places overseas.

But the question is, is the distributions of the vaccine -- is it moving in a satisfactory manner? Is it moving fast enough?

DR. ESTHER CHOO, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Well, it seems like it's moving a little slower every time we come back to it. Of course, we had this initial optimistic projection that we might have as much as 300 million doses by January. And every time we revisit the number, it goes down that it was 40 million doses in December. And then an ambitious 20 million doses in December. And, of course, we've only distributed a little, over a million doses so far this month.

And I think it's just a very complicated thing. At every step, there's complexity, and there's possibility for a delay, whether it comes -- whether it's individual state planning, allocation, training, supply of vaccine, storage, which is complicated. There are just so many factors at this stage.

So, I think it's probably best to under promise and over deliver if we can, but we need to be prepared for the fact that it is going to be a slow rollout in many places, and that it will not change our behaviors or necessarily the trajectory of the pandemic in this country in the short term.

BASH: And, Dr. Schaffner, the CDC published some new guidance for people with certain underlying conditions and whether they should receive the vaccine. What is that guidance? What are those conditions and to whom does it apply?

WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, PROFESSOR OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY: Well, then the prioritization scheme started, of course, with healthcare providers, and then also added people who are residents of nursing homes. And once we get through that phase one, we'll go into phase two, which will include many essential workers and people age 75 and older. And then beyond that, we will have people with many underlying conditions, heart disease, lung disease, diabetes, immunocompromised, there's a whole great list of underlying illnesses.

And so as Dr. Choo says, as the vaccine comes out, we will be working to spread it out according to that prioritization scheme. Every state will do it, perhaps slightly differently. But we'll all be trying to harmonize and singing off the same sheet of music, as it were.

BASH: And Dr. Chu, what about people who have gotten the first dose of the vaccine? Should they consider themselves immune or does that not happen fully until the second dose? And then the other question is, can they still transmit the virus even after they get the vaccine?

CHOO: It's likely that the first dose gives you something, but really, the vaccine was developed as a two-dose course and it's only after the second dose that we know that it has the efficacy that was reported out, which of course for the Pfizer and the Moderna vaccines was incredibly high, around 95 percent efficacy for avoiding getting symptomatic COVID-19. And so it's very important, and this is part of our public health messaging that we really think of it as a bundle, that we plan on getting two doses and consider ourselves vaccinated afterwards.

[20:35:28]

The question you asked about whether we can still transmit disease, not just get sick from it ourselves, if we get the vaccine, is the question. And again, that's not an endpoint that has been reported out in these studies. You would think that it would also decrease transmission. But we don't know that for sure, so we need to wait on more data.

And that is why we have to act like even with vaccine in our system, we have to act like we still can carry it and, and pass it on to other people. So face masks, hand washing, social distancing will still be a very important part of pandemic control until we know better.

BASH: Yes. Well, we will be in masks for a long time. And Dr. Schaffner, I got to ask about this reported variant of the virus that is showing up in Europe, in South Africa. What are you learning about this? And how will that impact the current vaccine, if at all?

SCHAFFNER: Well, it does appear that there are at least a couple of variants that are, if you can believe it, even more contagious than this current virus, and they're spreading in South Africa, in England, there have been exportations to Europe, and likely already some to the United States. The important thing to emphasize is that the masks, the social distancing, the avoiding groups will reduce transmission of these new variants.

Also, apropos of the vaccine, those studies are underway. But so far, the predictions are that the vaccine will work against these new strains, perhaps not quite as effectively as the old strains, but those data are not here yet. Let's be patient and let the people in the laboratory sort that out. We ought to learn about that very quickly.

But we are optimistic vaccines are going to help us get out. But as Dr. Choo said, it's part of a package. We've got to do all of these things together in order to flatten the proverbial curve.

BASH: Dr. William Schaffner. Dr. Esther Choo, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Happy Holidays.

CHOO: Thank you, Dana. Happy Holidays.

BASH: Thank you.

SCHAFFNER: And to you.

BASH: Thank you. And tune in tomorrow morning for my interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci. That's airing at 9:00 a.m. on "STATE OF THE UNION," right here on CNN.

And still ahead, President Trump won the White House in 2016, while promising to build that wall. Can he actually make good on that promise before he leaves office? And if he does, could it lead to an environmental disaster?

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[20:40:44]

BASH: The Trump administration is rushing to finish building at least 450 miles of wall along the U.S. Mexico border before Trump's presidency ends. This is activists have documented what they call an environmental catastrophe unfolding along the border.

CNNs Ed Lavandera has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): If you want a taste of life on the Arizona Mexico border, ride shotgun in Kelly Kimbro's 1992 Desert beaten Ford pickup truck.

KELLY KIMBRO, ARIZONA RANCHER: We're not big time ranchers. We have a couple of cattle ranches. We make a living. We love the lifestyle.

LAVANDERA: It's hard to tell where the United States ends and Mexico begins on kimbro 800 acres in southeast Arizona

This year, that changed. The Trump administration is carving a 19-mile wall right through this wide open valley.

What's it like to see this massive construction project on your property?

We did not think it was necessary.

LAVANDERA: Construction crews moved in about a year ago. This is what the wall looked like across the San Bernardino Valley in February. This is what it looks like today. Some see it as a long scar.

KIMBRO: And the American taxpayer doesn't see. They hear, build out wall, it's going to secure this country. I promise you, it's never going to secure the country. Not any better than it's already secured.

LAVANDERA: In the final weeks of the Trump presidency, the rush is on to finish building at least 450 miles of the border wall. Customs and Border Protection officials say at least 438 miles of that are now complete.

As the coronavirus pandemic raged this year, border wall construction never stopped. For months, anti-wall activists have documented what they described as an environmental catastrophe unfolding along the southern border, cruise blasting and bulldozing through rugged mountainous terrain. Border Patrol officials say the new walls are vital to patrolling these remote regions.

DANIEL HERNANDEZ, BORDER PATROL AGENT: Good infrastructure buys us more time and gives us the critical seconds and minutes that we need to get to an area. But as of now, a lot has been erected and we're hoping in the future it pays off dividends.

LAVANDERA: The Army Corps of Engineers says eight border wall projects have been finished with crews actively working around the clock on 37 other projects.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good evening, my fellow Americans.

LAVANDERA: The question is, what happens when President-elect Joe Biden takes office? Biden has pledged he would not build another foot of border wall.

BRANDON JUDD, NATIONAL BORDER PATROL COUNCIL: There's construction is taking place. It's going to go up this mountain.

LAVANDERA: Brandon Judd leads the National Border Patrol Council. The Union has been a vocal ally of President Trump. Judd says it would be foolish for Biden to stop the construction now.

JUDD: You can see that that trench that goes straight up that line, those are the footers, what, you're just going to throw that away? That just doesn't make any sense because now, you're just throwing money down the -- down the toilet.

KATE SCOTT, ENVIRONMENTALIST ACTIVIST: You can't flat walk in anymore.

LAVANDERA: Halting construction isn't enough for some anti-wall activists.

SCOTT: Take the wall down in the areas that we need it to be taken down right away.

LAVANDERA: We hiked it to this border wall gates stretching the San Pedro river bed in Arizona with environmentalist, Kate Scott. She says, this construction is a deadly threat to wildlife that migrates through this area.

SCOTT: I can tell you, we wake up we cry. We study ourselves and we get to it because it's been so painful for me to witness this monstrosity.

LAVANDERA: But the wall also isn't being built fast enough for Jim Chilton.

JIM CHILTON, ARIZONA RANCHER: The International boundary. Yes.

LAVANDERA: This isn't the kind of wall you want.

CHILTON: No.

LAVANDERA: His ranch fans out across 50,000 acres in Arizona. Chilton is lobbying for a wall on this spot. He says, it's a low priority area because it's so remote, but he does have the ear of the border walls biggest cheerleader.

President Trump put Chilton in the spotlight during a rally last year.

CHILTON: Mr. President, we need a wall.

I offered the federal government 10 acres of land, over here, my private property to have a forward operation base. I offered it for $1 a year. I even told him, I'll give you the dollar. If you can't find one.

[20:45:05]

LAVANDERA: You've made the border patrol, the federal government an offer that you thought they couldn't refuse.

CHILTON: They said they would study it. That was four years ago.

LAVANDERA: Chilton's Ranch sits between a 25-mile gap and existing border wall, and he says it's prime terrain for drug smugglers. He's deployed hidden cameras to capture what he says, are more than 1,000 images of camouflage smugglers marching across his ranch.

CHILTON: My ranch is a no man's land. It's actually controlled by the cartel.

LAVANDERA: Laiken Jordahl has spent the year sounding the alarm about border wall construction in Arizona.

JORDAHL: This wall is purely political theater. It does nothing to actually stop people or drugs from crossing the border.

LAVANDERA: Jordahl drove us around Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, a breathtaking National Park in the heart of the Sonoran Desert. The tranquility of the landscape is broken by the sounds of crews building more than 60 miles of wall, part of it through this national park. He calls himself a disaster tour guide.

JORDAHL: They're pulling out all the stops to rush this project through. This is all trash.

LAVANDERA: Jordahl used to work as a U.S. National Park Ranger at the Oregon Pipe National Monument in Arizona. He says, he resigned after President Trump took office.

JORDAHL: It's really an insult for those of us who live down here. We're seeing our communities ripped apart. We're seeing these ecosystems be destroyed. We don't care what you call it. This thing is a disaster.

LAVANDERA: Ed Lavandera, CNN, along the Arizona Mexico border.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: And nine months into a pandemic, millions of Americans are jobless and increasingly desperate. For many, food banks have become a vital lifeline including families who have never imagined needing this kind of help. We're going to take a closer look at what it takes to feed so many hungry people. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:50:20]

BASH: President Trump has yet to sign that $900 billion COVID relief package, leaving Americans in limbo with 12 million set to lose critical unemployment benefits without his signature on that bill. In the midst of the winter, in the midst of this deadly pandemic.

Trisha Cunningham is the President and CEO of the North Texas Food Bank, just one of many organizations trying to fill the gaps that are leaving so many Americans in dire straits. Trisha, welcome. Thank you so much for joining me this evening.

And I want to show a snapshot of things in the North Texas Food Bank, and that you accomplished between March 30th and the end of November. You distributed more than 80 million pounds of food, providing more than 17 million snap meals. And this is really remarkable, at least 40 percent of the people you've helped were new clients, they've never needed to turn to a food bank like yours before. So talk to me about what you are seeing and obviously, the precedent that you're seeing set.

TRISHA CUNNINGHAM, PRESIDENT, NORTH TEXAS FOOD BANK: Dana, it's really, you know, unfortunate what we're seeing right now. We have about 900,000 people here in the 13 counties that we serve in North Texas, that are food insecure. And that means that they really don't know where their next nutritious meal is coming from. And it's every ZIP code. It's urban, suburban, and rural America. And I can tell you, probably most everyone knows someone who has been economically impacted by this pandemic.

BASH: And how worried are you about what's going on here in Washington? I mean, you know, being here in Washington, working here, covering politics and policy and legislation for so many years, you know, there are times when you know that what you're covering and what they're talking about matters so much to people in their everyday lives. But I can't think of something that has been so important to people as what is going on right now that Congress passed this relief bill.

And the President is saying that he's not going to sign it because he wants more, but even the basics, the $600 payment that is in the current bill, I'm guessing that for the people who visit your food bank, that would be something.

CUNNINGHAM: You know, it would be great. First of all, I will say, we could not have gotten to where we are today, if it were not for the assistance of the government. I mean, we saw nonpartisan support. I have not met an elected official yet that wants anyone to go hungry. But we do need this bill passed. We need assistance for families, because the role of food banks is to fill the gap. And unfortunately, that gap gets a lot bigger if families don't get assistance from the government.

One of the other great things that is part of this new legislation that's coming up, is an increase in SNAP benefits. They're 15 percent increase for six months. We've been -- we've been legislating and advocating for that for several months, because we know the people that take advantage of those SNAP benefits need it now more than ever, because costs have gone up, but their benefits have not.

So, with that, with the $600, with the additional unemployment benefits, and some additional food for food banks, you know, it will really help us to be able to serve those needs.

BASH: Have you been able to help everybody who's come to your food bank seeking help, seeking food?

CUNNINGHAM: You know, it depends on where the distribution is. You know, we had our largest distribution ever at Fair Park. Just before Thanksgiving, we serve 25,000 people over 600,000 pounds of food. And, you know, you see these lines that are just long and people are concerned. They're concerned that they're not going to have additional help.

And so they're coming to food -- to food banks to try to help offset some of the expenses that they have. We know that there was a teacher that we met at that distribution, that she was working two jobs, but she quit her second job because it was a hospice worker, and she didn't want to take the chance of getting her students sick.

And she said, I'm using my money to pay everything else, but I don't have enough money for food. And so, you know, you have these professionals that are -- that are suffering in silence, like teachers that are out there that need assistance, and they just need a little extra hope right now from food banks.

BASH: I mean, the fact that teachers who we rely on to, you know, educate our children have to, A, get a second job or, B, quit that second job and go to a food bank in order to survive, is just astounding and reprehensible.

Thank you for everything that you and your organization -- everything you do. Thank you, Trisha Cunningham. Appreciate it.

CUNNINGHAM: Thank you, Dana.

BASH: And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:55:41] BASH: I'm Dana Bash in Washington. I'll be back tomorrow on "STATE OF THE UNION" speaking with Dr. Anthony Fauci. And here in the CNN NEWSROOM at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.

Before I go, I want to mark the passing of someone in the CNN family and this is a tough one. Nine-month-old Francesco was the daughter of K File reporter Andrew Kaczynski and his wife, Rachel. She passed away on Christmas Eve of complications from cancer. Words are inadequate to describe how we feel for Andrew and Rachel who are dealing with the unimaginable.

Somehow, they found the strength to write a beautiful tribute to their baby girl who the family called Bean, Beanie, or Beans. In her short life, Francesca was an outgoing, bold and curious baby. She had huge deep brown eyes that followed whatever her parents were doing. She loved eating and being held close particularly in the evenings. They go on to write, "Francesca showed her parents a kind of love they never knew before and will never forget."

In lieu of flowers, food or gifts of any kind donations can be made in honor of Francesca to the PMC Winter Cycle charity event. The event donates 100 percent of every writer raised dollar directly to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. You can find more information on Andrew's Twitter account at K File and may Francesca rest in peace, and may her memory be a blessing.