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California Hospital Now the "Epicenter of the Epicenter"; TV Host Marcus Lemonis Discusses Helping Businesses in Nashville after Blast; A Look Back at Biggest Moments in 2020; Next Hour, Biden Will Speak on Foreign Policy, National Security Challenges & Filling Cabinet Positions. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired December 28, 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]
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Coming up, Nashville businesses that were damaged from Friday's bombing are now getting an offer to help. We'll talk to the host of "The Profit," Marcus Lemonis, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: All right, as promised, I wanted to get back to California's hospitals that are just overwhelmed by COVID patients but we just lost our signal earlier with Dr. Elaine Batchlor, a CEO of Martin Luther King Community Hospital in south L.A. She is back with us.
Dr., thank you for rocking along with me. Thank goodness for technology, or not in some cases.
And you were making the point about your staff, about your extraordinary staff.
And we were talking about how you have, you know, gurneys in the gift shop and tents to treat patients outside of your hospital. And you were saying you were even using the chapel in the hospital.
My question is: Despite all of your efforts, with a limited number of ventilators, a limited number of ICU beds, how concerned are you about having to ration care?
DR. ELAINE BATCHLOR, CEO, MARTIN LUTHER KING JR COMMUNITY HOSPITAL: Well, that's always something that we worry about. And we want to be thinking ahead in a crisis like this.
[14:35:06]
If we continue to see an increase in the number of COVID patients, we may be forced to do something that, as health professionals, we all really just loathe having to even think about.
BALDWIN: How do you do that? How do you turn away -- I mean, people will be forced to. How do you turn away care? BATCHLOR: So we don't actually turn people away. What we do is we use what, in the battlefield, is called triage techniques, which is doing assessments of each person's needs and prognosis, and using scarce resources with patients that are most likely to benefit from them.
BALDWIN: Understand. And since the beginning of this whole pandemic, we've talked a lot about how COVID disproportionately affects communities of color.
And I'll mention off the top, you all, your hospital serves largely Latino communities there in south L.A.
I'm just curious, for your patients that barely can speak, who are connected to a ventilator, what are they, or even other people in the community, saying to you about getting vaccinated?
Can you just -- I'm curious about the level of skepticism versus high interest.
BATCHLOR: I think we still have a lot of education we need to do in our communities about the vaccine. We want people to know that the vaccine is safe and effective. And it is the way for us to all get ourselves out of this pandemic.
We know that minority communities have lower levels of trust in health care and in governmental agencies. So we need to be the role models showing them the way.
Our staff at this hospital is predominantly African-American, Latino, Asian, people of color. We're leading by getting the vaccine ourselves.
Over a thousand of our staff have already been vaccinated. I received my vaccine. And I want people to know in our community that it's safe and effective, and it's what we all need to do to protect ourselves and to protect the community.
BALDWIN: Thank you for saying that. Thank you for walking the walk.
Dr. Elaine Batchlor, appreciate you and your time and all that you're doing there in L.A. Thank you.
BATCHLOR: Thank you for having me.
BALDWIN: You got it.
I want to get you back to another story that we were just talking about, that Christmas day bombing in Nashville that damaged dozens of buildings, forced people out of their homes.
Left business owners with another disaster to deal with after they've already been reeling, right, with the pandemic this year.
The explosion went off in downtown Nashville. This is the heart of this tourist destination. So the downtown business district was already suffering, as I mentioned, because of COVID. My next guest is already moving in to help those business owners. He is Marcus Lemonis. He is an entrepreneur and host of CNBC's "The Profit" and the new show, "Streets of Dreams" with Marcus Lemonis.
Marcus, welcome. Awesome having you on.
MARCUS LEMONIS, ENTREPRENEUR & HOST, "THE PROFIT" & "STREET OF DREAMS": Thank you for having me. It's not a very nice Christmas in Nashville, I'm sure.
BALDWIN: Not at all. Not at all.
I know your new show features streets like these, like in downtown Nashville, local businesses, small businesses that have thrived for years and years.
And you made this offer to help Nashville businesses that have been impacted. Have you heard from any so far?
LEMONIS: This process started when the bomber, you know, first obviously devastated the city. And we wanted to create some attention around finding out who that bomber was.
While all that was happening, I'm starting to hear from business owners saying, what are we going to do, how are we going to survive, how is this going to work.
We had COVID first. And we're not hearing from the state. We're not hearing from the federal government. We're left to our own devices. We don't know what to do.
And so we're putting out things to try to help folks figure it out. It's a real devastating process right now.
BALDWIN: It is. It is.
I saw your tweets and I saw that, initially, before we knew who the bomber way, you offered up this generous sum, $250,000 for a reward related to the capture.
Now that that's no longer needed, how much money are you willing to put forth toward this effort for small businesses?
LEMONIS: So I just launched, about five minutes ago, a program called "Nasville30dayfund.com. I put the first $500,000 in about an hour ago.
And that money is going to be specifically used to provide loans and grants to people that were directly affected by the bombing.
Obviously, I can't carry this all by myself. I need everybody to help with this.
I don't know when the city or the state or the federal government is going to realize that this is a terrible tragedy on top of COVID and that these folks have their buildings like that and their businesses devastated. [13:40:00]
And they are standing there along with nobody answering any questions.
And so I'll be there on Wednesday at a lock hotel trying to gather them up to solve insurance issues, real estate issues, inventory issues. I just don't know where else to start.
BALDWIN: Good on you. Sometimes it's almost like you need boots on the ground and that's when you can start banging on doors and, you know, calling up the folks who are evading you.
I talked to this guy, Rob Limb, last hour. He's the owner of the Nashville Downtown Hostel. Much of his -- beyond the facade of his building getting blasted, his business has been totally flooded. He had guests running out of their rooms.
So he was saying that's where he could personally use your help.
What is your advice, Marcus, for someone who can't even access his business to fully assess the damage?
LEMONIS: I think what we really need to do is mobilize all of these business owners in one specific place and talk to them together about the steps that will be needed.
People are frantic because they feel isolated and alone right now. So the first initiative is providing some level of comfort that things are going to be OK, their insurance policy is going to kick in, something is going to kick in.
But we do need to organize people and slow the emotion down and be logical about the process. I think, from my memory, I tweeted e-mails with a gentleman that does own that hostel and we'll be seeing him on Wednesday.
But, I mean, they're scared. And I would be scared, too.
BALDWIN: Rob Limb is his name. We can connect you. I know so many people will want to talk to you. You will be there Wednesday.
We'll stay in contact with you, Marcus Lemonis, generous, generous man. Thank you very much.
Just a quick plug for you.
LEMONIS: Thank you.
BALDWIN: You can watch his new show, "Streets of Dreams," with Marcus Lemonis, tomorrow night at 10:00 p.m. on CNBC.
Thank you, thank you.
LEMONIS: Thank you.
So 2020 will certainly go down in the history books. From wildfires in Australia, a global pandemic, and a presidential election, there were enough events to fill a decade. When we come back, we take a look back at the biggest moments of 2020.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:46:27]
BALDWIN: In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic took more than a million and a half lives, caused a global shutdown, and confined people to their homes for months.
But that wasn't the only event this year that dramatically changed all of our lives.
CNN's chief international correspondent, Clarissa Ward, takes a look back.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's been a year we'll never forget. In 2020, we witnessed world-changing paradigm- shifting events all happening under the cloud of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But what's the secret?
WARD (voice-over): And CNN was there every step of the way.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was very scared.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is no longer safe.
WARD: A stretch of bad events started off the year. Wildfires engulfed Australia with apocalyptic scenes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We can't see the fire but we can certainty smell it and feel it.
WARD: Burning up to 73,000 square miles, about the size of the state of South Dakota, and killing an estimated one billion animals.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not normal. It's like the fire's on steroids.
WARD: Lives were lost and thousands of homes destroyed.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: A day after claiming that Iran's top commander was planning to attack a U.S. embassy --
WARD: The death of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in a U.S. drone strike on January 3rd led to days of terrifying tension between the U.S. and Iran.
FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Saying that there would be revenge, there would be some sort of response from the Iranians. WARD: Threats of war and Iran's retaliatory attack on Iraqi bases housing U.S. troops.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: God damn! (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
UNKNOWN U.S. SERVICEMEMBER: I'm not going to lie I was scared at the moment that it happened. It's something that we were ready for.
WARD: Just hours after Iran launched that ballistic missile attack on two U.S. military bases in Iraq, a Ukrainian passenger plane was shot down in Iran killing all 176 people onboard.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: New video obtained by CNN seems to show a missile strike as a fast-moving projectile flies across the sky before striking another object.
WARD (on camera): But, Wolf, CNN has obtained new footage, CCTV footage that appears to show the dramatic and extraordinary force of the impact as that Ukrainian airliner slammed into the ground in Tehran.
(voice-over): Meanwhile in China, a strange new virus began to spread. It's presence a silent clock counting down to a time it would bring the world to its knees.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've got to grasp the scope of this. And 20 million people. That's what we're talking about.
UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: We've noticed a good number of people rushing to this train station. This railway station is located just a few blocks away from the seafood market, the epicenter. according to health officials. of this virus.
UNIDENTIFIED NEWS ANCHOR: Coronavirus is showing no signs of letting up.
UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was back in late December when Li sent a group message saying that a test result from a patient quarantined at the hospital where he worked showed a patient had a coronavirus.
But hours, after hitting send, Wuhan city health officials tracked Li down, questioning where he got the information.
WARD: Dr. Wenliang would pay with his life for his bravery, like thousands of other medical professionals on the front lines all over the world.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): I can barely breathe.
WARD: Shutdowns followed across the globe. Life as we knew it seemed to grind to a halt overnight.
[14:50:00]
UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: For the town of Nembro, the month of March was a month of daily death. You just need to look at the death notices here. This woman died on the 7th of March. This man died on the 8th of March.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Standing here, you not only see the ferocity of this disease but the silence with which it kills.
WARD: Empty flights, deserted city centers, and cruise ships floating listlessly through the open water, their trapped passengers hoping in vain for a place to port.
The virus made its way around the world like the Grim Reaper, taking victims as it spreads it wrath.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was called out last night to a dear old gentleman. It was his wife of many years that passed away.
UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: This video shows patients lying on the floor at a Madrid hospital.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These are bodies. And if just watching the video is difficult, imagine going through those containers in person looking for your dad's body.
WARD: On March 11th, the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic.
DR. TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS, DIRECTOR, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: Pandemic is not a word to use lightly.
WARD: By then, life as we knew it already long gone. Millions across the world living for months under strict lockdowns to try to stop the spread of the virus.
Face masks became a familiar sight and social distancing a way of life.
(EXPLOSION)
WARD: In early August, Lebanon was struck by a massive deadly explosion --
(SHOUTING)
WARD: -- sparked by the detonation of thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate killing more than 170 people and injuring more than 6,000 others.
UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is where CNN's office used to be.
UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: Something of this magnitude so unnecessary. This has pushed the rage felt by the Lebanese population to unprecedented level.
WARD: In 2020, CNN exclusively exposed a troll factory in Ghana backed by Russia that was actively aiming to influence the 2020 U.S. presidential election. (on camera): And let me tell you, Anderson, it's not where you might
have expected it to be.
This is the compound where the operation has been based. There's no sign for an NGO. We're about an hour outside of the city.
WARD: And a CNN/Belingcat investigation identified Russian FSB operatives who trailed Putin's nemesis, Alexei Navalny, before he was poisoned.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I get out of this bathroom, turn over to the flight attendant and said to him I was poisoned. I'm going to die.
WARD: After a difficult spring fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, most of Europe opened back up for the summer.
But despite the short respite in the summer months, the virus back with a vengeance in the fall and winter in Europe.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These things the Germans are doing now is they're putting a stricter lockdown in place a lot earlier than anybody would have thought.
BLITZER: A troubling headline coming from the U.K.
UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: Worry growing over a new COVID variant.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: The implications of this new variant that could be 70 percent more infectious but not more deadly in the U.K. are growing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: French border is closed. All day long, we've seen these police officers in (inaudible) jackets turning these 18 wheelers that you see behind me around with their goods.
WARD: Worldwide coronavirus cases hit 73 million in December. There were 16.5 million in the United States alone. And more than one million deaths globally.
A uniting global goal in 2020, a vaccine. And by December, we saw the first approved vaccines administered.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let the mass immunization program begin.
(APPLAUSE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And 90-year-old Margaret Keenan (ph) making history as the first person in England and, indeed, the world to receive the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine outside of trial.
(APPLAUSE)
WARD: A moment of hope that 2021 will be the beginning of the end of a pandemic that spares no one.
[14:54:09]
Clarissa Ward, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Next hour, President-Elect Joe Biden will deliver a speech on foreign policy and national security. He has just received a briefing from his agency review teams on those subjects.
Also on his agenda, filling some large cabinet holes, including his choice for attorney general.
Let's go straight to CNN political correspondent, M.J. Lee, who is live there in Delaware.
M.J., what will you be listening for in this speech?
M.J. LEE, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, we just got a little preview of what Biden is likely to talk about. We just caught the beginning of his briefing with these experts who serve on these agency review teams.
Interestingly, he started off by talking about some of the challenges that this team has faced, including navigating COVID-19.
And also some delays. This is clearly a reference to the fact that the GSA was delayed by a number of weeks in ascertaining Biden's victory.
So it's taken a while for them to get started on the work they have to do in meeting with current federal agency members.
He also just talked about how democracy, he believes, has been under assault.
He says that Trump's go-it-alone approach has hurt national security and that some of these global challenges he's going to inherit cannot be solved by one country.
[14:59:59]
So these are some of the big, broad themes that we have heard over and over again from the president-elect and that we expect him to talk about in the coming weeks as well.
BALDWIN: We'll be listening for it, as will you.
