Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Downtown Nashville Sealed Off after Intentional Explosion; U.S. in Holiday Season amid Worsening Pandemic; Concerns about the U.K. Coronavirus Variant; Possible Human Remains Found near Nashville Blast Site; Pfizer BioNTech Vaccine Distributed across the E.U.; Travelers from South Africa Face Additional Virus Test in South Korea. Aired 2- 3a ET
Aired December 26, 2020 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[02:00:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello, welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world, I am Michael Holmes. This is CNN NEWSROOM.
Our top story this hour, right now one of Nashville, Tennessee's, main entertainment and tourism districts is one giant crime scene. Experts from multiple agencies, trying to determine who blew up a motor home early Christmas morning and why.
The blast has been called a deliberate act. So far, suspects and motives are missing. But there is no shortage of destruction.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES (voice-over): Authorities say more than 40 buildings were damaged and what they believe could be human tissue could've been found near the blast site. There have been no other reports of any serious injury.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES (voice-over): You can see and hear some of the confusion, fear and see the destruction early Christmas morning. Only three people suffered minor injuries. One reason this was not a human catastrophe, the motor home was blaring a warning that it was going to explode. Another reason police believe that warning got people to safety.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF JOHN DRAKE, METRO NASHVILLE POLICE: Once they arrived in the area, they heard an RV giving out a message, basically saying that it was going to detonate within a certain timeframe. And a countdown would go on and then it would play music and then the countdown would start again. Officers immediately began knocking on doors and evacuating residents
here, not knowing if the bomb was going to detonate immediately or if it was going to go off in the time that it was stated.
We have found tissue that we believe could be remains. We will have that examined and we will be able to let you know from that point.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: More from CNN's Natasha Chen in Nashville, she talked with the mayor about how the city is dealing with the aftermath.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Much of downtown Nashville is under a curfew that began the afternoon or Christmas Day and goes into Sunday afternoon. That is typically to keep people away from the investigation scene, that now stretches several rocks, debris scattered everywhere.
This happened early Christmas morning, when people heard first heard gunshots, called 9-1-1 and then there was the odd sound of a recorded message coming from an RV, giving a countdown, 15 minutes until an explosion.
The mayor of this -- of Nashville said at least 41 businesses were destroyed, three civilians hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries. He said this was intended to create chaos, that the city will be resilient and rebuild.
MAYOR JOHN COOPER (D-TN), NASHVILLE: My message is, expect a knock on your door. It's going to, I think, be a puzzle on the streets for some period of time. But I expect them to solve it. And they are bringing their resources to bear, to be able to solve it. This should not be an America where you have bombings on the street.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHEN: We don't know who may be responsible for this right now. But police did say that they believe it is an intentional act. The mayor said the city will be resilient.
At the same time the police chief confirmed to CNN that human remains were found on the scene. They've been sent to the medical examiner for further investigation -- back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Thank you to Natasha Chen.
CNN was able to talk to witnesses like Betsy Williams. She said she was asleep when what sounded like gunfire from an automatic weapon woke her up. Here's what she told CNN's Anderson Cooper.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BETSY WILLIAMS, EYEWITNESS: It was sometime between 4:30 and 5:00 am -- I'm not exactly sure the first time we heard the gunshots. It was -- it sounded like an automatic weapon. It was very loud. And it woke me up. It woke us up.
And, you know, we didn't do anything to start with because you just wake up after you've heard that, well then waited a few minutes and it happened again. And so, we call 9-1-1 and --
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: So, the first time -- sorry, just to be clear, the first time you heard it, how many shots did you hear in a row?
WILLIAMS: I think it was it, you know, I didn't really count on, but it was about probably 8 to 12.
COOPER: OK.
[02:05:00]
WILLIAMS: You know, it was a, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, like that and it was very loud and so it happened again the second time.
COOPER: And then do you have a sense of how much time between --
WILLIAMS: And so it happened again the second time?
COOPER: How much time elapsed between the first burst and the second time you heard it?
WILLIAMS: You know, it seemed like it was probably longer than it actually was, you know. And so maybe it was five minutes.
COOPER: OK.
WILLIAMS: Maybe 10.
COOPER: OK.
WILLIAMS: And then it happened again and then we call 9-1-1. Well, then, when it happened -- it happened the third time and we called 9- 1-1 back, again, just to make sure and there were responders who had already come down there after we call the first time. And we noticed, we looked out the window and there was this white R.V. that was parked just across the street.
And so, it started playing this message, evacuated now, this vehicle contains a bomb and it will explode. And it I think they may have been playing some other things. It was a mechanized woman's voice, it was computerized. And --
COOPER: So, it didn't sound like a woman had recorded it herself. It sounded somehow computerized.
WILLIAMS: No. It sounded like it was a computerized thing, you know, how you have those automated calls --
COOPER: Sure.
WILLIAMS: -- and you have automated stuff. And that's what it sounded like. And that went on for a lot -- a good long while because by that time we were -- we called 9-1-1. Again, wanting to know, what should we do, you know, what should we do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Joining me now from Orange County in New York, CNN law enforcement analyst and retired FBI supervisory agent. James Gagliano.
Appreciate, you and your expertise.
What is your read on what we know so far?
It is fairly bizarre, in many ways.
JAMES GAGLIANO, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Mike, I think bizarre is the right way to capture what we are seeing here. Much of this doesn't make sense, yet. But in 25 years in the FBI and much of that time having worked post-blast analysis, a lot of times, we just don't have all the facts off the bat.
One of the most difficult things about these types of investigations is that the evidence is typically destroyed in the blast. This was not a tiny pipe bomb; clearly, it was something much bigger than that. I couldn't tell whether or not it was a sophisticated device or not.
I'm sure the FBI and the ATF and the local police working the scene have a lot more answers right now than we in the media do.
HOLMES: What is the difference between what police call an intentional act and terrorism?
GAGLIANO: A lot of it is nuance. We describe -- we define terrorism as violence or the threat of violence, in order to pursue some type of political or some type of social justice mission or aim.
What was interesting about this -- and I think you pointed it out at the top -- is there was a warning played prior to the detonation. The fact that this was done at 5:30 in the morning, Central Standard Time, if you were seeking to do massive casualties, this would not have been the way to do it.
Where you gave a preemptory warning where the streets and the buildings were not filled with people.
HOLMES: Exactly. The phone calls coming in about shots fired may have been to lure in law enforcement. We don't know at the moment.
What are investigators going to be looking for?
This is a pretty touristy area, so there will likely be security cameras.
GAGLIANO: It is a relatively small- to medium-sized American city and, look, we are in the 21st century. You cannot walk across the street without emitting some type of, what we call, digital exhaust. Whether it's phone data or hitting off of a cell tower nearby or an EasyPass or some type of device that, when you cross a bridge, takes a picture of your license plate, somebody knows something.
Look, all the years I spent in law enforcement, whether criminal or counterterrorism, there is no such thing as perfect crimes. I don't know how soon we will get answers on this, but I imagine it will be in short order. This does not look like it was a well-crafted, well put together conspiracy.
I could eat my words but in just looking at this, what I've seen thus far, I believe police will have some answers here in a day or two.
HOLMES: You know this stuff well and I heard a lot of people talk about sophistication and so on.
But isn't it true that car bombs can be reasonably low tech?
[02:10:00]
HOLMES: You don't need access to C-4 and so on. Fertilizer is readily available. You can get instructions online.
How much expertise is needed to do something like this?
GAGLIANO: Not much. You just pointed it out. Whether you go back to the early '70s and "The Anarchist's Cookbook," or what you find online, bombs can be very simple devices. If you go back to 1995 and the Oklahoma City bombing, you were basically dealing with fertilizer and diesel fuel.
Yes, you do need a power source and initiator and a switch but those are all relatively easy things to put together.
One of the things I think investigators will obviously look at here, every bombmaker has their own fingerprint. I don't mean their literal fingerprints although those can be recovered from crime scenes but the way they put bombs together.
If this was someone who did it for the first time, maybe, we won't have them in our rogues' gallery. However, if this is someone who had done this in the past, they do have a particular type of style, a particular signature, if you will.
And I'm pretty sure all of the bomb technicians right now, from the ATF, FBI and local police, are probably going through the debris and trying to determine what type of bomb this was, how sophisticated it was and, to your point, most importantly here, is this is a precursor to something else happening?
Is there a conspiracy or plot for more of these?
That is the number one thing that they want to get to the bottom of right now and attempt to interdict.
HOLMES: Does your gut tell this was some sort of message attack?
You make the point; they seem to go out of their way to avoid civilian casualties or a high body count, perhaps, trying to entice law enforcement.
But the whole message thing?
That was very deliberate. We don't know yet about the location, the significance, outside of the AT&T building and so on.
Does it feel like a message to you, rather than something intent on causing mass casualty or mass damage?
GAGLIANO: To your point, this was parked outside of an AT&T building. And obviously AT&T is part of a communications network.
Is this the type of critical infrastructure targeting that you would expect if this was an act of international terrorism and somebody wanted to, A, cause mass casualties and, B, massive damage to infrastructure?
It does not appear that way. If somebody really wanted to have people be hurt, there are three things in a bomb that cause fatalities. One is the overpressure, two is the shrapnel that's in it -- and in this case it was the actual vehicle itself -- and then number three is the incendiary effect, caused by fires and things like that.
Where it was parked, the time it was parked and the fact that there was a preemptory warning, it's almost like someone wanted to send a message. This could be something as simple as a disgruntled former employee -- and again I am not speculating that's what it is -- but it could be those things.
Police have got to follow the evidence. They're going to do that. And, Michael, I will guess, in the next day or so, I think we will have answers and some leads that end up panning out.
HOLMES: Hopefully so. Great to have your expertise, James, thank you so much.
GAGLIANO: Thanks for having me, Michael.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: We are going to take a quick break on the program. When we come back, coronavirus cases and deaths mounting in the U.S. How tough weeks are ahead, despite vaccination efforts.
Also, the more contagious virus variant first detected in the U.K. spreads to more countries. We'll talk it over with an emergency medicine physician.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[02:15:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
HOLMES: Welcome back.
A holiday season like no others is upon the United States, as the country hardest by coronavirus still grapples with the pandemic. It topped 330,000 total deaths on Christmas. That is according to Johns Hopkins University. And more than 18.7 million infections have been recorded.
California's numbers are spiraling out of control. It just reported more than 300 new deaths for the third straight day. Things are expected to get much worse across the nation, in large part due to the behavior over the holidays. Alexandra Field with that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This Christmas, the one we never imagined.
DR. PETER HOTEZ, PROFESSOR AND DEAN OF TROPICAL MEDICINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: It was January 1st of this year, when most of us heard about the COVID19 pandemic starting out of Hubei province in China. I just never believed that we would get to 330,000 American lives lost by Christmas Day and still accelerating at 3,000 deaths per day.
FIELD (voice-over): Almost one in every 1,000 Americans killed by COVID this year. In L.A. County, a person dies of COVID every 10 minutes. There are no ICU beds left in Southern California or the San Joaquin Valley.
HOTEZ: When our ICUs get overwhelmed -- and we saw this in March and April, in southern Europe and New York City -- that's how the mortality numbers skyrocketed. So, this is happening now all across the country. We are reproducing that Manhattan and New York City epidemic from March and April now times dozens of times.
FIELD (voice-over): Despite a clear warning from the CDC that travel can increase your chance of getting and spreading COVID-19, more than 7 million people passed through America's airports in the last week.
DR. CHRIS PERNELL, PUBLIC HEALTH PHYSICIAN: I think people don't think coronavirus will happen to them. They think coronavirus will happen to another family. But there is no safety other than those public health measures that we've been preaching from the mountaintops.
FIELD (voice-over): New travel restrictions go into effect Monday. Passengers coming from the U.K. will need a negative COVID tests within 72 hours of boarding a flight and documentation of the results. That, as concerns grow that a variant of the virus discovered there could be more transmissible.
[02:20:00]
ALBERT BOURLA, PFIZER CEO: We are testing to see if this new strain is equally sensitive to our vaccine and also will also be neutralized by our vaccine.
FIELD (voice-over): Pfizer's CEO Albert Bourla says he is cautiously optimistic that the vaccine will prove as effective against the variant.
Dr. Anthony Fauci now estimates that 70 percent to 85 percent of the country will need to get the vaccine to get to herd immunity.
DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: It will take maybe half a year or more for us to get to herd immunity in the country so that everybody is able to be protected from coronavirus.
And in that meantime, we still have to really double down and do the masking and physical distancing and avoiding indoor gatherings.
FIELD (voice-over): The suffering this holiday season, unprecedented. For most Americans, even the first dose of the vaccine is still months away. But another surge may be just days out.
DR. ERIN BROMAGE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: We've just seen daily cases just amplify and amplify and amplify. So, Christmas, today, is going to do a similar thing.
FIELD: Given the concerns about yet another surge after Christmas, given the fact that we've seen the numbers rise so sharply after so many major holidays this year, it should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone that at this point the CDC is strongly recommending that, for New Year's, you stay home, you celebrate with members of your household or if you're going to celebrate with your friends, to do it online -- in New York, Alexandra Field, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Joining me now, Dr. Murtaza Akhter, an emergency physician and assistant professor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Phoenix.
Good to see you again, Doctor. We've got the vaccinations underway; that's a good thing. But 3,000 Americans, still die every day. We've got people traveling for Christmas.
What do you see in the weeks to come?
DR. MURTAZA AKHTER, VALLEYWISE HEALTH MEDICAL CENTER: Michael, I think we will see people just like right after Thanksgiving, a surge of cases. I think if people gather for Christmas, we will see another surge. Numbers follow a very predictable pattern.
And it's unfortunate because, when I'm working in the ER, I see the marked differences that happen week to week and how many cases there are and how few beds we have available.
Whether you are a COVID patient or not, it is very difficult to get a bed and in particular an ICU bed. I think the same thing will happen a month from now and we're already in a very bad state because of what happened over Thanksgiving. So, we have a rough couple of months ahead of us.
HOLMES: I can't imagine how frustrating that is for you and others in your position. Hospitalizations are through the roof and yet there does still seem to be among some an almost ambivalence, like the bigger the numbers get, the less impact on some people.
What do you want them to know about what you see?
AKHTER: Yes, that's exactly right. I think some people are maybe living by the adage of a death as a tragedy, but 1 million deaths a statistic. They hear so much about it, maybe they've given up.
It probably is particularly unfortunate for those who have been doing a really good job of distancing and wearing masks because they're looking around them and being like, everyone is living their life. I've been doing everything right and I can't join the family for Thanksgiving or Christmas. And it probably seems unfair.
So, I think a lot of people are fatiguing out, even health care providers are, as you can imagine, fatiguing out and getting demoralized, because it just doesn't seem to be ending. That is a problem where you don't have a distinct policy clear from the top and for every state, everyone does what they want, and the virus just never goes away. The virus will take any opportunity to attack it has and, if people don't adhere to guidelines, it will just never go away until everyone is vaccinated. Even that may not even happen. So, it's really concerning.
HOLMES: I can't imagine the frustration for people like, you, seeing it up close every day. I want to ask you about this variant of the virus that surfaced in the U.K. It's disturbing in a way that so many other countries sequenced the virus cases so much more than the U.S. So, they know how widespread the variant can be.
The U.S. ranks way low on sequencing.
Is that an issue?
We don't know how far it is around the country.
AKHTER: Yes, I think part of the problem is we have so many cases, it seems like sequencing the exact genome seems to be the last of the concerns. In countries where there are fewer cases, you can see people trying to contact trace and figure out where the virus is coming from.
But it is so widespread in the United States, that is probably the last thing on the public health researchers' minds. Ideally, we would sequence the genome and contact trace, but we are so far beyond that we're just struggling to contain the virus, whatever strain it may be. So, I think that is something we're facing in the country. And when it
comes to a more transmittable form, if it's in the United States and it is just a matter of time, it'll make it that much worse. So, we are working to nip this in the bud but it seems like it will just be a matter of time before it's here and spreading rapidly here as well.
[02:25:00]
HOLMES: Yes, exactly. I wanted to fit this in before we go but one thing that is not being discovered very much when it comes to the vaccines is the fact that it is the wealthy nations in Europe and North America, which have the bulk of the supply and the health and also economic benefits it will bring.
What about the rest of the world where the bulk of the population lives, developing countries?
Are you concerned not enough is being done to ensure distribution isn't lopsided and the most vulnerable around the world are left out?
AKHTER: Yes, of course. This becomes a classic question of economics where the rich have access to more things than the poor. I think the easy answer is that's true of everything.
There are some silver linings; the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine was particularly meant to be widespread. I think that will be great for the global community. One, it's way cheaper; they made it a mission to try to spread it to as many as possible. It doesn't need as cold of a temperature.
In my opinion, the AstraZeneca vaccine's numbers are quite effective, and people seem to forget that, because we got so optimistic with the mRNA vaccines. The trials were run quite differently, by the way. Effectively, it should be somewhat similar. That is one piece of a silver lining.
The other is, there is a way of containing the disease. Taiwan had its first case in 250 days. It wasn't because of a vaccine; it was because of distancing and masks. So, there are ways of containing the virus, even if you don't have a vaccine. So hopefully we can control it in poorer countries. But it will take a global effort and the collective will of the people.
HOLMES: Well put, Doctor. Dr. Murtaza Akhter, thank you so much, good to see you again.
AKHTER: Thank you for having me, stay safe.
HOLMES: You, too.
We will take a break. When we come back on CNN NEWSROOM. We should learn more about that Christmas morning blast in downtown Nashville. Ahead, a witness tells us what he saw. We will be right back.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[02:30:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
HOLMES: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM, I am Michael Holmes, I appreciate your company. And a quick update on breaking news in the U.S.
A powerful explosion in Nashville, Tennessee, early on Christmas morning, is what police are calling an intentional act. A motor home, blaring a warning before it blew up in the city's downtown entertainment district. Dozens of buildings damaged, three people suffering minor injuries. So far, police have not mentioned suspects, nor motive.
They did say, remains were found, possibly human, near the blast site. They have been sent off for testing. At the time of the explosion, David Malloy was out walking his dog. He said he saw police activity and heard the recorded voice coming from the RV. Listen to how he describes what happens next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID MALLOY, EYEWITNESS: I had stepped outside, and our building is next door to the hotel. And the night manager was running around outside, saying, he had to evacuate the building.
I was kind of frazzled. Every corner had police cars. It stopped any kind of traffic. And I turned around, this would have been a couple of minutes before the explosion. I think the explosion was -- my security cameras showed it at 6:29. So this was a couple of minutes before that.
So, I turned around and an officer was walking towards me.
And I said, "Why do we have to evacuate?
"What is going on?"
And right then, the bomb went off. His back was to the explosion. I was looking at him, it was behind him. We were about a half a block away from where the explosion was. After the explosion, all I saw was this huge fireball from my side of the street, the same side as the AT&T building, move across the street and then up in the sky.
I did not feel any concussion from the explosion, and it was really loud, but it did not hurt my ears. The dog did not yelp. It wasn't anything like that. So, I wasn't aware of what kind of damage this had actually caused.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Eyewitness David Malloy.
We will be right back after a break. (MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[02:35:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
HOLMES: Welcome back.
The European Commission president says the region's first coronavirus vaccinations will take place on Sunday. The E.U. gave the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine the green light earlier this week. Shipments are being packaged and dispatched out of Belgium.
Officials across the continent are trying to avoid a third wave, while keeping whatever is left of this year's holiday spirit alive. CNN's Cyril Vanier breaks it down for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CYRIL VANIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was never going to be a Merry Christmas in Europe this year with millions of Europeans living under different forms of lockdown. But governments tried to thread the needle, each in its own way, between giving people a break at the end of a difficult year and allowing them to celebrate with family and limiting those same celebrations because we know they can spread the virus.
So here in France, the strict 8 pm curfew was temporary lifted on Christmas Eve. It's back in force already and family gatherings were limited to only six adults. In the U.K., battling a new variant of the virus, millions of people are being placed under the highest restrictions.
That means restaurants and nonessential businesses closed. The queen in her speech sent her thoughts to families who have lost loved ones during the pandemic.
In Germany, people wanting to attend church had to register for those services, during which singing was not allowed.
In Italy, the country is considered a red zone during key holidays dates, meaning movement between regions is severely limited.
And if that sounds bad, Denmark just moved into a national lockdown. Restaurants and nonessential businesses, again, closing on Christmas Day, after the country registered its highest number of new infections since the beginning of the pandemic.
And yet, despite all these restrictions, the reality is, it is very hard, if not impossible, to police family gatherings. That is why many governments are afraid that this holiday season could trigger a new wave of the coronavirus, starting mid-January -- Cyril Vanier, CNN, Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Several countries in Asia are seeing a resurgence of coronavirus cases. South Korea finding more than 1,100 new cases on Friday. That was just a day after it hit a record high of 1,200.
Japan also saw its highest number of new cases on Friday, more than 3,800. That is the third straight day of record-breaking numbers for Japan. Let's go to Japan, Selina Wang joining us now from Tokyo.
Worrying numbers there where you are.
SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly, Michael, great to be with you. The prime minister Yoshihide Suga is actually urging people to have what he calls a silent and socially distant New Year's holiday. That is, as you say, Japan continues to report those record-breaking COVID cases. More than 3,000 per day for 3 days in a row.
Japan, meanwhile, just confirmed its first cases of the new, potentially more contagious COVID-19 variant from five people who entered from the U.K. Japan, along with more than 40 other countries, now restricting travel coming from the U.K.
What is clear here, this outbreak is already gaining momentum in Japan. We are seeing hospitals very much strained. It took, for some context here, more than nine months for Japan to reach about 100,000 COVID-19 cases.
But in less than 2 months, those figures have more than doubled to now more than 200,000 cases. Japan has refrained from calling a state of emergency. But the prime minister has temporarily halted the domestic travel campaign.
Japan's government do not have legal means to enforce COVID-19 restrictions. But the prime minister said he is considering the use of subsidies and penalties to enforce shorter business hours for these restaurants and bars.
Meanwhile, in South Korea, this is another country that had seemed to have coronavirus largely under control for most of the year. But now South Korea reporting hovering around those record high numbers of cases at more than 1,000 per day.
[02:40:00]
WANG: South Korea had been considered a model for combating coronavirus with its aggressive contact tracing system. But it is now warning of its first lockdown since the start of the pandemic, it has already banned large gatherings and has ordered tourist attractions to close.
What's worrying about South Korea is that, before the previous waves, it had been easier to contact trace because most cases were coming from large clusters, like churches or nightclubs.
Now new cases are being traced to restaurants and offices, which are harder to track. It is important to put into context, the surge we are seeing in Asia and East Asia pales in comparison to the numbers we see in parts of Europe as well as the U.S.
But what this does show is just how hard it is to combat COVID-19, especially during these winter seasons, when people are driven indoors by cold weather and, frankly, are dealing with COVID-19 fatigue.
HOLMES: Selina Wang in Tokyo, thank you for your reporting, good to see you.
And thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. For our international viewers, "MARKETPLACE AFRICA" is up next. For everyone else, the news continues after a quick break. I will see you on the other side.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[02:45:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
HOLMES: Six police officers are being hailed as heroes for their swift actions, before an RV blew up in downtown Nashville, early on Christmas morning. Some witnesses said it was terrifying.
First, a voice coming from the motor home, announcing that the vehicle would explode in 15 minutes. And then it did.
Officials say, because officers moved fast to clear the area, only three people were injured. The blast tore into at least 14 businesses. What may be human remains was found near the blast site. No confirmation on that detail yet. Analysis is being done.
The Nashville mayor says the explosion was caused by a, quote, "deliberate bomb."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR JOHN COOPER (D-TN), NASHVILLE: As of right now, it does -- initial evidence does show that the early morning explosion was a -- was a deliberate bomb being set off in our community. And the blast caused injuries and catastrophic damage to this very historic part of Nashville.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Now the White House says President Trump was briefed on the explosion and will continue to get regular updates. But for the most part, the U.S. president has spent the holiday golfing at his resort in Florida. No word on this explosion from him.
And, of course, the golfing comes as millions of Americans, desperate for economic aid, wait on him to sign the coronavirus stimulus bill. CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports from West Palm Beach.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Now the president was scheduled to have a teleconference with military service members on the Christmas holiday.
But unlike in previous years, where the president has usually invited the news media in, invited cameras in to record the event, the president, this year, disinviting the news media from attending that teleconference with the troops, which means that we did not get any reaction from the president to that explosion in Nashville.
We, also, didn't get to get an update from the president on that coronavirus relief legislation. The president, earlier this week, putting that legislation into limbo, suggesting that he -- calling it a disgrace and suggesting that he might not sign that legislation.
The president complaining about a number of items in that omnibus spending bill, as well as saying that he wanted to see those stimulus checks to Americans, which are at $600 in that legislation, more than tripled to $2,000.
Of course, the president raised those objections only after that legislation was passed. And that president, in his two days at Mar-a- lago, so far, he has done nothing to actually get that piece of legislation amended or to get it passed in Congress.
The president, instead, spending time on both of his two full days at his Mar-a-lago resort golfing and doing nothing, it seems, to actually get that legislation through -- Jeremy Diamond, CNN, traveling with the president, in West Palm Beach, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Joining me now in Washington, D.C., CNN political analyst Josh Rogin. He is also a foreign policy columnist for "The Washington Post."
Good to see you, Josh. Let's talk politics; more golf for the president today but no signing of crucial paperwork. It is alarming, in many ways; the president doesn't even seem to understand what he is meant to sign.
He confuses COVID -- the COVID bill with the spending bill and attacks foreign aid funding that was requested in his own budget. It's kind of mind-boggling.
JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. What's crazy is that Congress actually flew down a paper version of the 5,000-page legislation to Mar-a-lago yesterday. And Trump didn't even bother to read it.
He tweeted, today, that he's been making calls and having meetings, neither of which claim has been verified. Regardless, it seems clear that he is not going to read the bill or sign it or veto it Friday.
Now Saturday comes another deadline. If he doesn't sign the bill by the end of the day Saturday, then actual unemployment benefits will cease. Restarting them will be very difficult. And real people will suffer greatly.
So while the president tweets and golfs, actual people's livelihoods are on the line. And, you know, 398,000 people signed up for pandemic unemployment insurance just this week alone. And those people are depending on Trump to do something and do something fast.
HOLMES: Yes, I -- I think it's 8 million Americans have slipped into poverty, since this summer alone. And -- and he's playing golf and the bill remains unsigned.
[02:50:00]
HOLMES: I mean, what -- what could be -- dare I use the word -- his strategy?
ROGIN: Well, as you pointed out, the president is conflating the appropriations bill with the COVID relief bill and attacking them, as if they were one thing. And in the sense, you can see that a pattern where he attacks foreign aid, attacks foreign countries and is using this sort of package to do that, you know, that's part of his strategy.
Another part of his strategy is to deflect the blame. When the eventual bill comes out and it only has $600 per person, rather than the $2,000 he claims he wants, he can say that's not his fault. So that's -- that's one strategy.
And -- and the last strategy is just to simply throw a tantrum because the president is angry with Republicans for not backing his electoral bid to overturn the election. And he is angry at Democrats for a whole number of things.
So in this way, he can really stick it to both of them, which is petty and petulant and sort of immature. But that's where we are.
HOLMES: Yes. And the thing that's headshaking about this, Republicans rejected an attempt by Democrats to pass a bill that included $2,000 direct payments to Americans, which is precisely the figure Trump demanded. So, you have this situation where Democrats say, let's do what the president wants and Republicans are saying, no, let's not.
I mean, what are the party politics in play?
ROGIN: Essentially, what Trump did was he handed the Democrats a talking point, just one week before -- or two weeks before the January 6th -- January 5th Georgia elections.
And what he is doing there is he is threatening his Republican lawmakers, his own party lawmakers, that -- he is telling them he can do damage to them if they don't support his efforts to overturn the presidential election.
And now, he is actually doing that damage. And these Georgia elections on January 5th come one day before Congress certifies the electors on January 6th. And that's the date that everyone's pointed at, especially the president.
So, he is playing chicken with his own party's control of Congress. And it's understandable why they don't like it.
HOLMES: Yes. So -- so, how might his actions -- or rather inaction -- impact public sentiment with -- with the January 5 Senate election approaching?
I mean, millions of Americans are going to, rightly, feel pretty abandoned by their government right now.
ROGIN: Exactly.
Can you imagine if you are a Republican, trying to get out Republican votes for two Senate candidates in Georgia, and all day on the news, all it says is Democrats want to give you $2,000 but Republicans are stopping it?
It's a terrible, terrible look for the Republican Party in this crucial time. You can add it to the lots of other things that President Trump has done to really stick it to Georgia Republicans, including challenging the Republican secretary of state and, you know, calling into question Republican voting machines, telling people in Georgia not to vote by mail.
All of these things are -- are -- are -- stand against the goal that the Republican Party should have, that President Trump, as the leader of the Republican Party, should have, which is, to get people out to the polls and to support these Republican candidates.
But for Trump, that's really not what matters. The thing that matters to him is his last-ditch effort to fight the election results, that -- of the presidential election he lost, and he is willing to take the party down with him, if he does not get his way.
HOLMES: Yes. Yes, it certainly looks that way. Josh Rogin, always a pleasure. Good to see you. Thanks so much.
ROGIN: Anytime.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Now nearly 4 million Americans are under flood watches in the northeast, as storms could cause rivers to reach flood levels. And another 8 million Americans are under freeze warnings that stretch as far south as central Florida.
(WEATHER REPORT)
[02:55:00]
HOLMES: OK. Well, it was a white Christmas in St. Petersburg, Russia, but it wasn't just from the snow. A mysterious foam was floating in the river and flying through the air.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HOLMES (voice-over): Check it out. Some people amused by the sight. Others, worried about what is causing the sudsy mess. Investigators say a chemical used to produce liquid soap might have been dumped in the area.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Hope so. All right. Thanks for watching, everyone. I'm Michael Holmes. Appreciate you sticking around. I'll be back with another hour of CNN NEWSROOM, after the break.
