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U.S. Warns of Possible Violence by Domestic Extremists; Frustration Over COVID Vaccine Access; White House Addresses Vaccine Distribution Issues; Mastermind of Daniel Pearl's Murder Released from Prison; EU and AstraZeneca Spar Over COVID Vaccine Delays; U.K. Announces New Quarantine Policy for Travelers. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired January 28, 2021 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: A dramatic warning from U.S. security officials of an increased threat from domestic terrorists angry over a lost election, emboldened by an attack on the Capitol.

As new COVID variants spread, so does the frustration over access to much needed vaccines. The latest from the U.S. and around the world.

And how amateur investors are going big on GameStop and sending Wall Street into a spin.

Live from CNN headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to all of you watching here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber, this is CNN NEWSROOM.

It was an extraordinary warning from the U.S. government. The gravest threat to national security comes from domestic extremists. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security warns that some extremists may view the U.S. Capitol riot as the catalyst for more antigovernment unrest in the weeks and months ahead. CNN's Jessica Schneider explains why this alert is so unusual.

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JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: This is a new bulletin from the Department of Homeland Security, and it is significant because it warns about threats from domestic extremists. Typically, when we see advisories like this from DHS, it's to warn about foreign terrorism threats. Like for example, about a year ago when there was an advisory released about Iran-related threats after the U.S. strike that killed Iranian General Soleimani.

But in this case DHS is warning about domestic extremists and the violence that they might cause because of the results of the 2020 election or even COVID restrictions. Now there is no specific threat here, but DHS s putting it this way, saying that they do not have any information to indicate a specific credible plot.

However, violent riots have continued in recent days and we remain concerned that individuals are frustrated with the exercise of governmental authority and the presidential transition, as well as other perceived grievances and ideological causes fueled by false narratives could continue to mobilize a broad range of ideologically motivated actors to incite or commit violence.

Now this bulletin also says that domestic extremists have been emboldened by what they perceive as the successful attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6th and that there could be further violence all the way into the spring.

Now this comes at the same time that there is increasing concern about the safety of congressional members. Some of the newer or lesser known members of Congress, they just don't have the amped-up security like congressional leaders do. And this is leading to concerns.

I've spoken to staffers on Capitol Hill who say that when they go home with their members, that's when there's the concern, they don't have the security. So now additional security is being added, some local police departments are giving security to these congressional members when they get to the airport or when they get home to make sure they are safe.

[04:05:00]

But a lot of concern coming on the heels especially of this new DHS bulletin warning, of these domestic extremist threats.

Jessica Schneider, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: And we're going to talk more about this in a few minutes so please do stick around for that.

The White House coronavirus briefings are back. The Biden administration's COVID team held their first one on Wednesday. They addressed vaccine distribution issues and said it will be, quote, months before everyone who wants a vaccine will be able to get one.

January is already becoming the worst month for the U.S. since the start of the pandemic with nearly 80,000 COVID deaths, but the White House says it's on track to meet its vaccination goal of 100 million shots in 100 days. CNN's Nick Watt has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFFREY ZIENTS, WHITE HOUSE COVID-19 RESPONSE COORDINATOR: This is a national emergency, 400,000 people have died. Everything is on the table, the states are getting better, the federal government is ramping up its support. We've got a long way to go.

NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): To vaccinate enough Americans, just over 25 million shots actually in arms so far. So, what else is new?

ANDY SLAVITT, SENIOR ADVISER, WHITE HOUSE COVID-19 RESPONSE TEAM: We are releasing more supply. Activating FEMA. And deploying many more personal.

DR. MARCELLA NUNEZ-SMITH, CHAIRWOMAN, COVID-19 HEALTH EQUITY TASK FORCE: We are launching a robust national public education campaign to make sure people know about this vaccine, the facts, and not the misinformation.

SLAVITT: To the very specific question of whether or not a factory can be retrofitted to mass produce another vaccine, that's something that is under active exploration.

WATT (voice-over): This, the first official Biden administration COVID-19 briefing but the president did not appear, just scientists, and experts.

What's in line on vaccines right now? The feds were distributing 8.6 billion doses a week, saying they will up it to 10.

GOV. PHIL MURPHY (D-NJ): It's not enough but it is a big step in the right direction. Let there be no doubt about it.

GOV. LARRY HOGAN (R-MD): The demand for vaccines will continue to far exceed the supply that will be available to us.

WATT (voice-over): The goal, sometime this summer, if not for Moderna and Pfizer to double dose every adult in America. Johnson & Johnson's vaccine hopefully rolling out soon-ish. But --

DR. CARLOS DEL RIO, EMORY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT GRADY: Up to now, if you look across the country, we are vaccinating more wide wealthy individuals, and in fact the disease is more in poor African- American and Hispanic individuals.

WATT (voice-over): Black and Hispanic Americans are dying at three times the rate of their white compatriots. But a CNN analysis of 14 states banded as of last week, white people were on average more than twice as likely to have received a shot.

NUNEZ-SMITH: We're going to have to take extra steps to get to some of the people who are hardest to reach and that work is already happening now.

WATT (voice-over): Right now average new case counts are rising in Nebraska alone. But --

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, DIRECTOR, U.S. CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: Now is not the time to travel. But if you must, be safe.

WATT (voice-over): The feds are monitoring those seemingly more contagious mutations first found in the U.K., Brazil, South Africa, and there are ways to stop even more mutations. Masks on faces, vaccines in arms.

WATT: Now one concern with the variants is that the vaccines might not work against them. Dr. Fauci again reiterating the vaccines we have work against all these variants, maybe not quite as well, but well enough. And also the vaccine makers are already looking into how they could tweak the vaccines to make sure they are the best they can be against these fast-spreading variants.

Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Health experts are saying people have to be cautious even after they get the coronavirus vaccine and continue to take precautions. At a CNN town hall Dr. Anthony Fauci explained why.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, U.S. NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: You could conceivably get infected, get no symptoms and still have virus in your nasopharynx, which means that you would have to wear a mask to prevent you from infecting someone else. as well as the other side of the coin where you may not be totally protected yourself. So getting vaccinated does not say now I have a free pass to travel nor does it say that I have a free pass to put aside all of the public health measures that we talk about all the time.

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BRUNHUBER: That was Dr. Anthony Fauci, and we'll have more on the pandemic ahead this hour.

Now we want to go back to our lead story, a warning from the U.S. government that the gravest threat of national security comes from domestic extremists. With us to talk more about this is Amy Pope an associate fellow at Chatham House in London. Thank you so much for joining us. So we've known for years about this threat. So help us understand what makes this bulletin stand out.

[04:10:00]

AMY POPE, ASSOCIATE FELLOW, CHATHAM HOUSE: Well we saw with the recent attack on Capitol that this is a group that means business. Right? And frankly it's not just one group, it's many, many different groups which makes it difficult for law enforcement to get its arms around. But in truth we know now that they will use violent means. They were plotting to kidnap the governor of a state that they didn't like, and we should expect they will continue to try to use violence to achieve their aims.

BRUNHUBER: Is this warning overdue? It's not a new threat so what kind of efforts were made within the Trump administration to sort of water down these warnings?

POPE: Well, number one, the Trump administration disbanded the group that was focused on domestic extremism that existed within the Department of Homeland Security. And when you don't have that kind of focus on a particular threat, it means that many, many things can fall through the cracks.

There's also that sort of disturbing effective having the president of the United States effectively validate the efforts and the angles of at least one particular group when it came to the Proud Boys. Which suggests that law enforcement and federal agencies especially has some confusion or ambiguity about how they should be treating this particular group and that creates a situation that is quite dangerous. Because it moves that there's not a particular, you know, one mission that everyone is focusing on in order to mitigate the threat to the United States.

BRUNHUBER: One of the effects that we saw from the president was the fact that the extreme has become the mainstream. I was stunned earlier this week, the actual Oregon Republican Party formally said that the insurrection was a false flag operation designed to discredit the president. So how do you fight the threat posed by this type of conspiracy theory thinking, which is at the base of so many of these threats when it's not just some, you know, fringe crank on the dark web. It's not even one rogue Congresswoman as we've seen but actually a concrete sort of mainstream component of the party.

POPE: This is what makes it so challenging. We can't imagine a situation where members of Congress would suggest that ISIS, for example, was some sort of credible political group or gave them a pass if they tried to attack a government building. This is the kind of thing that should be treated with seriousness. There needs to be evidenced to make sure that we understand where the threat is coming from. It needs to be looked at really objectively and dispassionately and we need to avoid injecting politics into that assessment. I mean this is going to go on for many, many years. It's become the political football and that creates a very dangerous situation when it comes to the public safety of Americans.

CHURCH: Yes. Very worrying, indeed. Thank you so much for speaking to us about this. Amy Pope with Chatham House in London. We appreciate your time.

POPE: Thank you.

BRUNHUBER: Four men who kidnapped and murdered American journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002 have apparently been freed from prison, according to Pearl's family lawyer. Three of the men had their convictions overturned last April. The mastermind of the atrocity, British national Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheik had been sentenced to death, but that was reduced to 7 years. Well, now he's apparently out. So let's get the latest details on the breaking news right now. CNN producer Sophia Saifi is tracking developments this from Islamabad, Pakistan and joins up now. What can you tell us about this?

SOPHIA SAIFI, CNN PRODUCER: Well this case has been going on since April 2020. Of course the murder took place in 2002. And these men had been languishing in jail since for almost 18 years. So it almost came as a shock back in April 2020 when a local court in the province of Sindh had overturned that conviction and there was an appeal filed against that, there have been many appeals filed against, allowing those men to walk free. It's been ongoing for almost a year.

There was a final decision made by the provincial court of Sindh last month which again allowed those men to walk free but has also been suspended because of the case being taken to the Supreme Court. There were appeals by the government of Pakistan, by the Pearl family. Which have released a statement calling this a travesty of justice, putting journalists not only in Pakistan but all over the world in danger. So these men haven't physically been released yet, they're still in jail, but because the apex court of the country has made this decision, they're now allowed to walk free.

BRUNHUBER: Do we know on what basis they've been freed?

[04:15:00]

SAIFI: So the initial reason that was given back in April 2020 was because they claimed that there wasn't enough evidence to prove that Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheik and his accomplices were actually responsible for the actual murder of Mr. Pearl. So that's the evidence -- the lack of evidence that this entire, you know, case has been formed on. And that's what they've gone with today as well.

So the government -- it's come as a shock, truly, to a lot of government representatives there in Pakistan because people that I've been speaking to, ministers, off the record, et cetera, they all, you know, conveyed a lot of confidence in the Supreme Court ruling in favor of the government and the Pearl family. So this morning's announcement and verdict is something that's quite shocking and is sending ripples across the country at the moment.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, a shock in Pakistan, a shock here in the U.S. as well. CNN's Sophia Saifi in Islamabad, Pakistan. Thank you very much. And we'll continue covering this breaking story as we get more.

Well, the rhetoric heats up over vaccine delays as the European Union and AstraZeneca take their spat public. We'll have the details ahead. Stay with us.

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[04:20:00]

BRUNHUBER: Some stranded motorists in Oregon got an unexpected COVID- 19 vaccination on Tuesday. After a snowstorm stopped a group of health care workers returning from a mass vaccination clinic, they realized they had six leftover shots that would soon expire. So the team went from car to car in the snow offering the shots to snowbound drivers with an ambulance on standby for any adverse reactions. All the vaccines were used, including one to a sheriff's office employee who intended to be at the mass vaccination site before getting way late.

All right, now to Europe where we're following an escalating and now public spat between the European Union and AstraZeneca over a delay in COVID vaccine deliveries. The pharmaceutical giant says it won't be able to supply as many doses as expected in the coming weeks due to production problems. But the EU is demanding that the company deliver. Saying dose produced at U.K. factories could be used to fulfill its order.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) STELLA KYRIAKIDES, EUROPEAN COMMISSIONER FOR HEALTH: Not being able to ensure manufacturing capacity is against the letter and the spirit of our agreement. We reject the logic of first come, first served. That may work at the neighborhood butchers, but not in contract, and not in our advanced purchase agreements.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: All right, our Cyril Vanier is joining us now from Paris. Cyril, so the U.K. and EU in tug of war, AstraZeneca caught in middle. How ugly is this going to get? And is there any solution that would make everyone happy?

CYRIL VANIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kim, well look, that's a great question. And the short answer unfortunately is no, because the vaccine is in such short supply and high demand, there just isn't enough vaccination -- vaccines of the AstraZeneca variety to go around for both the U.K. and the EU. That if you divert them from anywhere, that is essentially choosing which lives you are potentially going to save, and which lives you're not saving yet.

It's worth noting the AstraZeneca vaccine isn't actually approved in the EU yet, but that is expected to happen tomorrow. And European countries were hoping to hit the ground running. They have a pre-order for 300 million doses. And the money that have already paid to AstraZeneca was supposed to fund not only the vaccine research but also ramping up production facilities so that they could deliver at pace and at scale from day one. And now we know that is not going to happen.

That's why the EU is suggesting that they divert some of the doses that they're making in the U.K. Because by the way, AstraZeneca is delivering to the U.K. and has been doing so for several weeks now with no issues. The EU wants some of the doses sent to the continent. AstraZeneca sees it differently. They sort of thinks about in silos.

They have two different contracts, one of them to supply the U.K., one to supply the EU, and because the U.K. contract was signed three months before the EU contract, well the pharmaceutical giant says we're going to do the U.K. first.

The EU furious. The U.K. staying quiet about this. Boris Johnson was asked yesterday and he really side stepped the question because for the moment the U.K. is in a good position here. They are getting the number of vaccines that they need. It's the 27 member states of the European Union that feel that their vaccination program is really going to suffer from this -- Kim.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, absolutely. All right, well thanks for breaking that down for us. Cyril Vanier appreciate it.

Well the U.K. is dealing with its own hurdles in the fight against COVID-19. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the reopening of schools will now be pushed back as officials work to vaccinate more people. And the U.K. just announced a new policy of enforced hotel quarantine for travelers from 30 countries. Our Salma Abdelaziz is in London and joins us now live. Salma, lots happening in the U.K. as they try to get a handle on the variant that's spreading so quickly. What can you tell us?

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN REPORTER: Kim, I just want to start by saying if anyone was looking here for a sort of easing of restrictions, they got exactly the opposite yesterday. We've already been under some form of lockdown for almost a month now, since Christmas time. And the Prime Minister saying yesterday essentially, look, these restrictions are going to be in place for a few more weeks. We are not there yet. The key indicators don't look good. So what are the latest restrictions.

Well the first of course, is for travelers. 22 countries now put on a red list. Anybody coming from those countries must quarantine in a hotel. A hotel that will be provided by the authorities. You'll pay for that hotel, but you'll sit in that hotel for 10 days for your quarantine period. So a pretty significant step there. I want you to take a listen to how the Prime Minister laid out the ramping up of these rules at the borders.

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BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Under the stay at home regulations it is illegal to leave home, to travel abroad for leisure purposes.

[04:25:00]

And we will enforce this at ports, at airports by asking people why they are leaving and instructing them to return home if they do not have a valid reason to travel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABDELAZIZ (on camera): So for the rest of us, those are the rules. They're going to start really looking very closely. If anyone is going into an airport, where are you going? Provide proof, provide written proof. A holiday is not an excuse, Kim. So restrictions really being tightened because of the concern about new variants. And perhaps no country in the world understands just how dangerous these variants are than the U.K. itself. This is the first country -- the first country really -- to be hit hard by one of the mutations of COVID-19.

It has been a nightmare. It continues to be a nightmare. The country's health care system is on the brink. It still hasn't recovered. So the goal here is to protect the vaccination program -- that's what the Prime Minister said. We have over 6 million people who've been vaccinated. They want to focus on getting those injections out, getting people protected and keep those variants out of this country as much as possible -- Kim.

BRUNHUBER: All right, we'll be watching to see if those measures work. Thank you so much. CNN's Salma Abdelaziz in London.

A veteran diplomat is leading the U.S. State Department, but that agency is much different than the one he left four years ago. In You'll hear what he told State Department employees on his first day back. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: And welcome back to all of you watching here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber and you're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

U.S. authorities are again asking the public for information on the person who placed bombs outside the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic Parties, in Washington. Now despite getting multiple tips, the authorities still don't know the bomber's identity. The two pipe bombs were discovered on the day of the attack on the U.S. Capitol and were safely detonated on site. Officials fear the bomber or bombers.