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Blinken on Middle East: A Long Way from Seeing Peace; U.N. Calls on Israel to Halt West Bank Demolitions; U.N.: North Korean Hackers Stole Huge Sums to Pay for Weapons; W.H.O. Team Wraps Up Virus Origin Probe in Wuhan, China; Lawyer Says QAnon Shaman is Deeply Disappointed in Trump; QAnon Believers Say President Trump Will Soon Be Reinstated. February 1-7 Deadliest Week of U.S. Avalanches on Record. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired February 09, 2021 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

ANTHONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: There's no doubt that our ability to speak with that strong voice for democracy and human rights took a hit with what happened on January 6th and happened at the Capitol.

But I've got to tell you I actually see the glass as half full on that because we had a peaceful transition of power pursuant to our Constitution. The grievous assault on Congress, that happened. Members of Congress came back. They came back to the Senate. They came back to the House. They came back to the Halls of Congress. And they did their job pursuant to the Constitution to ensure that we had a peaceful transition of power.

You know this so well throughout our history we've had incredibly challenging moments and sometimes we've taken our own steps backward, but what's made us different is our willingness, our ability to confront these challenges with full transparency.

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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN HOST: And in that same interview Blinken also spoke about the Biden administration's approach when it comes to the Middle East. Here's what he had to say.

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BLINKEN: Look, the hard truth is we are a long way I think from seeing peace break out and seeing a final resolution of the problems between Israel and the Palestinians and the creation of a Palestinian state.

In the first instance now, it's do no harm. We're looking to make sure that neither side takes unilateral action that make the prospects for moving towards peace and a resolution even more challenging than they already are. And then hopefully we'll see both sides take steps that create a better environment in which actual negotiations can take place.

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CHURCH: Palestinians say the change in Washington gives them hope that the U.N. and the EU are pushing back now against Israel's recent rush to authorize thousands of new housing units in the West Bank. CNN international correspondent Sam Kiley has more.

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SAM KILEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A convoy of European ambassadors trooping out to the West Bank to complain against Israel's forced removals of Arab farmers from this land. The moment grand gesture meets grim reality.

The day before Israel had destroyed a Bedouin camp declaring the farming area a closed military zone.

KILEY: So how many times has your shelter been confiscated this month?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Three times. Every month three times.

KILEY: Do you have any hope that there is now a new president in America that he can maybe help this sort of problem?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): We say in Humsa the situation will get better with a new president, maybe in Humsa.

KILEY (voice-over): These Bedouin farmers show little enthusiasm for these fleeting visits seeing them as empty gestures while Israel continues to build on the West Bank.

This year ahead of Joe Biden's presidential inauguration Israel rushed to announce the construction of 3,352 new homes effectively for Jews only on the West Bank and in east Jerusalem.

The Trump administration said that Jewish West Bank settlements were not inconsistent with international law.

Palestinians hope that Biden would reverse this into line with Europe and the U.N. But he didn't mention the Palestinians or Israel in his first foreign policy speech as president.

KILEY: Do you think you are a priority? It doesn't look like it to be honest.

MOHAMMAD SHTAYYEH, PALESTINIAN PRIME MINISTER: I said the moment we are a priority. We know that Washington is occupied with so many problems, corona, the economy, all these sorts of things which we understand.

KILEY: Scenes like this for the agricultural communities of Bedouin are all too familiar on the West Bank. But there's growing anger among the Palestinians against the Israelis, against their own leadership and against the international community.

KILEY (voice-over): The Europeans spend about $780 million a year on the Palestinians. They are the biggest donors to the Palestinian Authority. It's almost entirely reliant on foreign donor money to run about 40 percent of the West Bank. But U.S.-led peace talks with Israel are in a deep coma.

KILEY: Some people would say you're simply renting peace off the Palestinians.

SVEN KUEHN VON BURGSDORFF, EU REPRESENTATIVE, WEST BANK AND GAZA: Well, let's put it this way, how do you allow hope to continue to exist?

KILEY (voice-over): Meanwhile, a top Israeli official say the Bedouin are pawns in a political stunt orchestrated by the Palestinian Authority.

MARK REGEV, SENIOR ADVISER TO ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: The Israeli government was willing to go the extra mile. We offered them to be relocated, we offered to build housing in the area, I think for political reasons the residents weren't allowed to accept those proposals.

KILEY (voice-over): Trump support for Israel was hot. Israel may see a little cooling from Biden. But there's no change in the diplomatic weather for the Palestinians.

Sam Kiley in Humsa, on the West Bank.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[04:35:00]

CHURCH: A new U.N. report is accusing North Korean hackers of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars last year to fund the country's missile programs. The confidential documents shared with CNN says the hackers stole more than $300 million in virtual assets over the last two years alone. It's thought the money was used to pay for nuclear and ballistic weapons and help keep the country's struggling economy afloat.

So let's get more on this from CNN's Will Ripley who has visited North Korea 19 times. Will joins us now live from Hong Kong. Good to see you Will. So what more are you learning about this and how might this shape the way President Biden deals with North Korea going forward?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Rosemary. This is a report that the United Nations Security Council North Korea Sanctions Committee puts together every year. But there are some interesting details this year that show just how far North Korea is believed to have come in terms of their nuclear ballistic missile program.

Now we've already seen in military parades late last year and already earlier this year new short range, medium range and long range ballistic missiles along with submarine launched ballistic missile. This report says that it is believed that North Korea has the technological capability to put miniaturized nuclear warheads on many of those weapons. What is unknown at this point is whether North Korea has perfected the

technology to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile up into space and then have it reenter the earth's atmosphere intact. That potentially would mean that North Korea would need to undergo further testing, further launches, something that many analysts may feel may be a distinct possibility with the Biden administration deemed more predictable similar to the strategic patience of the Obama administration under which the president was the vice president under President Obama.

Now it also shows that despite those diplomacy three face-to-face meetings with President Trump, North Korea has continued to grow its nuclear arsenal in a way that has some analysts nervous.

This U.N. report also says, Rosemary, that North Korea has resumed cooperation with Iran exchanging information and perhaps more importantly critical missile components allowing them to bypass those international sanctions.

CHURCH: All right, many thanks to our Will Ripley joining us live from Hong Kong. Appreciate it.

One of the most visible faces at the Capitol riot is now sharing his story. A lawyer for the so-called QAnon shaman is speaking with CNN. That interview next.

Plus, we are keeping an eye on a live W.H.O. news conference. This as investigators wrap up their investigation into the origins of the coronavirus in Wuhan. We'll have a live report in just a moment.

[04:40:00]

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CHURCH: We are tracking developments in Wuhan, China, where a World Health Organization team has wrapped up a field study into the origins of COVID-19. The team has been in Wuhan for the past few weeks visiting hospitals, research facilities and the wet market where the outbreak was first identified.

For more, let's bring in CNN's Nick Paton Walsh. And Nick, the W.H.O. team was late in starting this news conference on their investigation. What's been said so far.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and Rosemary, we're currently hearing from Liang Wannian who is the top Chinese expert on this joint mission of Chinese experts and W.H.O. experts who have been on the ground half quarantined, half actually visiting sites around Wuhan and are now giving through the voice of Mr. Liang the preliminary report.

Now I should tell you that, obviously, this is him speaking now outlaying an incredibly detailed, complex series of theories. But initially they say that the SARS COV 2 virus could have originated from zoonotic transfer but the hosts i.e. the animals from which that zoonotic transfer occurred have yet to be identified. Now that is something, frankly, we already knew. Much science so far

has pointed towards the likelihood of SARS COV 2, the virus that causes COVID-19, the new coronavirus possibly originating in bats, possibly in a virus that's commonly known as as Rats G13. That's about 90 plus percent similar SARS COV 2. The big

debate in science being how you get from that bat virus to that which is currently tearing its way through the human population.

We've yet to hear precisely any more details as to what they've discovered during this particular mission, but at the same time too they went on just as you came to me in fact to talk about how there was continued evolution during the spread amongst humans.

In fact, Mr. Liang pointing to the possibility that there may not have just been one moment when the virus jumped from animals into humans but possibly many if there were continued contacts.

I should give you the broader context though of what we're seeing here. This is China laying out these preliminary findings. Sat next to Mr. Liang is the head of W.H.O. mission Peter Ben Embarek, he has yet to speak in these terms. This is very much I think Beijing saying what it thinks the findings are. They are still in the middle of laying those out. They have suggested and obviously, there may be errors in translation here, but possibly the China part of this particular episode is now finished but we're still listening to exactly what the entirety of the statement is -- Rosemary.

CHURCH: Right. Hopefully, we'll learn a whole lot more in the minutes ahead. Many thanks to Nick Paton Walsh for bringing us that from London.

Well, a lawyer for one of the rioters at the U.S. Capitol is now speaking out and says former President Donald Trump shares some of the blame. Jacob Chansley is one of the rioters made infamous for his role in the attack, when these photos of him wearing fur and horns inside the Capitol building went viral.

Chansley is known as the QAnon shaman. His lawyer told CNN's Chris Cuomo his client now regrets storming the Capitol and he's deeply disappointed in the former president. Take a listen.

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ALBERT WATKINS, ATTORNEY FOR JACOB CHANSLEY: Trump's tweets, his social media exploitation, what he said day in, day out that we all permitted included untruths, misrepresentations, out-and-out lies, not every now and then, every day. Not once a day, multiple times daily.

[04:45:00]

You couple that with a protracted period with COVID, social distancing, the absence of humanity around a lot of people who get their news from TikTok and from social media and from this internet coffee klatch. And it was a mess. It was a mess that created the environment on January 6th. Which was not one month in the making for people like Jake, for millions of Americans. They truly did hang on every word of their president, our president, the person that we permitted day in, day out to speak to us in ways and in fashions that simply weren't true.

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CHURCH: And the shaman's fellow QAnon followers are gearing up for their latest baseless conspiracy theory. They believe former President Trump will actually be sworn back into office in the coming weeks. CNN's Donnie O-Sullivan has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't believe -- this sounds so crazy and I recognize how crazy this sounds but I don't believe Joe Biden is going to be sworn in as president today.

DONNIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): A popular QAnon conspiracy convinced some Trump supporters that Biden was not going to be inaugurated on January 20th.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please raise your right hand and repeat after me.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): But as soon as Biden was inaugurated a new conspiracy theory took hold.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Trump will take office as the 19th president of the United States on March 4th under the restored republic.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, hey, hey, it's your favorite truth seeker holding the light for everyone out there who's given up hope that Trump is not the president of the United States of America. When, in fact, he is.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you think about it, you know, Biden's not in the White House and they have proof that he's out in California and it's all staged.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Executions will be happening on March 5th. That's a big statement and I'm really looking forward to it.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Trump will return as president in March they falsely claim. The conspiracy theory is apparently rooted in the belief that an 1871 law turned the country into a corporation and any president-elected after that is illegitimate. The last president to be sworn in before that law passed was Ulysses S. Grant on March 4, 1869. It is the latest conspiracy theory that Trump would be president again in March that made made former QAnon believer Ashley Vanderbilt realize the whole thing is a fraud.

ASHLEY VANDERBILT, FORMER QANON BELIEVER: It doesn't make sense that all of this is happening and then all of a sudden Trump's going to come back March 4th and it's going to change. I was like, it doesn't seem right. So that's I guess what started -- I just had that little bit of doubt.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): But while Ashley was able to get out, others are still clinging on QAnon. Repost if Trump is still your president, read a message posted to Gab late Sunday after the Super Bowl. Gab is a hate filled social media platform that some QAnon followers have turned to since platforms like Twitter shut down some QAnon account after the insurrection.

A QAnon account on gab has more than 200,000 members and in it believers continue to look for signs that QAnon is a real thing. A photo purportedly of the White House at night posted with the message Q did say something about if the lights go out, please know we are in control.

Echoing the false conspiracy about executions on March 5th, a person posted a picture of the media risers outside the White House used during the inauguration, with the message it's beginning to look a lot like gallows.

And ahead of the impeachment trial a plea for QAnon believers to call their Senators. It's not Q, it's you that makes the difference.

O'SULLIVAN: And QAnon followers will be watching closely the impeachment trial of former President Trump this week. Of course for them, Trump is a hero. He is the hero of the whole QAnon conspiracy theory. That's perhaps the reason why he has praised QAnon followers.

And you saw Ashley Vanderbilt there in that report, the QAnon, former QAnon believer who's a mom in South Carolina. She said one way she could have gotten out of the QAnon conspiracy theory sooner was that if President Trump came out and said the whole thing was false. We've not seen the former president do that. And we've actually seen him embrace a QAnon believer like Marjorie Taylor Greene. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Great reports. Thanks for that. And be sure to watch CNN's special live coverage of Donald Trump's second impeachment trial. That begins at 5 p.m. in London and 9 p.m. in Abu Dhabi and we'll be right back.

[04:50:00]

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CHURCH: Last week was the deadliest week of U.S. avalanches on record. This horrifying video was shot in Utah. Luckily, several people got out alive, but 14 have died in avalanches across the U.S. since February 1st. That is the highest number of avalanche deaths ever recorded in a seven-day stretch. Our Pedram Javaheri takes a closer look. Pedram.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, good morning, Rosemary. When you see the conditions here play out across the Western U.S. some of the footage that we had access to really speaks to how scary of a sight this must be across this region. And of course, we know on average every single year on our planet, some 150 people lose their lives to avalanches. Unfortunately in the U.S. the past seven days have set the record for the most number of fatalities in a seven day period.

And you take a look at the numbers, some 14 fatalities around the U.S., 10 of which have happened in the Western U.S. And we know exactly what kind of weather pattern leads to avalanche frequency. And if you take a look, we know in November, December around the Western U.S. snowstorms were few and far between. That was part of the problem.

We have a lot of dry periods where ice essentially accumulates on top of the snow. So that base layer doesn't have a very good bond on the snow itself. So when you get patterns of January and the February pattern we've seen in recent weeks where you have plenty of snow come down, but a weak layer at the base here really allows avalanches to become prevalent. And that is precisely what has been taking place around portions of the Western U.S.

[04:55:00]

And some of the contributing factors, of course strong winds, warmth, and our rain, snow, some vibrations, and all of this can initiate an avalanche. And you know, 90 percent of the time avalanches are actually initiated by a victim themselves or a member in the victim's party. So it's a really dangerous scenario when you have this sort of weather pattern led to the events that are playing out now across the Western U.S.

Now speaking of dangerous, look at what's happening across the northern tier of the United States. Wide spread of wind chill as cold as 25 to 50 below zero. We know the arctic air will gradually shift farther and farther towards the south. As it does, the elements in place here can produce an ice storm across portions of the U.S. The fact ice secretions could exceed a 1/4 of an inch to 1/2 an inch across a widespread area of the Ohio Valley, portions of the Mississippi Valley as well. And any time you get to these numbers, Rosemary, you're talking about tree limbs coming down, power outages being extensive and of course, the dangerous travel scenario across the regions of the U.S. as well. Send it back to you.

CHURCH: All right, many thanks to you, Pedram. Appreciate it.

And before we go, the music world says good-bye to an icon of the Motown era.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUPREMES, SINGING: Stop in the name of love

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CHURCH: Mary Wilson, a founding member of the legendary Supremes has died. According to her publicist, Wilson passed away suddenly at her home in Henderson, Nevada, on Monday. No cause of death has been given. The Supremes were one of the premiere groups of the 1960s with a string of number one hits. Wilson was 76 years old. May she rest in peace.

And thank you so much for your company. I'm Rosemary Church. "EARLY START" is up next. You're watching CNN. Enjoy your day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUPREMES, SINGING: Stop in the name of love. Before you break my heart.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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