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Tiger Woods Awake, Responsive After Single-Car Crash; Companies Pledge 240 Million Doses to U.S. By End of March; European Countries Diverge on Lockdown Plans; No Charges for Police Involved in Daniel Prude's Death; Ahmaud Arbery's Family Still Fighting for Justice; Naturalist: Climate Change is a Global Security Threat; Trump Offered Kim Jong-un a Ride on Air Force One. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired February 24, 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]
NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The emergency services arrived.
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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: With me now is Dan Rapaport, staff writer at "Golf Digest." Thank you for talking with us.
DANIEL RAPAPORT, STAFF WRITER, GOLF DIGEST: Thank you for having me.
CHURCH: So after overcoming a number of personal challenges and five back surgeries, Tiger Woods was enjoying an very impressive comeback. And then this horrifying car accident. What do you think this could possibly mean for his future?
RAPAPORT: The giant question mark right now. I think the first thing if you're Tiger or part of his camp, you're not thinking about golf right now. You're just thinking about life. Tiger Woods was kind of in a dear of his injury woes in 2017, he talked about, you know, golf is secondary right now. I just want to be able to walk around were my kids. At 45 years old and all the surgeries, he was just coming off a back surgery, that now he can't really rehab, because he can't walk. He can't do the exercises. His golf future is a giant question mark.
CHURCH: Yes, just a horrible situation for Tiger Woods. He has had to deal with so much. What impact, do you think, he has had on the game of golf and indeed on other world sports?
RAPAPORT: How much time do you have? I mean, Tiger Woods is golf and has been golf for 25 years. I mean, I think the fact that, look at the reaction today, a 45-year-old golfer who hadn't played a competitive tournament in four or five months, he's ranked like 48th in the world. And he gets injured and it's the number one news story in the world. That shows the impact that he has. No other golfer would be on CNN being talked about for a car accident. He still is that transcendent. He's one of those figures that is one name, Tiger. He's larger than life.
He elevated golf from sort of this fringe sports that was kind of the domain of stodgy white males and he democratized it. And he added color to it. And he makes it fun and cool for you young people. He elevated this game so, so much and he's an icon. He really is an icon. I think you can see that with the other players and their reaction to when something happens like to Tiger. They're all very, very shaken, because he's the one they all grew up idolizing.
CHURCH: Yes, I mean you're absolutely right. He is an icon. He's also a fighter. He has shown that time and again that he can come back from various situations. So going forward, if he is not able to return to the game of golf, what do you see as some of his options?
RAPAPORT: Well, he's very passionate about his foundation, the TGR foundation, that's actually the beneficiary of the Genesis Invitational which was the tournament that he was in LA for. They recently crossed a milestone of reaching 2 million kids. And the mission of that foundation is to provide access to education, and specifically S.T.E.M. education, science, technology and, you know, mathematics to underserved kids. So I think he pour a lot of energy into that.
He also has a golf course design business. He's worked on a number of courses that he's designed himself. And Tiger Woods can do whatever Tiger Woods wants to do. He's dominated this sport, and anyone involved in golf would love to have him in any capacity. So I think he's one of those golfers like Jack Nicklaus, like Arnold Palmer, who long after they stopped finish playing, will continue to have a presence in the game of the golf.
CHURCH: And we hope for a speedy recovery, obviously. Daniel Rapaport, thank you so much for talking with us. We appreciate it.
RAPAPORT: Thanks, guys.
CHURCH: And we will have more coverage on Tiger Woods' car accident and his recovery throughout the coming hours here on CNN. And you can get updates at any time of course by heading to CNN.com.
Well, three companies are making big promises to the U.S. government, Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson say they will supply 240 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine by the end of March. With Johnson & Johnson's contribution pending Emergency Use Authorization, of course. Now, it would be a huge boost to what's currently available. So far, more than 82 million doses have been delivered. Just over 65 million have been administered. Erica Hill has more.
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REP. MORGAN GRIFFITH (R-VA): Vaccine supplies remain the number one hurdle to vaccinating Americans at a faster pace.
ERICA HILL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): That hurdle front and center at a virtual hearing with the vaccine makers.
JOHN YOUNG, CHIEF OF BUSINESS OFFICER, PFIZER: We did initially experience some problems with the initial run of our vaccine. And we will be on track to deliver those 300 million doses before the end of July.
HILL (voice-over): Moderna, promising the same.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The shortages we do believe we're on track to meet those deadlines.
HILL (voice-over): Johnson & Johnson's single dose vaccine could secure Emergency Use Authorization from the FDA later this week.
DR. RICHARD NETTLES, VP OF MEDICAL AFFAIRS, JANSSEN INFECTIOUS DISEASES AND VACCINES: We're prepared to ship immediately upon Emergency Use Authorization nearly 4 million doses of our vaccine.
HILL (voice-over): Beyond production and distribution, questions about protection as new variants spread.
[04:35:00]
JOHN TRIZZINO, EXECUTIVE VP, CHIEF OF COMMERCIAL OFFICER & CHIEF BUSINESS OFFICER, NOVAVAX, INC.: Adding a new strain to our vaccine is something that we have experience with and are capable of doing very quickly.
HILL (voice-over): Pfizer looking at a potential third shot as a booster. And --
YOUNG: We're also in discussions with the FDA to potentially developing an upgraded vaccine against the new variant of concern should it arise.
HILL (voice-over): Meantime, the White House announcing a boost in distribution.
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: States will now receive 14.5 million doses this week, up from 8.6 million doses per week when the president took office.
HILL (voice-over): More states expanding eligibility.
GOV. NED LAMONT (D-CT): Starting next Monday, March 1st, everybody over the age of 55 will now be eligible for the vaccine.
HILL (voice-over): Nationwide, more than 13 percent of the population has that first shot.
SUSAN MITCHELL: It makes me feel better that just knowing that we're at least a little protected.
HILL (voice-over): Six percent now fully vaccinated, but what does that second dose allow you to do?
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Common sense tells you that, in fact, you don't have to be astringent in your public health measures, but we want, we want to get firm recommendations from the CDC, which I believe will be coming soon. HILL (voice-over): While we wait, more signs of pre-pandemic life returning.
MYKAL MANTYLA MORTENSON, RESTAURANT CUSTOMER: It's just really great to see them back open and also to be able to come inside for a change.
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CHURCH: And that was Erica Hill reporting.
Well Europe countries are going in different direction when it comes to coronavirus restrictions. The Prime Minister of the Netherlands announced a careful easing of a lockdown beginning in early March.
In Scotland, they are not planning a total relaxation, but rather a return to the level system in April. Ireland's restrictions will remain in full force until at least April 5th.
But in Italy, Lombardy is tightening restrictions as the whole country clamps down again on regional travel.
And CNN's Melissa Bell is joining us now live from Paris. Good to see you Melissa. So with Europe going in different directions when it comes to COVID restrictions. Greece is now calling for the EU to adopt COVID vaccine passports. What are you learning about that?
MELISSA BELL, CNN PARIS CORRESPONDENT: Well it looks like that's likely to be one of the keys to getting one of the main problems that Europe is having as a result of this crisis, which is increases border restrictions. Difficulties, of course, on the free movement of people, and of course, the free market itself is under threat.
The EU reminding a number of countries that they have gone too far, writing in the letter trying to find out why they've increased their travel restrictions beyond what the European Union had agreed. Six countries in particular have been singled out by Brussels.
And so, a number of countries are now looking towards vaccine passports in order to try and get that free movement of people and goods going once again. Greece in particular, as you mentioned, it's because of course because of their tourism sector so hard hit by this crisis that the country is calling on the European Union really to look at this and look into making this as deliverable as quickly as possible.
Denmark is going to announce, Rosemary, later today, its own plans for reopening the country. And we know that vaccine passports are likely to be central to that. It's one of the European countries that has done its best in terms of its vaccine rollout, 800,000 jobs in the country depend directly on its trade with the outside. And that's why it wants to make vaccine passports a priority.
And of course, you're right, it's all the more important at the time when there are these hot spots remerging even in the countries where figures have more or less stabilized over the last of the few weeks as the result of restricts. You mentioned Lombardy in Italy, here in France, of course the French
Riviera locked down over the next two weekends. And with that new variant -- the one first identified in the United Kingdom of particular concern. 50 percent of new COVID cases in Nice now, are now of that new U.K. variant. We know in the northern French city of Dunkirk, also identified as hotspot. We'll likely hear about more regional restrictions.
And in Sweden, the capital of Stockholm, people have been told in the capital to avoid leaving it, to avoid traveling. This after it saw a 27 percent increase in the number of new cases in just a week.
So a number of hot spots emerging. And of course, with that new variant making fast progress across the European Union, every fifth case in Germany now is now with the U.K. variant, it is all that more important that the European Union finds a way, of course, for allowing people once again to travel freely even while protecting its population. So those vaccine passports are something you're going to hear more about over the coming weeks -- Rosemary.
CHURCH: All right, Melissa Bell bringing us the latest from Paris, many thanks.
Ahmaud Arbery's mother will never forget how their son's life was taken just one year ago.
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WANDA COOPER-JONES, AHMAUD ARBERY'S MOTHER: To be honest with you, Ahmaud is the last thing I think about at night and the first thing I think about each morning.
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CHURCH: Now, she's taking action to hold those involved accountable.
[04:40:00]
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CHURCH: A California man is dead after a run-in with police that his family says bears striking resemblance to the George Floyd case. Angelo Quinto's family has launched a wrongful death claim alleging he died after police officers kneeled on his neck for nearly five minutes. According to lawyers for the family, Quinto's sister called police when he feared their brother would harm their mother during a mental health episode. When police arrived, the family says they made no attempt to understand the situation but forcefully subdued Quinto. The county coroner's office says Quinto's cause of death is still pending.
In New York, a grand jury has voted not to indict any police officers in the death of Daniel Prude. A black man who died after being pinned to the ground last March. In a statement the New York Attorney General said she was extremely disappointed with the decision and vowed to pursue reforms for police use of force policies. Prude's family say the 41-year-old was having a mental health episode at the time. Police body cam footage shows officers handcuffing a naked Prude and covering his head with a spit sock before pressing his body against the ground. Prude's death set off protests last year. And dozens of protesters turned out Tuesday night to protest the jury's decision.
Well, the mother of Ahmaud Arbery is filing a federal lawsuit on the anniversary of his death. The unarmed black man was shot and killed a year ago Tuesday while out for a run here in Georgia. And the three men charged with his murder still have not been to trial.
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CNN's Martin Savidge has more on the Arbery family's quest for justice.
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WANDA COOPER-JONES, AHMAUD ARBERY'S MOTHER: He's gone.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Wanda Cooper-Jones is still overcome with grief.
COOPER-JONES: To be honest with you, Ahmad is the last thing I think about at night and the first thing I think about each morning.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): A year after her son's death, his case has been handled by five different district attorneys. And thanks to COVID-19, no closer to trial.
SAVIDGE: Should we be worried?
FLYNN D. BROADY JR., COBB COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: No, justice will come. And I believe as soon as COVID is under control, we will see justice in this case.
SAVIDGE (voice over): Before the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor triggered protests and racial reckoning, there was Ahmaud Arbery. A 25-year-old black man shot to death, his family says, while jogging in a coastal Georgia subdivision. Chased and killed by a white father and son and neighbor in pickup trucks.
The men said they believed Arbery, who was unarmed, had committed a crime. We know what happened because one of the men recorded it with his cell phone. Only after that video was made public, nearly three months later, were the suspects arrested and charged with murder. Since then, it may seem as though nothing has happened but that's not true.
This is the video many haven't seen. Police body camera footage obtained by CNN for the first moments after officers arrived on the scene showing the badly bloodied Travis McMichael just moments after firing the shotgun blast that killed Arbery.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just breathe, OK? All right. I'm going to get some stuff for you to clean off with, all right? SAVIDGE (voice-over): You hear the first accounts from his father, Gregory McMichael, and the accused accomplice, William Bryant. All three men have pleaded not guilty and remain in jail. In a statement, Travis McMichael's attorney said the sadness and tragedy surrounding Mr. Arbery's death will never be forgotten. We join the community in giving our condolences and prayers for Mr. Arbery's family and friends for their loss.
The attorney for William Bryant expressed similar sentiments but also noted Bryant had been denied bond for seven months.
Attorneys for Gregory McMichael declined comment.
The real progress has come not in a courtroom but outside of it. At the time Arbery was killed, Georgia had no hate crimes law. Following the outcry over his death, it does now. Last week, Georgia's governor unveiled legislation to overhaul the state's civil war era citizen's arrest law that had come under scrutiny after Arbery's death.
GOV. BRIAN KEMP (R-GA): Ahmaud was a victim of vigilante style of violence that has no place in Georgia.
SAVIDGE: Do you think this case has the ability to unite or divide us?
BROADY: It has the ability to do both. And I'm hoping -- I'm hoping that it will unite us.
SAVIDGE (voice over): Though all of this does little to ease her pain, the progress is not lost on a grieving mother.
COOPER-JONES: I'm sorry I had to lose my son. I'm sorry life has to be taken to get change. But I'm thankful for that.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): But change is not justice. And for Wanda Cooper- Jones, one year later, justice still seems a long way off.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: And our thanks to Martin Savidge for that report. We'll be right back.
[04:50:00]
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CHURCH: A stark warning from British naturalist David Attenborough who told the U.N. Security Council that climate change is one of the biggest threats to human life.
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DAVID ATTENBOROUGH, NATURALIST AND BRITISH BROADCASTER: Please make no mistake, climate change is the biggest threat to security that modern humans have ever faced. We have left the stable and secure climatic period and gave birth to our civilizations. There is no going back. No matter what we do now, it's too late to avoid climate change. And the poorest, the most vulnerable, those with the least security and now certain to suffer.
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CHURCH: The council met virtually Tuesday with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson leading the call. World leaders agreed on the dangers of climate change but disagreed on how to best combat the threat. There was also praise for the U.S. which rejoined the Paris Climate Accord this year after former President Trump pulled the nation out.
Well, it's no secret that the 2019 summit between the U.S. and North Korea was a total failure. But that isn't the whole story. One source who was there says then President Donald Trump committed a major breach of protocol and security, when he offered to give dictator Kim Jong-un a ride back to Pyongyang on board Air Force One. Will Ripley has the details.
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WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Air Force One, a symbol of American presidential power and prestige. In 2019, a stunning invite from then-President Donald Trump to North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un.
A former administration official tells CNN Trump casually offered to fly Kim back to Pyongyang as he was walking out of denuclearization talks in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Trump just did it for his friend, the former official says, creating a potential logistical and security nightmare.
JEFFREY LEWIS, PROFESSOR, MIDDLEBURY INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: I think it's clear Trump had no idea what he was doing and didn't really understand the kind of political constraints that somebody like Kim Jong-un would be under.
RIPLEY (voice-over): Trump's foreign former national security adviser, John Bolton, detailed the collapse of summit talks in his book, writing, "Trump offered to fly him back to North Korea, canceling his evening in Hanoi. Kim laughed and said he couldn't do that. Trump abruptly canceled a working lunch, leaving the table empty."
CHAD O'CARROLL, CEO, KOREA RISK GROUP: Kim Jong-un, this five-day train journey to get down there, lots of buildup, and then to just be sort of dumped publicly, I mean, I think it really, really upset Kim Jong-un.
RIPLEY (voice-over): After the failed Hanoi summit, Kim reportedly disciplined several high-ranking members of his entourage.
[04:55:00]
Ambassador Joseph Yun says U.S.-North Korean diplomacy under Trump never recovered.
JOSEPH YUN, FORMER U.S. SPECIAL ENVOY TO NORTH KOREA: So I think the first misstep was preparation was not enough. The second misstep was I believe Trump pulling it back and leaving early without sitting there and negotiating.
RIPLEY (voice-over): Yun says Trump's Air Force One offer was a failure to understand the North Korean leader's mindset.
YUN: He wanted to appear as an equal. He got nothing in sanctions. What, so a plane ride will do? No, that was not going to happen.
RIPLEY (voice-over): Kim began work almost immediately, quietly growing his nuclear arsenal.
ANKIT PANDA, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE: I think his legacy is, in many ways, a complete failure. Kim Jong-un has basically had the opportunity over the last four years to continue manufacturing warheads.
RIPLEY (voice-over): Leaving President Joe Biden with a heavily-armed nuclear North Korea, and very literal leverage, analysts say, extinguishing hopes of a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula anytime soon.
Will Ripley, CNN, Hong Kong.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Well, Britain's Prince Philip will spend several more days in a London hospital according to Buckingham Palace. The 99-year-old husband of Queen Elizabeth is being treated for an infection. He was admitted last week and is said to be comfortable and responding to treatment. His youngest son Prince Edward told Sky News his father is doing a lot better and looks forward to going home.
Thank you so much for your company, I'm Rosemary Church. "EARLY START" is up next. And they will, of course, have the very latest on the condition of legendary golfer Tiger Woods in hospital after a horrific car accident. You're watching CNN. Have a good day.
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