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Texas Still Without Power; Trump's Feud with McConnell; Scott Jennings is Interviewed about Trump's Slam against McConnell; Nonprofit Group Battles Vaccine Misinformation. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired February 17, 2021 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:31:16]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: In the dark, no heat for many, no water for some, as crippling cold and freezing rain pounds them yet again. It is the reality this morning for many across the southern United States.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, in places where you wouldn't, frankly, expect it. In Texas alone, nearly 2.5 million people are still without power after a deadly winter storm. The severe weather is not letting up. Frigid temperatures, as much as half an inch of ice possible over the next three days in Texas and other hard-hit states in the area.

Camila Bernal is live in Dallas this morning with more.

Tell us what residents are experiencing and what's the real danger now, right, because some people, sadly, are dying.

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Jim and Poppy, good morning.

Yes, people are dying. And it's because this has been going on for days now. And people still don't have their power back. So this storm came in Sunday night into Monday and initially it was, of course, so much fun to see the snow. It is so rare to see this in Texas. And so, of course, people were never able to pick up the snow and do what I'm doing now.

So, initially, this was fun. But then it just became something where you pass the days and the hours and people were still without power. And so, so many people just upset at this situation.

You're seeing images on social media of people showing us their temperatures, 20, 30 degrees inside a home. You're seeing water freezing. You saw that image of the fan. You see that water freezing inside of a home. And so that's the concern.

The man who showed us that picture saying that he's a Texan. That he's not used to this. And so they're worried not only with what they're dealing with now, but they're worried about what can happen next because, at the moment, they still don't have answers as to when their power will be back. Take a listen to what another person told us about what he's feeling

here in Texas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIAN MOOTE, DALLAS RESIDENT: I think people are just kind of mentally strained to the point of -- it's exhausting. This feels like -- this three days feels like it's been 200 years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERNAL: And, of course, the problem is that they still don't know when that power will be back. Many got it back yesterday and into today because they did say that because people used less power overnight, they were able to bring back some power.

But bottom line is, there's still 2.5 million people without power and without answers as to when it will come back.

HARLOW: OK. Hoping for the best for them.

Camila, thank you for being there for that reporting in Dallas for us.

BERNAL: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Well, after losing the election, former President Trump, he's already attacked Mike Pence. Now he's attacking Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. The latest sign of a rift within the GOP. We'll have new details just ahead.

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[09:38:33]

SCIUTTO: Well, this morning, a civil war growing inside the Republican Party. Former President Trump escalating his feud with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in a scathing letter, really kind of a printed series of tweets, after McConnell, of course, publicly accused Trump of bearing responsibility, direct responsibility, for the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. That was after he decided to vote to acquit the former president in the Senate trial.

HARLOW: You've really got to read the whole letter to get the full gist of it, but let me read you part of it.

The former president writes, quote, Mitch is a dour, sullen and unsmiling political hack. And if Republican senators are going to stay with him, they will not win again.

Our Jessica Dean joins us on Capitol Hill.

Republican leaders, I mean, outside of what Mitch McConnell thinks, and let me know if you've heard from him, but just the bigger concern from leadership in the party about the division that this just, you know, exacerbates.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right.

So we have -- I have reached out to Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's office to see if they have any response to this. So far we haven't heard anything in response to this latest letter from former President Trump.

But, Poppy, you're exactly right, Republican leadership here has their eyes very much trained on 2022. They want to win back majorities in the House and the Senate. But as they're trying to do that, this rift and public spat is just spilling out into the open. It continues to do so in various instances.

[09:40:00]

This particular one between former President Trump and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell chief among them.

We saw McConnell, of course, voting to acquit former President Trump, but then going on to publicly talk about how he lays all responsibility at his feet, believes he is morally responsible for what happened here during the deadly insurrection January 6th, but voted to acquit because of the constitutionality question.

And now we have this response from Trump.

Here's what Senator Lindsey Graham had to say about it. Take a listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): They're now at each other's throat. I'm more worried about 2022 than I've ever been. I don't want to eat our own. President Trump is the most consequential Republican in the party. If Mitch McConnell doesn't understand that, he's missing a lot.

But my beef is not with Mitch McConnell, because he has the same policy views I do. My beef is that we need to knock this off.

Kevin McCarthy is the leader of the House Republicans. He's taken a different approach to President Trump. I would advise Senator McConnell to do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Of course, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy going down to visit former President Trump in Florida. And also, of course, choosing not to punish Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene for her lies and conspiracy theories. And she was later stripped, of course, from her committees by a full House vote.

But what this sets up, Jim and Poppy, is a potential for a showdown in the 2022 primaries. We saw McConnell writing about what he cares about is electability and making sure that whomever wins the primary can be elected. And you see former President Trump in his letter saying he's supporting primary opponents that go with him. So will we see a showdown? That's what people are talking about now. Jim and Poppy.

SCIUTTO: Jessica Dean, thanks so much.

So joining me now to discuss is former -- is Scott Jennings, he's former special assistant not only to President George W. Bush, he also worked many campaigns for Senator Mitch McConnell.

Scott, always good to have you on.

SCOTT JENNINGS, FORMER SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Hey, Jim. Good to be with you.

SCIUTTO: So I wonder if Trump and Graham have it backwards here. I mean the GOP lost the White House and the Senate under Trump. I mean can the GOP win not just in 2022, but a national election with Trump as the brand in your view?

JENNINGS: Well, I mean we do have some empirical data to go off of here. Donald Trump lost the national popular vote twice. He got a smaller percentage of the vote in his two presidential elections than Mitt Romney did in 2012. So there's some evidence that we've reached the limits of Donald Trump's political influence. And that was before January the 6th.

I think there's also some evidence he cost us the Senate by losing the races in Georgia.

Now, I do think it's true, the Republican Party cannot be the party of subtraction. And I think one issue with the Trump people is they'd like to kick people out of the party they don't like or who Donald Trump personally has a problem with. And you just look at the election results, you can see, it's hard for Republicans to be successful if you go around lobbing off, you know, 20 percent or 30 percent of the party because you don't like them.

So I think, at the end of the day, what's probably best for the Republican Party is that it get united around opposing the Democrats with a responsible governing alternative. What's probably not best for the party is to say, you know what we need, we just need more Trump. And that didn't work in November or January and I doubt it would work in the future.

SCIUTTO: Let me ask you though, because -- because the polls show the majority of Republican voters, or at least self-identifying Republican voters, large majorities remain with Trump. I mean is there really a civil war within the party or is it a fringe in the party, right, in terms of numbers that opposes Trump, whereas most is with him?

JENNINGS: I think -- I think the term civil war is overblown. I think most Republicans across the spectrum have the same basic policy views. They think Senator Graham, in that clip, was correct, everybody sort of -- you know, we're conservatives and they're not. I mean that binds most Republicans together.

I think where we get off the rails is when we start to talk about, I don't like you because of this cultural issue, or I don't like you because you won't bend the knee to me whenever I demand it or, you know, these personal grievances, cultural grievances, personality conflicts, stylistic conflicts, this is where you start to see the split.

On policy, the best place for the Republicans to be is to say, we're center right, responsible, reasonable governing people and the Democrats are far left radicals. I actually think that message would bind most people together, whether you consider yourself to be a McConnell Republican or a Trump Republican.

SCIUTTO: OK. So the sense is that McConnell would like the party to move on from Trump. But he had a chance, right, to do that, not just in hope, but in action. I mean he said on the Senate floor, Trump incited terrorism, his words. He said he did and voted to acquit after he himself delayed the trial, which presented this constitutional issue that he's kind of hanging it all on.

[09:45:01]

Did McConnell miss his chance to substantively change the direction of the party?

JENNINGS: Well, I think the House also had something to do with delay. I mean they took the weekend off. Then they gave Mike Pence a day when it was clear he wouldn't invoke the 25th Amendment. There was no reasonable way --

SCIUTTO: He could have called the Senate back. He could have called the Senate back before January 20th and did not.

JENNINGS: But there was no -- Jim, but there was no reasonable way -- I mean even the pretrial brief period -- I mean there was no reasonable way to have a trial before he left office. McConnell had a legitimate constitutional question. There are people that I respect greatly on both sides of that question. And he said that our system of government allows Donald Trump to continue to face consequences, which is true.

But he made his speech and he said what he thought was true, which a lot of people believe, 60 percent of the American people, that Trump is responsible. So I don't think he missed his moment.

I think what he's thinking about is the future. You know, you have to remember, to understand McConnell, you don't have to understand that he wants to be liked or loved or adored by you or Donald Trump or anyone else. He just wants to have control so that Republicans can have policy influence. And that's the difference between McConnell and Trump today. McConnell has to get up and go to work every day. Donald Trump gets to get up and run his mouth.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

JENNINGS: And this is the difference in these two guys.

SCIUTTO: Well, Scott Jennings, I'm sure we'll be talking about this going forward, right? The battle still rages, but it's always good to have you on.

JENNINGS: Thanks, Jim.

HARLOW: President Biden says, this is good news, there should be enough vaccine for nearly all Americans by July. But actually getting shots into everyone's arms is made more difficult as misinformation sparks vaccine hesitancy.

Coming up next, a pediatrician will join me to talk about his mission to fight vaccine lies on social media. Wait until you see how he's doing it, ahead.

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[09:51:08]

HARLOW: So you heard some good news last night in the CNN town hall with President Biden saying there will be 600 million doses of the COVID vaccine by July, enough for nearly every American. But even with infection rates and deaths falling after the two deadliest months of this pandemic, the administration faces another really big challenge, battling misinformation and convincing people to roll up their sleeves.

Our next guest is looking to combat the spread of lies by anti- vaccination activities. Dr. Todd Wolynn is a pediatrician. He's also the CEO of Kids Plus Pediatrics in Pennsylvania. And we're so glad you're here. Let's bring you in.

You make these amazing videos that we're going to show our viewers in a minute on TikTok to really spread the message. So thank you for being here.

DR. TODD WOLYNN, PEDIATRICIAN AND VACCINE ADVOCATE: Thank you very much for having me today.

HARLOW: So your non-profit is -- that you co-founded is called Shots Heard Around the World and --

Shots Heard Round the World, yes.

HARLOW: Heard Round the World.

And let's pull up this video so people can see because you basically go on TikTok, on Facebook, on social media to spread facts and to battle misinformation.

But explain to people how this started because it came basically from you guys being attacked.

WOLYNN: Yes. So Kids Plus Pediatrics in August of 2017, we created a 90-second PSA about the HPV vaccine. And as a result, we were the victim of a global, coordinated, anti-vaccine attack with over 10,000 posts from 800 different accounts globally on our Facebook account. I mean our video ended up going over 100,000 views, but we certainly didn't want to be attacked nor have our reviews all coordinatedly demolished on Yelp and Google.

HARLOW: Yes. Yes.

WOLYNN: And that's what they do, reputation harm, too now.

HARLOW: And, look, these videos make us all smile. And we need that these days. That's a good thing.

But the seriousness of the threat is real. I mean you've got 900 volunteers around the world battling these lies.

What are -- what -- what are the biggest lies about the COVID vaccine that they're having to take on?

WOLYNN: Oh, well, about COVID vaccine, right, they come out with the usual tropes. It's been rushed. It's not safe. It can impact -- like, in social media, right, you get your own little piece of hell delivered to you. So if you're a woman of child bearing age, they deliver the fear of infertility. If you're minority, they --

HARLOW: Yes. My friends are terrified.

WOLYNN: Yes.

HARLOW: My friends that are very smart are terrified of this.

WOLYNN: And -- right. It's very nuanced and targeted, right? So if you're minority, they deliver experimentation and invoke memories of Tuskegee experimentation.

So -- so that's the problem. And in medical school the fallacy is they -- they don't tell us that, one, that you should be able to deliver all your information in the four walls of your exam room, which is ridiculous because we should be out here where our families are. And, two, that you'll be believed, right? So --

HARLOW: Yes.

You know, one thing that one of your colleagues in this mission said that I thought was so wise is, you have to get to people with the facts before the lies get to them, before the misinformation reaches them through social media. But how do you do that? How do you -- how do you beat that?

WOLYNN: Yes, that quote was from Chad Herman (ph), our communications director. And, absolutely, there's communications science showing that if you reach people with facts prior to the disinformation, it can inoculate them.

But the way you do it again is going where your families are. We have actually families that reach us -- reach out to us on Facebook and a variety of our platforms asking us to vet information for them. So they'll send us articles and say, what do you think about this one, or they'll come on to our Facebook live show on Thursday mornings at 9:00 and literally have a live dialogue on this information.

HARLOW: Yes. Two other quick questions for you.

One, there is vaccine hesitancy, in part because of vaccine misinformation and lies, but part because of genuine concern, and these are new vaccines and new technology with mRNA.

[09:55:01]

How do you talk empathetically to people who just are genuinely concerned?

WOLYNN: Right. The key is using good active listening and, again, getting onto a platform into a space where you can engage people. And there are plenty of vaccine advocates doing this. The problem is that social media platforms have allowed their platforms to be weaponized, which is why Shots Heard has been formed.

So at shotsheard.org, we actually take these trusted advocates and we help support and promote vaccines by empowering and galvanizing vaccine advocates. So these 900 volunteers worldwide will come to the aid of people if they're being attacked by anti vaccine forces. And so that -- the key is, Poppy, is to -- to build upon the trust we have with our families and just talk to them about what we know.

HARLOW: Very quickly, 30 seconds left, big piece in "The New York Times" that a lot of parents read yesterday about 30 children who have died from COVID-related multi-inflammatory syndrome in kids. Very rare, but it has happened. What do parents need to look out for?

WOLYNN: Again, it is rare. Only 2,000 cases. So you look for fever, you look for inflammation, you look for rashes, you look for your kid not acting right.

And this is a small but very scary condition related to COVID. We also are talking about long-haulers and all these other things. And yet we have a safe and effective vaccines with amazing efficacy. So we need to continue to communicate.

And, parents, if you have questions, please call your health care provider.

HARLOW: Yes.

WOLYNN: And please keep up with your well visits and get your regular immunizations, including flu.

HARLOW: Thank you, Doctor. We appreciate it. Great to have you.

Dr. Todd Wolynn.

We'll talk to you soon.

WOLYNN: Thanks so much.

HARLOW: We'll be right back.

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