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Millionaire Couple Poses as Motel Workers to Skip Vaccine Line; Hawley Votes Against Biden Picks, Votes for Election Challenges; Biden Signs Executive Orders Expanding Health Care Access, Undoing "the Damage Trump Has Done"; Pandemic Leads to Worth Year for U.S. Economy Since WWII; CDC Study: College Campus Outbreaks Put Greater Community at Risk. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired January 28, 2021 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[13:30:00]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: In northern Canada, a wealthy couple is accused of posing as motel workers to jump the line and get their shots.
CNN's Paula Newton is here to tell us more about who these folks are and how they managed to pull it off.
How did they do it?
PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's unthinkable, isn't it, Brianna. Good to see you.
The issues here is, think about it, how scarce vaccines are right now. As scarce as they are in the United States, they're even more scarce in Canada.
In the middle of all that anxiety comes this couple. People have called it stupid, idiotic, shameful, and that's just been the official reaction.
Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NEWTON (voice-over): The alleged incident seems unthinkable in its deceit and officials say residents are still shaken.
Authorities in the Canadian territory of Yukon allege Rodney Baker, a former gaming executive, and his wife, Ekaretina, from Vancouver, chartered a plane to a tiny community shortly after arriving in the Yukon. And allegedly, posing as local workers, received a vaccine they weren't entitled to.
MATTHEW CAMERON, SENIOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS ADVISER: I think there's a lot of people who are really upset. There's a lot of outrage here, still, that people would selfishly come to the Yukon and put our communities at risk.
(END VIDEO CLIP) NEWTON: It happened in the tiny outpost of Beaver Creek, close to the Alaskan border. Authorities say the couple flew to the city of White Horse in the Yukon earlier this month.
And instead of isolating for two weeks, as they were legally required, they chartered a plane to Beaver Creek, where they allegedly knew a mobile clinic was setting up to vaccinate everyone who lived and worked there.
Home to indigenous communities, the Yukon is especially vulnerable to COVID-19, with few medical facilities. Canada has given indigenous and northern residents priority to the vaccines knowing lives are on the line.
CAMERON: They went to a small community. And I will tell you, Paula, that has sent a shock through our territory. I had two calls yesterday with all of the first nation chiefs from across the Yukon, discussing how we can be sure to keep everybody safe.
NEWTON: What has been so unnerving, say residents, is the fact that they broke quarantine, putting at risk thousands who have sacrificed so much to keep the virus from ravaging remote communities.
CNN has reached out several times to the Bakers for comment and have not heard back.
The Bakers were charged under the Civil Emergency Measures Act, not for getting the vaccine but for breaking quarantine. Fines can reach $500 Canadian and up to six months in prison, or both.
The Bakers were each fined maximum and a surcharge. And the Royal Canadian Mounted Police tell CNN they are still being investigating.
While the couple has not been fined for actually getting the vaccine, the Canadian minister in charge of vaccination rollout in indigenous communities says the Bakers should do more.
MARC MILLER, INDIGENOUS SERVICES MINISTER: I'm disgusted. And I understand these people are wealthy, and I won't tell them what to do with their money, but perhaps reparations are due on some level.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NEWTON: Imagine, Brianna, they haven't gotten so much as an apology.
We have reached out to the Bakers. Nothing yet.
But given how hard this community has worked to keep COVID out, the fact that this people would jump the line to get a vaccine in a place that really needs it, they don't have hospitals that you and I can go to, you know, with a car ride, it's just appalling. And the backlash just continues -- Brianna?
KEILAR: Yes, flying their private jet in to pose as motel workers.
Paula, thank you for that report. He's one of the Republican Senators who led the charge to overturn
election results. See how Josh Hawley has been voting this year.
Plus, dozens of lawmakers fearing for their safety make a please to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
And speaking of, a Republican congressman is going to Liz Cheney's district today to rile up anger over her vote to impeach former President Trump.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:37:28]
KEILAR: He's one of the more prominent leaders of the so-called Sedition Caucus.
Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, who pushed the big lie so far that he took it all the way to the finish line and even past, pushing the big lie before and after a mob broke into the capitol in the very chamber where he championed the baseless claim that President Trump won the 2020 election.
You probably remember this photo of him, Hawley, outside of the capitol where he had gone to show solidarity with Trump supporters gathered outside before they forced their way inside the building.
Well, he's now denying any role in the riot. Quote, "To equate leading a debate on the floor of the Senate with inciting violence is a lie. It's dangerous."
Hawley was the first Senator who vowed to object to Joe Biden's win. And now he's complaining about how a publishing company dropped his book deal in the wake of the capitol siege, going on FOX and writing op-eds that he's a victim of cancel culture.
That's right. The guy who explains about not having a platform goes on national television -- just look here -- he goes on the Senate floor, and he writes columns that get published to complain about not having access to platforms. And, yes, he does it all without irony.
He writes, quote, "The alliance of leftist and woke capitalists hopes to regulate the inner-most thoughts of every American from school age to retirement."
After Joe Biden's inauguration, he has also developed a reflexive tick of voting no on practically everything.
The Senate confirms Anthony Blinken as secretary of state, 78 to 22. Hawley is a nay. The Senate confirms Janet Yellen as the first female treasury secretary, 84 to 15. Hawley is a nay. The Senate confirms retired General Lloyd Austin as the first African-American defense secretary, 93 to two. Hawley is a nay.
And of course, Hawley also voted against the waiver to speed up Austin's confirmation. The Senate confirms Avril Haines as the first female director of
National Intelligence, 84 to 10. Nay for Hawley.
And of course, he voted against proceeding on impeachment proceedings and on the point or order about whether the trial was constitutional.
The only two things that he's voted yea on, challenge the electoral vote count of Arizona, which happened hours before the insurrection, and challenging the electoral vote count of Pennsylvania, which happened hours after the insurrection.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HAWLEY: This is the place where those objections are to be heard and dealt with, debated, and finally resolved. In this lawful means, peacefully, without violence, without attacks, without bullets.
[13:40:06]
And so, Mr. President, let me just say now briefly, in lieu of speaking about it later, a word about Pennsylvania.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: And Hawley insists none of this is about his ambition for higher office, not the photo op, not the book deal, not the constant profile management on FOX.
Not the support of a lie that that Stanford grad and Yale grad is smart enough to know that it's a B.S. sandwich masquerading as red meat for conspiracy theorists.
Nope. Hawley insists any talk of a 2024 run for president is bogus.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HAWLEY: No, Maria, I've always said that I'm not running for president.
There's a lot of work to do. And I look forward to continuing to fight for Missouri every day that I can.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Now, sure, he wouldn't be the first person to backpedal on that proclamation. He could, in fact, join a long line of politicians who once said they were not running for president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TIM RUSSERT, FORMER MODERATOR, MEET THE PRESS: So you will not run for president or vice president in 2008?
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I will not.
I stand before you today to announce my candidacy for president of the United States of America!
(CHEERING)
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): I am not running for president in 2020.
My name is Elizabeth Warren. I'm running for president of the United States.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, ma'am.
UNIDENTIFIED NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Can you tell New Yorkers who plan to vote for you on November 6th that you will, if re-elected, serve out your six-year Senate term?
SEN. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND (D-NY): I will.
Just to make this clear, you're saying you will not get out of the race. You will not run for president. You will serve your six years>
GILLIBRAND: I will serve my six-year term.
Your bravery inspires me every day, and that is why I'm running for president of the United States!
(CHEERING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: But let's not look to other politicians when we can look to Hawley himself.
When he was in the Missouri House, campaigning to be the state's attorney general, he criticized others for using their jobs as steppingstones.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HAWLEY: Jefferson City is full of career politicians just climbing the ladder, using one office to get another. I'm Josh Hawley. I think you deserve better.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: But maybe they didn't.
In Hawley's very first year as A.G., as Missouri Republicans encouraged him to run for U.S. Senate, he insisted, quote, "I'm working very hard at the job that people expected me to do. It is very early to think about any future election with so much pressing work to do."
Less than four months later, Hawley formed his Senate exploratory committee.
And in moments, President Biden announces big moves involving health care that will reverse Trump policies. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I know you've been briefed by the health care team on what this is about. And there's an easy and quick way for us to describe this.
It's been a busy week and I've signed executive orders, tackle COVID- 19, the economic climate crisis, as well as advancing racial equity.
But today, we're about to sign two executive orders that are, basically, the best way to describe them, to undo the damage Trump has done.
There's nothing new that we're doing here other than restoring the Affordable Care Act and restoring the Medicaid to the way it was before Trump became president, which, by fiat, he changed, made it more inaccessible, more difficult for people to qualify or those two items, the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid.
[13:45:02]
And the second order I'm going to be signing also changes what the president -- what the former president has done, and it will reverse the attack on women's health access.
And as we continue to battle COVID-19, even more critical that Americans have more meaningful access to health care.
That's what I'm about to do.
And, again, I'm not initiating any new law, any new aspect of the law. This is going back to what the situation was prior to the former president's executive order.
And the first one I'm going to be signing here in the Strength in Medicaid and Affordable the Care Act.
And of all time, we need to reinstate and if we ever needed to extend access to Medicaid is now in the middle of this COVID crisis.
And the second order I'm signing relates to protecting women's health at home and abroad. And it reinstates the changes that were made in Title X and other things making it hard for women to have access to affordable health care as it relates to her reproductive rights.
I'm sorry you had to stand in the cold.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, guys!
(CROSSTALK)
BIDEN: We got a lot to do. And the first thing I have to do is get this COVID package passed.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)
BIDEN: No one requires me to do anything.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, guys. Thank you, thank you!
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, guys! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
KEILAR: All right. No answers to those questions today from the White House press pool. President Biden was asked a number. He didn't answer.
I want to bring in Kaitlan Collins, our chief White House correspondent, and also "Kaiser Health News" chief Washington correspondent, Julie Rovner, with us.
Kaitlan, these are orders that pertain to health care. Give us the highlights here.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, another day, another round of executive orders.
These are about these promises Joe Biden made to the campaign trail to really bolster the Affordable Care Act. That was put in place when he was Barack Obama's vice president.
One of the things he was doing today, as he talked there, about undoing the damage he believed his predecessor did, was opening these federal exchanges for enrollment.
The last president, President Trump, had limited the enrollment, cutting it off at six weeks. This would call on the Department of Health and Human Services to expand that to go from halfway in February to halfway in May. So a longer period there.
Of course, this comes after you saw President Trump try every which way he could to undo the Affordable Care Act. He did not succeed in doing that in his first four years in office, given with what we saw on Capitol Hill.
What you're seeing President Biden do now is try to bolster that in part of these steps they are taking on health care.
In addition to that, he's also signing the executive orders strengthening Medicaid. When he was talking about reproductive rights, that's on the Mexico City policy he's rescinding. That's on abortion. Several steps there.
But it is another day where we're seeing him largely focused on these executive orders as a way to try to enact his agenda, even though they're getting criticism on Capitol Hill about how many executive orders that they're doing.
But this are focused on health care and strengthening the Affordable Care Act and reopening those federal exchange enrollment periods.
KEILAR: So, Julie, what is the practical impact of that, reopening the ACA enrollment for three months?
JULIE ROVNER, CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, "KAISER HEALTH NEW": There was a lot of urging from the Trump administration to do this last summer when so many people were losing their jobs and health insurance.
When you lose your job and health insurance, you're eligible for your own special enrollment period. But it's complicated and people didn't really know about it. And there was a lot of urging just to have another regular open enrollment. That's what this is.
But it's important to point out that, with the exception of that and the rescinding the Mexico City policy, which he can do by executive order, most of what's in these orders is just the beginning of a process. They'll have to reverse regulations. That's going tie a lot of time and a lot of effort.
A lot of things that were done to the Affordable Care Act and done to reproductive rights were done by regulation and they'll have to be undone by regulation.
[13:50:09]
KEILAR: You always explain it so well, Julie.
Kaitlan, thank you so much for your report there from the White House as well.
We have some breaking news.
South Carolina has just detected the first U.S. cases of a coronavirus variant first seen in South Africa.
Plus, Dr. Fauci acknowledges the struggle of getting the vaccine to communities of color is very real. We'll talk to a doctor about how to fix it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:55:13]
KEILAR: Stuck in the grip of a deadly pandemic, today we learned 2020 was the worst year for the U.S. economy since World War II. The virus putting an end to the longest U.S. economic expansion on record.
CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich reports, the shrinking economy triggered skyrocketing demand for food stamps.
VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, the number of people on food stamps rose dramatically last year. That pushed government spending on the program to about $90 million in order to meet the need That's up 50 percent from the year before.
We're seeing this because of massive job losses and slow recovery to get Americans back to work.
Now you have nearly 43 million Americans on food stamps. But oftentimes they're supplementing that along with also going to food banks.
This is all coming at a time when, before the pandemic, the amount of people on food stamps was actually at a decline.
Now we can expect spending on food stamps to increase this year as President Biden signs an executive order last week boosting the amount of money families will get that have children, who are now eating meals at home.
As well as expanding benefits for about 12 million Americans who previously missed out.
But the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill takes it further. Planning to extend the 15 percent increase of food stamps through September instead of having it expire in June.
He also calls for another $3 billion to the program specifically for women and children -- Brianna?
KEILAR: Vanessa, thank you.
A new study just out today from the CDC that finds college campuses may put communities around them at greater risk for COVID-19.
CNN Jacqueline Howard joins us on this.
Jacqueline, what can you tell us about this new report?
JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: That's right, Brianna. Two reports that were just published by the CDC. One report is from Wisconsin where researchers found that COVID-19 outbreaks on college campus there were followed by subsequent outbreaks in other places in the community.
Here's what the report says. These three types of places have the largest number of COVID-19 cases linked with outbreaks, long-term care facilities, colleges or universities, and correctional facilities.
Then the other report, Brianna, explained how one unnamed medium-sized university in Indiana responded to a COVID-19 outbreak. The university switched to online classes. But it required on-campus students to stay on campus, and off-campus students to stay off campus. The report says that that helped -- Brianna?
KEILAR: Jacqueline, thank you.
More on our breaking news. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the threat to lawmakers is from inside the House of Representatives.
Plus, he was fired from FOX, but now a political editor speaking out about, quote, "hype men" helping Trump try to steal an election.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
