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House Majority Leader to Deliver Ultimatum on GOP's Greene; Parkland Mom Speaks with Embattled GOP Congresswoman; Ukraine's President: Riots "Strong Blow" to U.S. Democracy; Biden Administration: Iran "Weeks Away" from Enough Material to Build Bomb; Chicago Teachers Push Back on City's Demands to Return to Class. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired February 01, 2021 - 14:30   ET

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

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[14:30:02]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Democratic House majority leader, Steny Hoyer, is expected to deliver an ultimatum to Republican leadership today, and that is this, to strip Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments within 72 hours or Democrats will bring it to a vote on the House floor.

Before she was elected, Greene pushed many conspiracy theories, including the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut and the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, were false flag operations, staged events to drum up support for gun control legislation.

She trailed Parkland shooting survivor, David Hogg, in 2019 when he was up on Capitol Hill trying to advocate for gun control legislation. She, as you can see here, shouted at him, harassed him. This happened at many places there on the capitol complex.

Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, one of the sponsors of the resolution against Greene, says that kind of behavior can't go unchecked.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (D-FL): If she had honor, of course, she would resign. If she possessed shame, censuring and an apology might suffice.

Expulsion is a fitting punishment but it takes two-thirds of the House and that would require support from enough Republicans support who aren't morally bankrupt, which is unlikely.

So reducing the future harm that she can cause in Congress and denying her a seat at committee tables where fact-based policies will be enacted is both a suitable punishment and a proper restraint of her influence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Greene's comments have been a slap in the face to the families of the 17 people who lost their lives in the Parkland shooting three years ago this month.

And that includes Scott Beigel, who was a beloved geography teacher and a cross-country coach. He was shot while trying to save his students. He was opening his door to them after they had run up a staircase to escape the shooter.

Beigel's mother fought to get access to surveillance footage from the day and she wants you to see it.

I do want to warn you, it is very disturbing. But it's important to help discredit people like Congresswoman Greene who had tried to spread lies about that day.

And I should add, there's no audio on this recording.

(VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Scott Beigel's mother, Linda Beigel Schulman, is with us now.

Thank you so much, Linda, for coming on to talk to us about this.

LINDA BEIGEL SCHULMAN, MOTHER OF PARKLAND SHOOTING VICTIM, SCOTT BEIGEL: Thank you for having me today. And thank you for understanding how important it is to me and to all the others who live this nightmare.

KEILAR: And you spoke -- I think a lot of people are amazed to know that you spoke to Congresswoman Greene. So can you just share what that conversation was like?

BEIGEL SCHULMAN: Yes. I told Congresswoman Greene that all I wanted to talk to her about was Parkland and Sandy Hook and everything else was off the table.

I told her -- I asked her, actually had one question for her. I asked her, do you really believe that sandy hook wand Parkland were false flags and staged events.

And she looked at me straight in my face and she said, no, I don't.

KEILAR: At one point, she said they were. Do you take her at her word she now believes they weren't?

BEIGEL SCHULMAN: You know, it's hard for me to believe that she ever believed that they -- that they were. Even -- I don't know what conspiracy theories do for her.

But honestly, it's hard for me to believe, especially after having a conversation with her, that she ever believed that they were false flags or staged events. KEILAR: Did she explain why she said that in the past, then?

BEIGEL SCHULMAN: She did. She had her reasons for things that had happened to her in the past.

Again, I must tell you that the parameters were set and we did say that it was going to be a confidential conversation, which later, she told me I could tell -- you know, I could say whatever I wanted to about it.

But I'm really not going to be her spokesperson for why she -- she said or didn't say or said she didn't say that. She needs to come forward and she needs to explain that.

But she did say that she never said that, and that it was really all the media.

KEILAR: All right. That is -- I want to be clear, that is not true. That is not true what she said, just to fact-check what she said.

[14:35:02]

She has -- you know, it's pretty clear and it's documented what she has said about these past shootings.

But to your point, where you said you don't want to be her spokesperson, she did, though -- you want her to come forward. She's not doing that. She refused to appear with you publicly and denounce these conspiracy theories she's espoused in the past.

What's your reaction to that? That she doesn't want to -- she's really does think differently than she previously said. It would go very far for her to come out and explain that. What does it say to you that she won't?

BEIGEL SCHULMAN: You know what? You know, her refusal to make a public statement makes it even worse. You know? We all have to look in the mirror and so does she.

The fact that politics makes her -- I have to believe it's all politics that are making her just not come forward. And, you know, politics should never -- you know, should never trump the truth. It really shouldn't.

She needs to come forward. She needs to tell the world publicly that she does not believe that those shootings were false flags and staged events.

She needs to come forward and she can make up any story or any reason she said those things. But most important is that she disavow those statements.

You know, Brianna, I was thinking about it, and analogies are something that Scott and I used to go back and forth about.

You know, lies and conspiracy theories are like a virus that -- that infects a host. I guess you could say that our country is kind of like the host that's been infected.

And you know, I think you and everybody else, who has given me a chance to go and speak and explain why it's so important for her to come forward and disavow her -- her silliness, the conspiracy theories, the falsehoods, because, you know, if we do let it go unchecked, then it just -- it's like a virus. It kills the host.

What's happening is she's literally playing to whether it's her base or whether it's our cult, you know?

If she's playing to our past president, it makes no sense, because he knows. He's come forward knowing that -- that the -- that both school shootings happened, that the massacres happened, that people were murdered.

So I don't -- I don't really see that she gains anything by this. If anything it hurts her.

And we had that conversation. Aren't you tired of being beaten, you know, from all sides, because of the conspiracy theories?

Let's just talk about this one. This one is just -- this one is, out of six of them, this is so apparent it happened.

Seriously, if she wants -- and I'll take her followers. You tell a lie enough and people start believing it. We all know that. We've just been through that.

KEILAR: Yes. Yes.

BEIGEL SCHULMAN: But let me take them on -- I'll take them on a bus trip, on a field trip. I would let them visit the 17 grave sites from the people from Parkland and the 26 from Sandy Hook and then let me see them deny it.

KEILAR: I wonder, Linda, I mean, that if it would take that much is staggering to imagine that.

But I wonder if you think that this is someone who should be in Congress. Should she be removed from Congress?

BEIGEL SCHULMAN: You know -- I'm not a politician. I'm just a mom, you know, whose son was murdered 1,084 days ago. It's really not for me to say.

But I will tell you that unless she comes forward, and unless she acknowledges that the massacre wasn't staged and it's not a false flag and that it was real and it really did happen, and all of these people were murdered, she has no right to have anything to do with anything having to do with education.

It's all about kids! And if she can deny what really happened, whether it be kids or teachers or husbands or whatever, she has no right being on the Education Committee.

The rest I really leave, you know, up to the politicians to take care of.

KEILAR: Before I let you go, Linda, you said the number of days that you have been without your son. You're coming up again on another anniversary, another year without him. And I just wonder what your reflections are.

I just will tell you very briefly that -- as horrible as this has been to see someone talking about this sort of conspiracy theory to be renewed, I did -- I was reading about the victims of Sandy Hook and -- pardon me, of Parkland, and the heroes as well, and reading about your son, and just the amazing thing that he did.

[14:40:03]

And that was something that I think came back for a number of people to see folks like your son who stepped up in a really tough time.

What are you reflecting on as you go into this anniversary?

BEIGEL SCHULMAN: Well, first, we never call it an anniversary, because anniversaries are something that you like to celebrate. So --

KEILAR: Sure.

BEIGEL SCHULMAN: -- we never call it an anniversary. But -- it's really, really hard. It's hard every day.

But it's really even harder when it comes to February 14th. As everybody knows whose read about me at all, my daughter was born on February 14th. And my son was murdered on February 14th.

So it's really -- it was like one of the best days of my life and definitely the worst day of my life.

But I -- I'm very lucky and I thank everybody. People send -- people send messages and people send photos and people send things they remember about Scott.

And for me, you know, I love to read them, and it just makes me know that Scott will never be forgotten.

But Scott's my go-to person, and -- February 14th is really, really hard, you know.

Again, we celebrate Melissa's birthday, but in my own -- in my own space, I miss Scott terribly, and February 14th is a really hard day.

So, you know what? I do say to Marjorie Taylor Greene, please, you know what, find your conscience. You're a mother. Man up or woman up, whatever you want to say, and tell the truth. Tell everybody what you told me.

KEILAR: Linda, we are thinking of you coming up here in these days on February 14th.

And I just -- I really appreciate you being with us today. Linda Beigel Schulman, thank you so much.

BEIGEL SCHULMAN: Thank you.

KEILAR: And we're back in just a moment.

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[14:46:07]

KEILAR: The images from January 6th of American's violently storming the capitol sent shock waves around the world.

Ukraine's president telling "Axios" on HBO that, "The riot dealt a strong blow to how other countries view U.S. democracy."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translation): We were very shocked. I was very surprised.

I could not imagine something like this was possible in the United States of America.

I believe this was a strong blow to democracy of the United States.

It is just that after something like this, I believe it would be very difficult for the world to see the United States as a symbol of democracy in the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: I want to bring in CNN global affairs analyst, Max Boot, to talk about this. He's also a senior fellow on the Council on Foreign Relations. He's a columnist as well for the "Washington Post."

Max, what did you think about what Zelensky said there?

MAX BOOT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, it's a very sad and accurate reflection, I think, of where we are in the world and the damage that's been done to the United States by the Trump presidency.

I mean, it's not just the events of January 6th. It's everything that's happened, which was really an unremitting assault on U.S. democracy.

And it wasn't just an assault on democracy. It was also a horrific display of incompetence in the fact more than 400,000 Americans died in the last year of the Trump presidency because we mishandled coronavirus, worse than any other country in the world.

This is going to leave a long-term blot on America's reputation, which used to be that of a country that was democratic, that was can-do, that could accomplish things.

Now people around the world look at us and say this is a pitiful pariah. America can't get anything right. It can't even uphold its own democracy.

There's a small chance to get things right if the Senate were actually to vote to impeach Donald Trump and hold him accountable, showing the rule of law really does prevail. All odds are, Republicans will make that impossible.

So if Trump is acquitted next week, I think it's going to reinforce that message of -- that President Zelensky just talked about.

KEILAR: I want to ask you also about Iran, because Secretary of State Tony Blinken said in a new interview that Iran is weeks away from having enough materiel for a nuclear bomb.

Of course, the Trump -- President Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Iran deal. And certainly, the view of administration that was a huge failure.

What is Biden's move, though, now on this?

BOOT: President Biden has to re-assemble the JCPOA, as the nuclear deal was known, because it's pretty obvious that pulling out of it in 2018 was a catastrophe. Iran now has 12 times as much enriched uranium as it had in 2016.

And as Secretary Blinken indicated, they're very close to capacity to manufacture a nuclear weapon, much closer than when the deal was still in effect in 2018.

It's not going to be easy to reassemble that deal, of course, because there's a lot of distrust on the part of Iran because the United States violated the accord, even though they were abiding by it.

Of course, we can't just get back into the original accord. It actually has to be extended because some of the timelines in that accord would start expiring within the next four years.

So this is going to require a heavy diplomatic lift, but it's necessary because we've seen that exiting the accord has done nothing to contain Iranian power. In fact, it led Iran to become more dangerous than ever.

KEILAR: I know in the coming years, you and I, Max, will be talking a lot about this.

Max Boot, thanks for coming on.

BOOT: Thanks for having me.

[14:49:53]

KEILAR: Still ahead, the city of Chicago is in a heated negotiation with the teachers union over the return to school. I'm going to speak to one teacher who says she's not willing to risk her life or that of loved ones to go back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KEILAR: A conflict over coronavirus is coming to a head in Chicago. More than 60,000 public school students, mostly K-8, are not in the classroom today because of a clash between the teachers union and the school district over how to reopen.

Now there's talk the teachers union may strike, even though the two sides have met more than 70 times according to district officials.

Kirstin Roberts is with us now. She's a preschool teacher at the Brentano Math and Science Academy.

Kirstin, thank you so much. You're very much in the middle of this so we thank you for coming on and talking about this.

Your union says that agreements were reached on serious issues like health and safety protocols, ventilation, contact tracing, and safety committees.

What is outstanding? What are your concerns that remain?

KIRSTIN ROBERTS, PRESCHOOL TEACHER, BRENTANO MATH AND SCIENCE ACADEMY: Well, my concerns that remain, the number-one concern I have is that COVID is still spreading in Chicago. Many of the communities in which we teach, COVID is well above 10 percent community spread.

And I don't believe that we've reached an agreement on the question of how our vaccines are going to be distributed to the people who work in the schools, let alone people in those hardest-hit communities.

We really have not reached agreement on a question of accommodations for people like myself. I live in a multi-generational household with my public-school students as well as my elderly parents. My mother has very serious health concerns and disabilities.

We've come so far in COVID. We see the vaccine. It's like a light at the end of the tunnel. And the idea of exposing her now to this virus is terrifying.

(CROSSTALK)

ROBERTS: So it's a really big issue.

KEILAR: Yes. Your teachers union isn't the only one right now at odds with a school district over reopening at this point in time. It's something that we've seen a lot of.

I'm sure you're aware that a lot of school districts in cities will point to several studies. They will point to a study recently from CDC doctors that says schools are not really a spreader of coronavirus.

And I wonder what you say when that is held up as a reason to reopen schools, not to -- a reason to reopen them.

ROBERTS: Sure. I think that people should really read the CDC studies more carefully. Because what they are saying is that schools can be safe if safety measures and protocols are invested in, if the level of community spread is low, if we do things like close restaurant, theaters and museums.

[14:55:17]

Instead, in Chicago, they are opening the museums. They are opening theaters. They are opening indoor dining in restaurants. So I do think CDC guidance is important to contend with.

And I also think we have to pay attention to the new variants of COVID that are being found right here in Illinois and in Chicago where I teach. And we don't know what's going to happen with that.

But we should pay attention to what happened in Europe where they spread like wildfire through the schools. Children were bringing it home to their families. And schools have had to be closed again.

KEILAR: Look, we know the stakes are high. They are high for the kids. They're high for the teachers. And this issue isn't going to go away here immediately.

Kirstin Roberts, thanks so much for being with us.

Next, blizzard conditions in parts of the northeast are stalling vaccinations in some cities. We're going to take you there.

Plus, details on a new at-home coronavirus test that the Biden administration is betting big on.

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