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Russian Prosecutors Seek Jail Term for Navalny; Thousands Detained Across Russia; Myanmar's Military Seizes Power, Detains Aung San Suu Kyi; The Global Fight against COVID-19; Biden, GOP Senators Still Far Apart On COVID Relief After Meeting; Punxsutawney Phil Selling Personalized Messages. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired February 02, 2021 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ROBYN CURNOW, CNN ANCHOR: This hour, Moscow braces for more possible protests as a court will soon decide whether opposition leader Alexei Navalny will go to prison.
Then, international outcry over the military coup in Myanmar as the U.N. Security Council gets ready to weigh its response.
Plus, we expect to hear more on how the Tokyo Olympic organizers plan to juggle the games with COVID concerns. That's ahead in a live report.
Hello and welcome to CNN. I am Robyn Curnow.
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ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Robyn Curnow.
CURNOW: We are expecting a court hearing to begin any moment now in Moscow that could land opposition leader Alexei Navalny in prison for the next 3.5 years.
The Kremlin critic has inspired huge anti-government protests after he was poisoned last year and arrested when returning to Moscow from Germany. A monitoring group says police arrested more than 5,000 demonstrators in this past weekend. Fred Pleitgen is live this hour outside that Moscow city court.
Good to see you.
How big is the police presence where you are?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is gigantic. The court that Alexei Navalny will be tried in, when that hearing starts right now, is over there. If you look over here, you can see there is pretty much police as far as the eye can see. Essentially what they've done is they have put up barriers around the
roads here. You can see there is all of these barriers. Traffic is still moving but pedestrians will not be able to cross the roads.
What they are trying to do here is prevent protests from even starting outside the courtroom. Navalny's supporters have called for protests to take place as the court hearing gets underway.
Of course Navalny believes the trial is politically motivated and he believes it's unfair. His protesters want to come out and voice their anger about that. As you can see, there is a big police presence to try to prevent that from happening.
It's almost the same thing we saw last weekend, where Navalny called for protests in central Moscow and the government shut down large parts of central Moscow, including public transport in a lot of places. They put up a massive police presence.
Here, there is a lot of riot cops and vans and buses here, as the trial should be getting underway in the next couple of minutes.
CURNOW: We will keep an ear after that. In the meantime, this crackdown has been heavy-handed.
Is this an indication of how threatened Mr. Putin and the Kremlin feel by Mr. Navalny and his message?
PLEITGEN: There certainly are very clear signs that there is a good deal of concern within the Kremlin and among Vladimir Putin's inner circle. One of the things is the fact that you have the crackdown. It's been a very long time.
People are saying it's unprecedented that, when protests take place, for the entire city center of Moscow to be shut down. That is something that has not happened in a long time.
You can see just how serious security forces are taking that. One of the things we have seen is the protests that have been taking place, not just in Moscow but cities across the country. Crowds have been big and big despite the large police crackdown.
You add the investigation by Navalny's team, that allegedly was asserted to something he possibly owned, which obviously the Kremlin has denied. Putin in the past very rarely would take the time to deny such allegations.
But he has gone on TV and denied the allegations. That is a clear indication they are taking this seriously and there is a good deal of concern there as well, that these protests could in some way again gain steam.
From what we saw from being out on the streets this past weekend and the weekend before, it certainly does not seem like they are losing momentum.
Alexei Navalny, despite the fact that he is in detention, despite the fact that he's on trial today, has not been silent and has called for protests to continue and people to come out on the streets.
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PLEITGEN: It will be interesting to see what happens today and whether or not they call for a protest again this coming weekend -- Robyn.
CURNOW: Thank you, live in Moscow, Fred Pleitgen. We will come back to you and check in if there is new developments. Thank you so much.
Earlier, I spoke with Masha Gessen, a staff writer at "The New Yorker," and the author of the book, "The Future is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia."
I asked if she was surprised by the force of the crackdown against protesters over the past two weekends.
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MASHA GESSEN, AUTHOR AND JOURNALIST: It's a stronger reaction than we have ever seen before. I don't know that it's qualitatively different. But I do think, to the extent that Putin used to be afraid of protests, he is not anymore.
He is impervious to international pressure. He does not expect the United States to be calling him to order. I think, more importantly, he has been watching what's been going on in neighboring Belarus.
And I think he has realized that a dictator like Alexander Lukashenko or like Putin can just ignore protests, can just crack down and continue acting as though he could legitimately hold on to power.
I think he used to have something akin to magical thinking, that, somehow, protests, huge masses of people in the streets, could bring him down. Now he realizes that, no, his remaking of Russia has long been complete.
He has destroyed any institutions that could possibly serve as conduits of pressure from the protests. So he can just crack down and stay in power.
CURNOW: Mr. Navalny knew this when he returned back to Russia. You have written about how it was a fearless return. He went back with his eyes wide open.
What is your expectation of his fate as he steps into court?
GESSEN: I am not optimistic about what is going to happen to Navalny. I think probably neither is he. I spoke to his right-hand man, Leonid Volkov (ph), who is basically running the organization at the moment, who has been living in Lithuania for the last 1.5 years to avoid criminal prosecution.
He told me they are planning for a worst-case scenario. The worst-case scenario is many years in a remote prison colony.
CURNOW: Why has Mr. Navalny struck such a chord with the people?
What is his connection to the people beyond his corruption messaging?
He really seems to have connected with people across the country, 11 time zones, from different walks of life.
What is it?
GESSEN: I think it's an extraordinary combination of factors and talents. He is a particularly effective communicator. The way that he has covered corruption in the Kremlin, not only is he a very good investigator and very inventive in figuring out what to look at but he is an extraordinary communicator.
What he told us about Putin's palace in the last investigation, actually things that we've known about for a long time. He went into more detail but we knew about the existence of the palace for the last dozen years.
But he is able to talk about it in a way that takes the crime seriously, the power seriously, without taking himself too seriously and without taking Putin too seriously. And I think it is an amazing sort of balancing act.
It's also hugely entertaining and hugely informative. So that's one factor, he's a great communicator.
Another is that he has shown this extraordinary bravery and dignity and integrity. And I think the word is that (ph) he and his wife, Yulia, have shown an amazing love. This drama has been unfolding for the last five months since he was poisoned, where, first, he survived, like a phoenix rising from the ashes.
And then he documented his recovery and his relationship with Yulia and he really credits her with saving him. So we got a glimpse of this incredible love.
And then he investigated his own failed assassination and found his murderers. Just to watch that unfold, I don't think can leave anybody indifferent. And I think that he is offering Russians an opportunity to be not as brave as he is but to be brave like he is.
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GESSEN: To have integrity like he does, to act as he suggests they should act. And it is an amazing opportunity to experience self- respect and the respect of others.
CURNOW: And it will be interesting to see just how far that endures, as he is in jail and whether that message really sinks. Masha Gessen there, thank you very much for joining us.
GESSEN: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE) CURNOW: Turning now to the coup in Myanmar. The National League for Democracy, the party led by Aung San Suu Kyi, is demanding her immediate release as well as the other party leaders detained in Monday's military raids.
Soldiers are now stationed, as you can see, throughout the capital. Just a day after the army seized power, Aung San Suu Kyi and party officials are reportedly being held at the government's guest house.
Meanwhile, there is some return to normal life in Yangon, where banks and ATMs are now working again and panic buying has mostly stopped. For the latest, I want to bring in CNN's Will Ripley, live from Hong Kong.
What can you -- bring us up to date on the latest we know about developments there on the ground and also about Aung San Suu Kyi and the other leaders and where they are?
WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You mentioned that guesthouse. And I believe we have new images of tanks and trucks and soldiers standing guard outside.
We do not know the level of communication that these civilian leaders, who have now been detained in this military coup, have with the outside world. Aung San Suu Kyi, when spoke about her 15 years under house arrest under the hands of this very same military that's now detaining her and preventing her from forming her duly elected government.
She talked about being essentially cut off from the outside world, with only glimpses on a short wave radio of the people, who were singing songs and rallying for her release. Her standing in the international community has fallen greatly since she went to the U.N. and defended the military that now detains her for their accused genocide against the Rohingya Muslims.
Now she and the others are in detainment. And it's unclear whether they will be put under house arrest, transferred to other locations or kept, for the foreseeable future, in the guest house.
In the capital itself, you see the large military presence. The video we are seeing from Myanmar's largest city, Yangon, it's striking how on the surface, everything appears relatively normal. Banks have reopened. The internet, still spotty but working again. Telephone disruptions still happening.
But TV channels are back to broadcasting regular programming, not news about the military coup so much as light programming, fluff, almost surreal for people sitting in that country, wondering if they are on the verge of a return to 50 years of a brutal military dictatorship.
CURNOW: Thanks for the update, there Will Ripley. Good to see you.
I want to discuss this more with Monique Skidmore, a professor and expert on Myanmar, joining me from Melbourne, Australia.
It's lovely to have you on the show, Monique. The military never really took its hands off the levers of power.
Have they been playing lip service to democracy in the last few years and, now that the facade is gone, what happens next?
MONIQUE SKIDMORE, MYANMAR EXPERT, UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND: I think that's right. I have heard a lot about a democratic transition but there never has been one. There has been a limited amount of power that was ceded to civilians.
But it was always under the understanding that they didn't rock the boat, that they went along with this military constitution and with the military control in the main ministries and 25 percent of the seats in parliament.
In this next parliament, Aung San Suu Kyi was contesting that and was trying to change the situation so the constitution was changed and what we've seen just happen couldn't happen again.
CURNOW: We know that Aung San Suu Kyi has called for protests. I believe that came from within that guest house, although that has been unconfirmed.
Either way, should we watch?
What should we watch for in the coming days?
Will the people of Myanmar challenge this military dictatorship?
SKIDMORE: I think there is no doubt that if Aung San Suu Kyi calls people onto the streets, we will see mass protests in multiple cities. Even late last week, we saw a gathering of monks starting to protest, a warning to the military regime not to retake power as they've done.
So if the monks come out, the people will come out to protect them as they have every time there has been a coup or an antimilitary demonstration in the past 20 or 30 years.
CURNOW: There was one suggestion that perhaps this was a ruse and that perhaps the military dictatorship would want people to come out.
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CURNOW: Would want to have a show of force to clamp down.
What do you say to that thesis, perhaps?
SKIDMORE: I've studied multiple military coups in Myanmar and been there for some of them. I just don't give the military that much credit. I don't think it's trying to engineer some psychological game here. I think it's trying to frighten people, to stop the National League for Democracy trying to take more power. I think it wants to stay in control. It's not going to let power slip. And I think it will do whatever it takes, unfortunately, to hold on to power.
CURNOW: How much support does Aung San Suu Kyi have in the country right now? Internationally, we know her reputation took a hit after she showed deference to the military and their actions against the Rohingya.
What kind of leverage does she have in a situation like right now?
SKIDMORE: That terrible xenophobia we saw against the Rohingya, which has trashed her reputation internationally, has not even put a slight dent in it internally. She is still the most revered political figure.
She is the second most revered political figure of all time, second only to her father, the head of the army, who started the Burmese army. So she has incredible power and reverence and people called her Mother Suu Kyi. They will fight for her, if that's what she asks.
CURNOW: Let's talk about international pressure.
How much do you expect?
How much international pressure do expect?
What is the calculus by the generals?
SKIDMORE: The generals have a 2,000-kilometer border with China. They have never been worried about the effectiveness of sanctions like other countries, by Western Democracies, because it really cannot bite too hard.
As long as you have an open border with China, their major trading partner, they are OK. We may see sanctions again. But they were never effective in the past and they are unlikely to be effective now.
CURNOW: What is going to play out in the next few days?
What do you think is the end game here?
SKIDMORE: I think we will see, after 12 months, a new constitution possibly and will possibly see new elections.
But if we do, I don't think we are going to see the old power sharing that has been the case the last decade, unless, in the next few weeks, negotiations occur with the National League for Democracy and they agree not to challenge the current status quo.
I don't know if that's particularly likely. What's more likely is that, after 12 months of military rule, assuming it is able to successfully put down protests that occur, then we will probably see another lengthy period of pseudo-civilian rule again.
But it's unknown whether or not they will release the National League for Democracy members, whether they will actually call for elections or whether this is simply the resumption again of many more decades of military rule.
CURNOW: Great to have your expertise. Thank you, Monique Skidmore.
You are watching CNN. The White House is hoping for a bipartisan COVID relief bill but Joe Biden says that he has a plan B. That story and much more coming up.
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CURNOW: The global fight against the coronavirus is quickly becoming a battle of two fronts, both to contain the original strain and also to try and stop the new variants from spreading.
So far, we know that more than 100 million infections have been reported worldwide. Experts fear a growing number are coming from the new strains and they are urging people to get vaccinated quickly to prevent more mutations from emerging.
In, Europe there has been some flattening of the average number of new infections. As you can see, the situation remains quite serious in Portugal, Spain, France and the U.K. It's getting ready for a surge of new testing in parts of England where the South African variant is now being detected. But vaccines are bringing hope.
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SUSAN HOPKINS, PUBLIC HEALTH ENGLAND EPIDEMIOLOGIST: Three of the vaccines that have been used to date in trials have shown they've been effective against the South African variant at a level greater than was set as a minimum standard by the WHO and U.S. FDA.
We expect all other vaccines to have a similar level of effectiveness, particularly in reducing hospitalizations and death. We are doing detailed lab studies at the moment with the South African variant, growing in the labs, so that we will be able to estimate that with greater robustness over the next couple of weeks.
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CURNOW: The British health minister is urging everyone to do everything possible to stop transmission of the variant, meaning stay- at-home, follow restrictions.
Here in the U.S., January was the deadliest month yet in the pandemic, more than 95,000 deaths attributed to the coronavirus. Even though hospitalizations are down, health experts are worried about new, more contagious variants also getting a foothold. On Monday, top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said vaccinations are key to containing the spread of variants and can get the country closer to herd immunity.
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DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: As I had mentioned, if we can get past vaccine hesitancy and we efficiently and effectively get people vaccinated, to the tune of maybe 70 percent to maybe 85 percent of the population by the end of the summer, beginning of fall, then we will have gotten herd immunity, namely getting that blanket of protection over the community.
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CURNOW: Fauci added that, even though there is diminished protection against the variants, the vaccine can still help prevent serious disease and hospitalization.
U.S. President Joe Biden met several Republican senators on Monday to discuss his COVID relief bill but the parties are billions of dollars apart, billions. And the president is wary of spending too little time, too little of this time, in this crisis. Here is Phil Mattingly with more on that.
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PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the first meeting between President Biden and lawmakers was not with his top Democratic officials, wasn't with the Speaker of the House or even the Majority Leader in the United States Senate.
It was with 10 Republican Senators, 10 Republican Senators, who put on the table their own COVID relief proposal. That was less than a third of what the Biden team has put on the table, at least in topline numbers.
And yet, the meeting went long, significantly longer than aides on either side expected. Nearly two hours with Senator Susan Collins of Maine, Republican, emerging from the meeting and saying this.
SEN. SUSAN COLLINS, (R-ME): I think it was an excellent meeting. And we are very appreciative that, as his first official meeting in the Oval Office, the president chose to spend so much time with us in a frank and very useful discussion.
MATTINGLY: Now to be very clear, having an exchange and continuing to talk on the staff level is by no means a deal. And the two sides remain very, very far apart: $1.9 trillion is the topline for the White House proposal.
The Republicans are coming in with $618 billion. And the policy inside of those two proposals is also wildly divergent on the topline numbers.
However, the discussions will continue while Democrats on Capitol Hill have made clear they are ready and willing to move forward on a partisan basis. They will start that process as soon as this week.
At least at this point in time, President Biden willing to keep talking to Republican senators, at least on the staff level.
Will that actually lead to anything?
Now that remains an open question. [02:25:00]
MATTINGLY: But I think the reality is, when you talk to officials at the White House and Democrats on Capitol Hill, the expectation is they will be going alone on this pathway forward on COVID relief going bigger, rather than scaling back to where Republicans stand. Still, for the moment, talks are ongoing -- Phil Mattingly, CNN, the White House.
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CURNOW: U.S. House Democrats are pushing Republican leaders to strip congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments. Greene has shaken the Republican Party with her fiery rhetoric and conspiracy theories.
Without naming her on Monday, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell called out her antics as "a cancer for the party." She quickly replied that the real cancer for the party is weak Republicans, as Ryan Nobles explains.
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RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The House and Senate will both be back in session on Tuesday. And we will start to see the boiling tension between Republicans come to a head as they meet to talk about Marjorie Taylor Greene, the congresswoman from Georgia, who is a supporter of president Trump and also who has espoused a lot of conspiracy theories, suggesting the Parkland shooting was a false flag, even suggesting some Democratic leaders, like Speaker Pelosi, be executed.
The House minority leader Kevin McCarthy is scheduled to meet with her on Tuesday and this comes as Democrats are demanding she be removed from the Education and Budget Committees.
At this point, McCarthy has been reluctant to do that but Democrats are saying, if he doesn't, they will and that process will begin with the Rules Committee meeting on Wednesday.
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CURNOW: Thank you so much, Ryan Nobles.
Meanwhile, former president Donald Trump's historic second impeachment trial will start taking shape in the coming hours. A source tells CNN Trump's defense team plans to focus mainly on the constitutionality of the trial in their legal brief and not his baseless claims of election fraud.
But House impeachment managers plan to argue that Trump acted intentionally to subvert the will of voters and incited the Capitol riot. They also plan to explain why it's constitutional for convicting Trump after he's left office.
Despite the global pandemic, Japan isn't letting go of its Olympic dreams just yet. We will take you like to Tokyo for an update on the Summer Games.
Plus we're waiting for a ruling from a Moscow court on Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's fate. That's just ahead on CNN.
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CURNOW: We want you to take a look at these pictures. This is happening right now, a court hearing is underway in Moscow for Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in that building.
His fate is all but sealed after general prosecutors called for up to 3.5 years in prison for parole violations.
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CURNOW: Russian courts rarely defy recommendations from prosecutors for parole violations. The decision by the court is expected in the coming hours and will likely send thousands of protesters back onto the street, just as they have done the last two weekends in more than 100 cities.
Navalny himself has called for nationwide demonstrations in direct defiance of the Kremlin and Vladimir Putin. Matthew Chance is in Moscow and filed this report -- Matthew.
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MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is what the Kremlin does when it's threatened, it cracks down hard. Across Russia, mass protests calling for the release of key opposition leader Alexei Navalny were met with more than 5,000 detentions and of course, brute force.
In Moscow, this protester was repeatedly shot with an electric baton as he was pulled away in agony.
"I can't breathe," shouts another, as he's held down by riot police in the remote city of Chelyabinsk. But the heavy-handed tactics don't seem to be easing the public mood.
"We're all really fed up," says this woman.
"I've been waiting for the moment when finally revolt and demonstrations begin," she says.
This is what's been galvanizing them. Not just the horrific poisoning of Alexei Navalny in Siberia last year but also his defiant performance since recovering, returning to Russia to face arrests and calling for more protests from jail. He now faces a key court hearing to decide if he will spend years behind bars or be free.
Navalny's success online, it seems needling the Kremlin most of all. His team's latest anti-corruption expose detailing a billion-dollar palace alleged to have been built for Vladimir Putin has now been viewed more than 100 million times on YouTube. The Kremlin denies any connection to the building.
But there seems to have been at least one bizarre attempt to boost the Putin support online. This video posted on pro-Kremlin video showing workers with face masks in military style uniforms, performing this highly choreographed dance routine to patriotic Russian pop song.
"Putin is our president," they shout at the end.
More seriously, Russian riot police are being shown prepped to squash the demonstrations.
"The country is proud of you," they're told by their commander, "not the protesters outside."
It seems the battle lines have been drawn in this standoff playing out on Russia's streets. Neither side seems ready to back down -- Matthew Chance, CNN.
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CURNOW: Matthew Chance, thanks for that.
During an exclusive interview with CNN, Iran's foreign minister said his country doesn't want a nuclear weapon and that, if Iran did, it could have had one a long time ago.
He was responding to comments from the new U.S. secretary of state, Antony Blinken, who said Iran could be just weeks away from producing enough material for a nuke. That's the starkest assessment yet from the Biden team of Iran's alleged nuclear capabilities.
It has increasingly breached its obligations under the 2015 deal. But Iran's top diplomat says there is a way past the standoff with the U.S. He told CNN's Christiane Amanpour that Europe could choreograph which actions need to be taken.
Now this is certainly a noticeable shift in Iran's stance that had previously insisted the U.S. must first lift Trump-era sanctions before the deal can be revived.
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MOHAMMAD JAVAD ZARIF, IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: That's why the United States needs to establish its bona fides to come back to the nuclear deal. The United States is not in the nuclear deal. And it's not in the nuclear deal because of its own decision to withdraw, without taking the routes that were available to it within the nuclear agreement.
On the other hand, Iran used the mechanisms in the nuclear agreement in order to limit its cooperation. If you read paragraph 36, we acted in strict accordance with the nuclear agreement. Now the United States needs to come back into compliance, and Iran
will be ready immediately to respond. The timing is not the issue. The issue is whether the United States, whether the new administration wants to follow the old policies of, failed policies of the Trump administration or not.
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CURNOW: He went on to say the Biden administration has a limited window of opportunity to re-enter the agreement.
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CURNOW: Investigators led by the World Health Organization have been visiting an animal health facility in Wuhan, China, as part of their effort looking into the origins of the COVID outbreak.
Among the team is the WHO's top experts on diseases originating in animals. A member of the group told reporters the visits have been going, quote, "really well." They've included a trip to China's CDC and the seafood market linked to the outbreak.
Japan is expected to extend a state of emergency in Tokyo and nine other regions, even as the COVID infection rate continues to fall. Officials say caution is still needed and they are determined to host the Olympic Games later this year. Let's talk with Blake Essig in Tokyo.
Good to see you.
What do we know about these plans for the Tokyo Olympics?
BLAKE ESSIG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: At this point, when it comes to the Olympics, the talking points have not changed, whether it's the IOC, the Tokyo 2020 committee or the Japanese government.
They are moving forward with holding the games as scheduled this summer, less than six months from now. There is no plan B in place.
Vaccines at this point are not a prerequisite for athletes to compete in these games. But rules will be put in place in order to maintain a safe and secure Olympic Games, not only for the athletes but the coaches, personnel and Japanese public as a whole.
That information will be released tomorrow in a series of playbooks that will outline some rules and regulations in order to maintain the Olympic Games. John Coates, the IOC vice president, recently spoke with Sky News Australia, a CNN affiliate, to talk a little bit about what measures will be put in place.
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JOHN COATES, IOC VICE PRESIDENT: They must undertake testing, saliva and nose and within 72 hours of traveling to Tokyo. In fact, we've now introduced, from Australia, for people coming here, they'll be tested on arrival. Then will now be tested, they're going to continue doing negative every four days.
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ESSIG: Specifically referring to the athletes, he went on to say their movement will be limited. They will be allowed to be at the athletes' village and transport themselves to and from their venue, where they will be training and competing.
They will also only be expected to be here five days prior to the event taking place. They will be asked to leave two days after the completion of their event.
When it comes to fans in the stands, that's a big question. We are not expecting any answers on that front until sometime likely in April. All we know at this point is these Olympic Games are going to look very different than the Summer Olympic Games we have seen in the past.
CURNOW: And so much can change between then and now. Blake, thank, you live in Tokyo.
Characters in the 1993 movie "Groundhog Day" famously relived the same day over and over.
It feels like 2020, doesn't it?
Feeling similar to many of us during the pandemic.
What will the groundhog tell us this year?
That's just ahead.
Do we really want to know?
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CURNOW: Few things are as fun as sliding down a snowy hill. And take a look at these fantastic images. The giant pandas at the Washington Zoo demonstrated this weekend. Upside down and, headfirst, clearly even better. Fabulous, millions of people watching and retweeting this happy video.
Here in the U.S., it is now Groundhog Day. That's when a large rodent in Pennsylvania does or does not see his shadow and that somehow determines whether the spring will arrive early.
Normally, the tradition draws a crowd, yes. But, in this pandemic, there is a new way for people to get their fix of the country's most infamous groundhog. Here is Jeanne Moos.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They may call him --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Prognosticator of all prognosticators.
MOOS (voice-over): But who would have prognosticated this, Punxsutawney Phil selling personalized messages?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, Ashley.
Hi, David.
What's up, Mitch?
MOOS (voice-over): His handler has to do the verbalizing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is Punxsutawney Phil.
MOOS (voice-over): But Phil perks up at his own name and is a master at staring soulfully into the camera. He has joined the ranks at Cameo, where humans --
SARAH PALIN, FORMER GOVERNOR OF ALASKA: Nothing but the very, very best.
MOOS (voice-over): -- like Sarah Palin get paid to send out customized messages.
PALIN: Oh, young man, the world is your oyster.
MOOS (voice-over): It costs $249 if you want a shout-out from Sarah Palin. Punxsutawney Phil is a bargain at 99 bucks though the groundhog has a higher price tag than political prognosticator Anthony Scaramucci, with his $55 fee.
ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI, FORMER TRUMP COMMS DIRECTOR: Well, Dan, I got great news for you. Your wife is like totally in love with you.
MOOS (voice-over): Totally in love with Punxsutawney Phil, at least 136 fans ordered customized messages before Groundhog Day. Some celebrating a February 2nd birthday.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Phil, I am sure, appreciates sharing his special day with you.
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BILL MURRAY, ACTOR, "PHIL": Well, it's Groundhog Day, again.
MOOS (voice-over): With a personalized message, you can relive it over and over, just like in the movie.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right, woodchuck chuckers, it's Groundhog Day.
(END VIDEO CLIP, "GROUNDHOG DAY") MOOS (voice-over): Due to COVID, gone are the crowds of past Groundhog Days, the funny hats and enthusiastic signs. The proceeds from selling cameos featuring Phil will help offset losses to the nonprofit Groundhog Club caused by the pandemic.
The Cincinnati Zoo likewise markets messages from their baby hippo, Fiona. Fiona herself gets paid in romaine lettuce leaves while Phil seems happy just groundhogging the camera -- Jeanne Moos, CNN --
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MURRAY "PHIL": Waiting to worship a rat.
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MOOS (voice-over): -- New York.
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CURNOW: That wraps up this hour of CNN. I am Robyn Curnow. Thank you so much for joining me. You can find me on Instagram and Twitter @RobynCurnowCNN. Don't go anywhere yet. I'm going to hand you over to the lovely folks at "WORLD SPORT."
(WORLD SPORT)
[03:00:00]
