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CDC Warns Variants Could Lead to Rapid Rise in Cases; Trump Rips McConnell After Impeachment Acquittal; Senator Graham Says GOP Won't Take Back Majority Without Trump; Anti-Asian Hate Crime Reports Surge Across U.S. During Pandemic; Activists Track 2800 Anti-Asian Attacks in COVID Months of 2020. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired February 17, 2021 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: What are you seeing?

NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it is very, very uneven. Right now Alaska is doing best in terms of the number of doses in arms per capita. Alabama is doing worse. And also different states, different categories of people can get the vaccine. Dr. Fauci says he hopes that as supply increases these inequities between the states will be leveled out -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Nick, thank you in Los Angeles.

To politics, the rift between former President Trump and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell just got even more ugly. The scathing letter Trump sent to McConnell next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:35:00]

BALDWIN: Well if it wasn't a civil war within the Republican Party, it is safe to say, folks, we have arrived. Former President Trump ripping into one-time ally Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in this scathing letter. This all comes on the heels of McConnell publicly accusing his former boss of bearing responsibility for the deadly insurrection last month despite ultimately voting to acquit.

CNN's Jim Acosta is in Washington. And Jim, the former president not too pleased with Mitch McConnell.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: No, he's not. It sounds like a sequel to "Grumpy Old Men" but it's not, sadly. This is real life as we've gotten accustomed to over these last few years, but we saw this statement that the former president put out yesterday. Goes right after Mitch McConnell.

I talked to Jason Miller, a senior adviser to the former president, who said, listen the Senate Minority Leader's op-ed in "The Wall Street Journal" going after the former president required a response. That's why you saw what Trump said, we can put some of it up on the screen. It's fairly personal which should not come as a surprise.

It says, Mitch is a dour, sullen and unsmiling political hack, and if Republican Senators are going to stay with him, they will not win again.

Now, we were told that there were some other personal comments that the president wanted to make about McConnell's chins and so on, and you know, I talked to Jason Miller about this. He said, no, that's not the case. It was not supposed to be that personal. Although it may have been a more heated response that they were initially contemplating in terms of that statement that the former president put out.

The other thing we should point out, Brooke, is that when Trump made some comments on Fox News earlier today, he took yet another veiled shot at Mitch McConnell and essentially said that, well, if Republicans could fight as hard as Democrats when it comes to the election then perhaps, we wouldn't be in the position that we're in right now.

Obviously, that is just steeped with all sorts of lies and conspiracy theories and so on, but it's an indication that Trump has still not given up on this grudge that he has with Mitch McConnell.

I was talking to a Republican Congressional source about some of this earlier today who said, you know listen, Donald Trump has about zero influence in the Senate Republican caucus when it comes to the future of Mitch McConnell. So there's no indication at this point that Trump is going to have any, you know, ability to knock McConnell out of that leadership position which is obviously something the former president would I think you know enjoy doing at this point. Doesn't sound like anything like that is going to happen at this point -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: No. That's good to know. But my goodness, that letter was personal and the dig at his family and what he apparently didn't write and I'm going to get to that next with Jeff Flake who is waiting in the wings. Jim, thank you so much, in Washington.

ACOSTA: You Bet.

BALDWIN: CNN political commentator and former Republican Senator Jeff Flake is with me now. Senator, good to have you back on. I want to begin with this letter. And let me add the thing that Jim didn't quite fully say that I'm going to say, which is that CNN had confirmed with sources that Trump in this letter initially wanted to say that McConnell, and I quote, had more chins than he did brain, but it was removed before it was issued. Your reaction to all of this?

JEFF FLAKE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, that would be consistent with other things he's said about a lot of us. But I want to confirm what Jim said about the president having no influence at all in the, you know, the Republican caucus in the Senate.

There's -- there's never been any real love for the president. There's been fear of the president's control of the base, but that is ebbing certainly very fast now, and you know, don't bet against Mitch McConnell. And when you're looking at Senate races coming up, the last thing Republicans need is for Donald Trump to weigh in.

BALDWIN: Listen, I hear you, and Mitch McConnell is a guy with a job if you're comparing the two, right. He's a guy with a Twitter handle. He can actually do, you know, press. Trump released this statement which really reads like one giant tweet. But if Trump has a microphone next week, when and if he decides to go to CPAC, the conservative conference, what could happen?

FLAKE: Well, I mean, he's still going to play well with the hard core base, but that base is shrinking all the time as we get toward the Senate elections. There are 20 Republicans up in 2022 in the Senate. There are a couple of seats where they need really good candidates and Trump-like candidates aren't going to cut it in this state, in Arizona.

Republicans would desperately like to win the seat back. They are not going to do it with a Trump acolyte, and President Trump coming to campaign for that candidate isn't going to help. It didn't help last year. It didn't help two years ago. So I think that that influence is ebbing and whether the president goes to CPAC and speaks, you know, his influence is waning all the time.

[15:40:00]

BALDWIN: I do want to ask you about the future of the party because, you know, Lindsey Graham, Senator Lindsey Graham, fierce ally as we all know to Trump, he says he is worried about 2022 more than ever and he says -- and the quote is, I don't want to eat our own. This is what he said.

FLAKE: Right.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): What I would say to Senator McConnell, I know Trump can be a handful, but he is the most dominant figure in the Republican Party. We don't have a snowball's chance in hell of taking back the majority without Donald Trump.

I'm sorry what happened on January the 6th. He'll get his fair share of blame, but to my Republican colleagues in the Senate, let's try to work together. Realize that without President Trump we're never going to get back in the majority, and to President Trump, you're going to have to make some changes for you to reach your potential.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Now, Senator Flake, I was talking to Charlie Dent yesterday, Republican -- former Republican Congressman of Pennsylvania and he was like, Brooke, remember 2010 and he's like Mitch McConnell remembers 2010 and that whole Tea Party wave when state and local committees started to get behind the more -- he referred to them as, exotic candidates -- and we know what happens when that happens, right. So how does McConnell prevent losses of future seats if the Republican Party said, you know, they want to placate the base, if they embrace Trump and Trumpism?

FLAKE: Well, he did get involved in 2012 to a certain extent and certainly in 2014 when Republicans took back control of the Senate. For those who think that, you know, President Trump has the Midas touch when it comes to winning elections, I would remind them that before he was elected, you know, we had control of the Senate, we had control of the House. We've now lost the White House, the House, the Senate and about 400 legislative seats nationwide in state legislatures.

And we'll continue to lose those if we have these so-called exotic candidates, the Sharon Angles of the world, the Todd Akins, and the Richard Mourdocks, you know, the Roy Moores. The list goes on, and we're going to just simply just not play in any state that's in play if we have a Trump-like candidate. Yes, they can win a primary, but it's tough to win a general.

BALDWIN: But Senator, then explain to me. You just said exactly, you read my mind because I was going to point out, that you know, why are these Republicans vowing to stick with Trump come hell or high water. They lost the White House. They lost the Senate, they lost the House, yet they are like, whatever we can we do for you? How do you square that, how do you explain that?

FLAKE: Well, it has been the case in the last two cycles, that the president has a massive control of the base and with a tweet or two or just picking up the phone he could generate a primary for somebody and might be able to take them out.

That's no longer the case, particularly with the Senate, you know, with Mitch McConnell moving on. I think Mitch felt really burned at what happened in Georgia. He felt that he had to go along with the president or be quiet at least in the run up to those two elections. Those two runoffs, and we lost both of them, and I think that it's not just Mitch. It's other Republicans as well. Remembering that and saying we can't do that again.

So I think the president will try to use any influence he has, but I think it is waning. Certainly, his loss of his Twitter platform is meaningful as is just being out of office, and you know, Trumpism requires a certain swagger that comes with winning. And that's why the president is so reluctant to admit that he lost the last election because if he doesn't have that he really doesn't have anything.

BALDWIN: Jeff Flake, good to see you. Thank you so much in Arizona.

FLAKE: And let me just say how great it's been to be with you. And I was so sorry to hear your beautiful speech yesterday but fact --

BALDWIN: Don't make me cry today, Jeff Flake. Don't make me cry. Thank you so much. I actually appreciate it. It's been overwhelming to say the least. Thank you, sir.

A call to action today as police see a spike in the number of violent attacks against Asian-Americans, even the elderly, fighting back against COVID-related racism next.

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[15:45:00]

BALDWIN: A string of recent COVID-related attacks has targeted Asian- Americans all across this country and has ignited fear and growing concern. Communities are now on high alert, and police have opened hate crime investigations.

Kyung Lah, CNN's senior national correspondent is here with the details of these horrible and racist attacks. Kyung, what is happening?

KYUNG LAH, CNN'S SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, beyond the senselessness of all of this, Brooke, the reported crimes that are happening across the country and really sort of dominating in communities where a lot of people are walking, it's exactly who these victims are. The biggest reports we've seen as of late have come among victims who are elderly and perpetrated by people who seemingly come out of nowhere.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Happy birthday, dear grandpa ...

LAH (voice over): Turning 84 was a milestone for Vicha Ratanapakdee and this family.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Happy birthday, grandpa.

LAH (voice over): The San Francisco grandfather had just received the vaccine and stayed healthy through the pandemic, walking for an hour in his neighborhood every morning. It was on his walk when an unprovoked attacker ran across the street.

LAH: How did you find out what happened to your father?

MONTHANUS RATANAPAKDEE, VICTIM'S DAUGHTER: The officer answered the phone and then he told us like, they found him, got assaulted. He's got an injury very bad about his brain, bleeding. And he never wake up again. I never see him again.

[15:50:00]

LAH (voice over): A 19-year-old suspect is charged with murder and elder abuse. But Vicha Ratanapakdee's family calls it something else.

ERIC LAWSON, VICTIM'S SON-IN-LAW: This wasn't driven by economics, this was driven by hate.

LAH (voice over): Vicha Ratanapakdee's death is part of a surge in reported attacks against Asian-Americans during the pandemic. In Oakland, a man walked up behind a 91-year-old man and threw him to the ground, one of more than 20 assaults and robberies like this one in Oakland's Chinatown.

In Portland more than a dozen Asian owned businesses in recent weeks have been vandalized. These incidents are not new.

In New York, the MTA retweeted this video of what they called racism. This man sprayed Febreze at an Asian-American on the subway at the start of the pandemic prompting an NYPD hate crime investigation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: F**king Asian piece of sh*t.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my god.

LAH (voice over): A coalition has tracked more than 2,800 anti-Asian hate incidents between March and December of last year, like this one at a California restaurant. Before the election, this man invoked President Trump.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trump's gonna f**k you, you f**kers, you f**kers need to leave.

LAH (voice over): The then president's words --

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The China virus, kung flu/ ...

LAH (voice over): -- have lasting impacts as Professor Russel Jeung who tracked those 2,800 hate incidents through Stop AAPI Hate because no governmental agency would

RUSSELL JEUNG, STOP AAPI HATE: Mainstream society doesn't believe that we face racism and we needed to document what was happening.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So we're just offering like our support to the community.

LAH (voice over): Identify and change them says this group of Bay Area volunteers, offering escorts for the elderly. And offering a bridge to those who may not even know how to talk to the police.

DEREK KO, COMPASSION IN OAKLAND VOLUNTEER: So we want to take that rage and it's like let's do something for that -- what can I do? And this is what we are doing.

LAH (voice over): Vicha Ratanapakdee's daughter spent the last year ignoring what people said to her.

MONTHANUS RATANAPAKDEE: You bring the COVID, screaming, spit on us, but we just walk away.

LAH (voice over): She won't do it anymore.

MONTHANUS RATANAPAKDEE: He got to be proud about, we protect a lot of another people in this city or the whole country.

(END VIDEOTAPE) LAH (on camera): Now the suspect in Ratanapakdee's death has been arrested, he has been charged with murder and elder abuse. But something that is notable, Brooke, and a lot of people are talking about online, is that he has not been charged with a hate crime. Why is that? Because it is so very difficult to prove -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: It is disgusting. I am so glad that you are there and covering this story. And Kyung, you mentioned that there are, what did you say, 2,800 cases that this group has tracked between March and December? Is that number accurate?

LAH: Well, the group believes that that is absolutely not accurate and here is why. That's the reports that have come into Stop AAIP Hate. That there are so many of these crimes that may be occurring whether they be actual hate crimes or if they are incidents where something has happened to someone. And they're not reported in part because a lot of people are elderly. We're talking about a predominantly immigrant community in many of these cases.

And there are also language and cultural barriers. So they believe that this is just one indicator and that the real numbers may be far higher than 2,800.

BALDWIN: Kyung Lah, stay on it for us. Kyung, thank you.

Breaking news now out of Texas, power officials say there is no end in sight for outages as families shop for groceries in the dark and sleep in cars to stay warm. The struggle to survive this second storm.

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[15:55:00]

BALDWIN: The coronavirus vaccine rollout is getting under way right now in Colombia. A nurse at a rural hospital was the first person to receive a shot in that country just a short time ago. Let's check the latest pandemic headlines with our correspondents around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATT RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Matt Rivers in Mexico City where it's safe to say the Mexican government is not thrilled with the way vaccines are being distributed around the world. It was on Tuesday morning that we heard from Mexico's foreign minister who basically said that richer countries are making out better than poorer ones when it comes to vaccinating their populations.

He says that the countries that are actually producing these vaccines have much higher vaccination rates than countries here in Latin America and Caribbean.

To that end, the Mexican delegation this morning at the U.N. Security Council actually introduced a formal complaint about this issue. Basically they want to urge countries around the world to be more equitable in their vaccine distribution. All of this comes at a time when Mexico's own vaccine rollout program

is going quite slowly despite the fact that they have managed to secure purchase agreements for up to more than 230 million doses of different vaccines. As of Tuesday afternoon, they had only managed to administer roughly 750,000 doses of vaccine to their population.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Matt, thank you so much. And I'm Brooke Baldwin, thank you for being with me, I'll see you back here tomorrow.

In the meantime, to Washington we go, THE LEAD with Jake Tapper starts right now.

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