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Interview with Chief Science Officer of the CDC COVID Response Team John Brooks; Former President Trump Raised $31 Million; FBI Probe is Largest Since 9/11. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired February 01, 2021 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

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MELISSA MCKINLAY, COMMISSIONER, PALM BEACH COUNTY, FLORIDA: Where's he been? So all of a sudden, now that we've had a transfer of power, he now recognizes that there's a vaccine supply problem?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Palm Beach County Commissioner Melissa McKinlay says it's not just a supply problem.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're the only county where all this vaccine is going to Publix.

FLORES (voice-over): There was going to be a distribution problem too. In her county, Publix was going to be the only entity distributing the vaccine.

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): Ninety percent of their seniors live within a mile and a half of at least one Publix.

MCKINLAY: That's true on the urban side of Palm Beach County. Obviously it's not true on the rural side of Palm Beach County. That 10 percent that doesn't live within that radius, they all live in my district. And that's where the inequity falls.

TEXT: Melissa McKinlay: Just got off phone with @FLSERT Director @JaredEMoskowitz. A portion of vaccines that were heading to PBC Publix will be diverted back to @healthcaredist & @HealthyFLPBC to serve areas where @Publix isn't an option! State also planning to setup POD in Belle Glade. Thank you

FLORES (voice-over): After Commissioner McKinlay's public comments, the state redirected vaccines to rural areas of Palm Beach County not serviced by Publix.

As for Evelyn's first dose?

FLORES: So how did it go, Evelyn?

EVELYN AUB, FLORIDA RESIDENT: Perfectly. No problem whatsoever.

FLORES (voice-over): Pre-vaccine times look very similar to post- vaccine times because she knows the shots aren't foolproof.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FLORES: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced last week that this week, the state is slated to receive about 307,000 first doses of the vaccine. That's about 40,000 more than prior allotments. And Jim and Poppy, he says that 40,000 isn't that big of a boost, but of course that he's going to make good use of that vaccine -- Jim and Poppy.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Rosa Flores, thanks very much.

So this could be some news parents have been waiting to hear -- I certainly have -- a new study shows that schools are not super- spreader --

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Right.

SCIUTTO: -- COVID environments they were feared to be. Here is the director of the CDC on this.

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ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: Accumulating data suggests school settings do not result in rapid spread of COVID-19 when mitigation measures are followed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: We are joined now by Dr. John Brooks, chief science officer of the CDC COVID Response Team. It is very good to have you. Jim and I really are looking forward to talking to you, and so many parents and teachers and school administrators watching, so thank you very much.

JOHN BROOKS, CHIEF SCIENCE OFFICER, CDC COVID RESPONSE TEAM: It's my pleasure, thank you.

HARLOW: Can you very clearly state for most or all of America what do the CDC findings tell us? Because I know you studied Wisconsin closely, but does it apply everywhere?

BROOKS: Right. So you're referring to a publication we put out last week, where we looked at schools in Wisconsin over -- from the time period of September to November, about 4,500 faculty as well as students, and looked at transmission in the school versus in the community. And remarkably, although there were 191 children and staff infected in the school, only seven of those transmissions could be attributed to having occurred in the school.

What that tells us is that the schools are not the incubators we feared they might be for spreading infection. We're just not seeing, in this example and others that we've looked at, that rapid rates of infection are occurring in schools the way that we've seen them in other places where people get together in large numbers, like meatpacking plants or jails and prisons or homeless shelters.

So I think this is very reassuring. SCIUTTO: Dr. Brooks, can you tell us why? Is that because the

mitigation measures, is it because children are not -- I know there's been some data on this -- are not the biggest vectors, right, for transmitting the disease?

BROOKS: Yes. Let me speak to the mitigation measures, but I'll just say the jury is still a little bit out about whether children are more or less likely to be infected. But in this setting, we're not seeing them transmitting frequently to each other or to the staff there.

You know, it really comes down to the mitigation measures. I mean, the schools that have been successful, like this one in Wisconsin, they had a very high level of mask-wearing, rather, 92 percent of the students and staff wore masks.

You know, other measures that are really important that schools have undertaken and seemed to be working are de-densifying the classroom, so limiting the number of kids that are there. Social distancing, you know, making sure kids stay far enough apart that they're protected.

Some schools have instituted testing, screening programs so that they can rapidly detect when somebody's infected, and then take action to prevent it from spreading within the school.

HARLOW: Did you -- was this district you looked at specifically in Wisconsin wealthier, with newer buildings? Or middle of the road, or did they have older buildings? Because there's a question of ventilation, et cetera. Because it sounds like what you're saying is it really was almost all the mask-wearing, which technically any school district could do no matter how old their building is or how poor the ventilation is. Right?

BROOKS: Well, that's correct. I mean, let me put it this way. I'm going to use this model of swiss cheese, I'm sure you've heard it before. That, you know, we want to layer on mitigation strategies and together, they really give us the most benefit. So do what you can in the situation you've got. Masking is something that everybody can do, social distancing is something that everybody can do.

[10:35:08]

Ventilation's important. There was an outbreak in a high school in Israel where, during their summer, they had the spread of the infection very quickly. One of the things that may have contributed was they had air conditioners in the room that recycled the air conditioning and didn't bring in any fresh air.

So ventilation's important if you're able to take advantage of bringing in fresh air, and there are a lot of ways to go about it, our website can give you some instructions. That's another method you can use to protect the kids.

HARLOW: This is so informative. If we had more time, we have a million questions for you so please come back, Dr. Brooks, and thank you. BROOKS: Be my great pleasure. You know, we look at our children as

our future. I just want to reassure people that education, education is what ensures that future for our children, so let's keep them in school.

SCIUTTO: No question.

HARLOW: Thank you, thanks very much, Doctor.

Well, former President Trump's debunked claims of voter fraud lost him case after case in the courts across the country, but they helped him raise millions of dollars in the final weeks of 2020. Coming up, how he will spend that money.

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SCIUTTO: New filings show that President Trump took in millions of dollars as he continuously pushed baseless and debunked claims of voter fraud. In fact, using those baseless claims to get people to give him money. The former president's political action committee raised more than $31 million in just the final weeks of 2020. He is likely facing expensive legal fees.

HARLOW: Just a little over a week from his impeachment trial now -- second impeachment -- and the president has added two attorneys to his defense team after five quit this weekend. That's a really big deal. Our Jessica Dean joins us now.

Jessica, this is a lot of money that he can use towards this effort and others, but I also don't want to gloss over what happened over the weekend.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there are so many moving parts to this, Jim and Poppy. Of course President Trump's original lawyers, not going to represent him now. And now -- they bowed out, and now we have these new lawyers that are going to represent him.

And then coming back to this money, which is such an interesting part of all of this. You see former President Trump raising tens of millions of dollars off these baseless claims about election fraud, even as all of those lawsuits, remember, were being tossed out of court again and again, he was still raising all this money.

Now of course, we don't have a crystal ball, we don't know exactly how he's going to use this money. But what it does is that it positions him to both have money for this impeachment trial, but also to dole out to Republican candidates as we move toward 2022, especially.

And remember, we saw Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy going down to Florida last week to meet with President Trump, to talk about what they said is bringing back the Republican majority in the House.

Well, one (ph) way to do that -- you can see President Trump -- former President Trump doling out money to candidates, that gives him a lot of control, potentially, over how things move forward, what candidates are well funded if they're not getting funded from the typical, official ways, can they get money from former President Trump.

So it will be interesting to see how he wields that money and what that means for the Republican Party, going forward. Will he be working in concert with the Republican Party, or will he be doing and funding candidates that maybe aren't getting money from the officials ways? So it will be interesting to see how that moves forward.

And then of course, you guys, we'll see how it works with impeachment as we go ever closer. That starts next Monday -- next week, rather.

HARLOW: OK, Jessica Dean, thanks for the reporting.

SCIUTTO: Well, sources tell CNN that the FBI's probe into the deadly January 6th attempted insurrection is their biggest investigation since the September 11th attacks. CNN's security correspondent Josh Campbell has more on those arrests.

Josh, I think one thing is the organization and preparation of this riot, this insurrection. What has the investigation shown so far on that end?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this massive investigation remains under way. I talked to sources in law enforcement who say that they can't remember a mobilization of FBI resources surrounding one case like this since 9/11. We're talking about all 56 field offices that have some type of role in this. And that is because this attack took place, and then the suspects fled to different parts of the country, so they're trying to identify and arrest them.

To your point, some of the latest charges that we're seeing really get to the organizational structure. One example, we're now learning that two members of the Proud Boys, this far-right pro-Trump group, have been charged with conspiracy. Conspiracy to interfere with officers on the day of the attack, as well as unlawful entry into the Capitol.

That one set of charges that we are seeing, which is really allowing us to see that this wasn't necessarily a group of individuals that got out of control but these people were in communication and talking with each other.

We're also learning disturbing details about a woman who was arrested and charged. This woman's name is Dawn Bancroft. Authorities say that she had taken a selfie video from inside the Capitol. And just to read some of what she's alleged to have said, she says, "We broke into the Capitol... We got inside, we did our part." "We were looking for Nancy to shoot her in the friggin' brain, but we didn't find her."

That, apparent reference to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Again, just an additional indication of this violent mentality that so many of these rioters had, and just how more severe this could have been had those who were guarding the speaker and those in leadership not done their job to get them out of harm's way. [10:45:02]

SCIUTTO: Let me ask you this. Do we know how many of those who attacked the Capitol were armed, right? I mean, because we now -- listen, a Capitol Police officer lost his life, he's going to now be honored by lying in state at the Capitol. You had more than 100 who were seriously injured. I mean, as you say, it could have been much worse. Do we know how many were carrying weapons in there?

CAMPBELL: Yes, we don't at this point. And you're probably talking about firearms. We saw them using projectiles and things to hurt some of the officers around there, but we haven't seen any massive charges with weapons.

We do know that, obviously, the District of Columbia has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, and there were indications that our sources were telling us about plans and protests ahead of the inauguration, ahead of the January 6th Capitol attack, to bring weapons into the district.

We haven't seen really those charges to a large degree, and I think that is because what prosecutors are saying is that we are seeing a phased approach to the prosecution. They're going after the so-called low-hanging fruit, those who were unlawfully entering the Capitol. And now we're seeing some of the more severe charges such as conspiracy and the like, and we'll have to stay tuned to see if we do see some of those gun charges.

SCIUTTO: Well, it helps explain the massive National Guard presence for the Inauguration, following January 6th. Josh Campbell, thanks very much.

HARLOW: Josh, thank you for that.

In the battle between Reddit and Wall Street, Redditors may have just found their silver lining -- no pun intended. The latest, next.

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HARLOW: Well, first, it was GameStop, now it is silver. Wall Street is watching as an army of online investors push up the price of the precious metal. Our lead business writer Matt Egan joins us with more.

Don't get wonky; explain why this matters to everyone beyond silver. What's happening?

MATT EGAN, CNN BUSINESS LEAD WRITER: Well, Poppy, this is a crazy story, and it just got crazier. Last week, while we were all paying attention to GameStop, there were posts on the Wall Street Bets forum calling for people to buy silver. They said that that would actually hurt big banks that they're accusing of artificially suppressing silver prices.

But we should note that we don't know who these reddit users are, nor do we know what actual market moves they're making. And so what's interesting is that in the last few hours, there's been some pushback from other people on Wall Street Bets saying, you know, there is no movement to buy silver, and that their whole operation is being co- opted by hedge funds.

All of this explains exactly why Elizabeth Warren said over the weekend that the SEC needs to investigate. She said that, you know, we just don't really know who all the players are, we don't know if there's big money trying to get into the middle of this.

But Poppy, to your point, you know, there are two really important big takeaways here. One, even if you don't own silver or GameStop and you just have money in the market, you have a 401(k), you are being impacted here. Because last week, we saw the U.S. stock market suffer its worst week since October, and that's because hedge funds that had lost money, they had to exit their positions, and it created this negative feedback loop.

But I think the other big point here is that, you know, none of this is normal. It does appear to (INAUDIBLE) example of speculative excess in financial markets. If you look at IPO markets being red-hot, these (INAUDIBLE) companies called SPACs (ph), there's all these examples of speculative mania. And history shows you don't want to be the last one in.

HARLOW: Yes. And the White House Biden administration really doesn't want to talk about this, they keep deferring to the SEC but this is a really big deal, and they're going to have to talk about what it means for Main Street pretty soon. Matt Egan, thank you very much.

EGAN: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Super Bowl Week is here, it's going to look much different this time around. Andy Scholes has more on this morning's "Bleacher Report."

Anybody in the stands, Andy?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jim, they're going to have people in the stands come Sunday, and you know, normally this day is the big build-up to the game, the first big day, Super Bowl Opening Night, where, you know, media from all around the world get to some ask all of their questions to the players and coaches.

But this year, all being done virtually. Tom Brady and the Bucs, they're going to start Zooming away with the media at noon Eastern today. The Chiefs are going to do so at 4:00 this afternoon. It's just one of the many ways, you know, this year's game and the entire week are going to be different. The Chiefs, reportedly not even going to be going to Tampa until Saturday.

And you know, Super Bowl parties, big tradition for a lot of people. And the CDC, recommending people this year watch the big game with only those you live with. If you are having a gathering or going to one, try to have it outdoors to help fight the spread of coronavirus, that's what the CDC's recommending. All right, the NFL, it's giving away 7,500 tickets to the Super Bowl

this year to frontline health care workers who have already been vaccinated. And tight end of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Rob Gronkowski, well, he recently surprised a few workers in Tampa.

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ROB GRONKOWSKI, TIGHT END, TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS: This is champion Rob Gronkowski, I hope you're having a good day. I've heard that you're a pretty big Bucs fan, and more importantly, that you've been a huge help for patients battling tough times this year during the pandemic. I want you to know that it hasn't gone unnoticed, and we want you there inside Raymond James Stadium, cheering us on. Congratulations, you're going to Super Bowl LV as a special guest of the Buccaneers and the NFL.

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[10:55:07]

SCHOLES: That is so cool, that's just four of the 7,500 that are going to get that surprise.

Lots of great surprises coming, Jim, 22,000 are going to be in the stands and you know, you can see just the joy on those health care workers' faces, they definitely deserve those 7,500 tickets.

SCIUTTO: They do indeed. Andy Scholes, thanks very much, we'll certainly be watching.

HARLOW: We will. We love that, Andy, thank you.

Thanks for being with us, we'll see you tomorrow morning. I'm Poppy Harlow.

SCIUTTO: And I'm Jim Sciutto, NEWSROOM with Kate Bolduan starts right after a short break.

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