Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

The Deadliest Day Yet As Violence In The Middle East Pushing Into Its Second Week; More Than 25 Democratic Senators Are Calling For An Immediate Ceasefire In Israel; Businesses Are Struggling With How Best To Implement CDC's New Mask Guidance; A Former Florida Tax Collector Is Expected To Plead Guilty To Sex Trafficking And Other Charges; A Spike In COVID Cases In Parts Of The World Also Contributing To A Slip In Stock Futures. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired May 17, 2021 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: He might be faster than you.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Parenting. All right, there is a lot going on. Hand it over to Jim Sciutto and Pop -- Jim Sciutto and Poppy Harlow. Also some lions. CNN's coverage continues right now.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Very good morning to you. Berman almost got that right. I'm Jim Sciutto.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Almost. Good morning Jim Sciutto. So glad to have you back. I'm Poppy Harlow. We're glad you're with us this Monday morning. But we do begin with very, very somber news. The deadliest day yet as violence in the Mid East pushed into its second week.

Overnight the Israeli Air Force carrying out new airstrikes in the Gaza Strip.

Palestinians say that at least 52 people were killed in Gaza on Sunday. The death toll there climbing to 200. The Israeli government says at least 10 people have killed as a result of Hamas rockets fired into Israel that includes two children.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Foreign language).

(SHOUTING)

SCIUTTO (voice over): Under cross-fire so many times in this conflict in recent days, civilians and children like this one, a 6-year-old Palestinian girl pulled from the rubble. One of five children rescued after an entire building collapsed. Her father from his hospital bed talking about hearing his children in danger and not being able to help.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I heard my son Zane (ph) calling, daddy, daddy. His voice was OK, but I couldn't turn and look at him because I was trapped. Then I started to say, God, God.

SCIUTTO (voice over): Those poor families. All of this as violent confrontations are growing on the streets in towns and cities across the West Bank, even inside Israel. International calls for a ceasefire growing now.

CNN's Nic Robertson is live in Israel near the Gaza border. Nick, really does not look like and end to the violence in insight right now.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: You know over the weekend, Jim, it did feel that there was this momentum, this possibility of getting both sides to put a pause.

But what Hamas is saying now, a spokesman from Hamas is saying that these talks that the Egyptians have been spearheading, that Qataris and the U.S. have been involved in according to the -- according to Hamas' version of events there, saying that there are two things standing in the way of getting the sort pause in hostilities.

And that is a precondition that they are putting on this pause, saying that Israel must essentially stop any activities in and around the Aqsa Mosque and in and around Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem. They say that that's been unacceptable for the Israeli side so far.

And they also say that the conditionality -- another condition of this is that they -- both sides should agree that the terms of this would be that no side claims a victory. The other stumbling block in the -- in the deal so far and you can tell from this that there's a lot of detail going into this.

But the other stumbling block is that Hamas is being told it needs to go on a ceasefire three hours of the Israeli side. And that, they say, is unacceptable for them. So, that's Hamas' view on it.

We don't have the Israeli government's view on the state of these talks, but what had appeared over the weekend to be close to getting a ceasefire isn't happening. The sirens have been going off in villages and towns around here.

Also in Ashdod and Ashkelon up the coast towards Tel Aviv. In Ashdod today a rocket -- Hamas rocket hit a residential building. Three people lightly wounded there. And hit from where we are here, we can still hear the planes going over and occasional impacts in Gaza.

HARLOW: Nic, we appreciate the reporting very much on the ground. Thank you. More on that ahead.

Also this morning more than 25 Democratic U.S. Senators are calling for an immediate ceasefire in Israel and the Palestinian region.

SCIUTTO: In a joint statement first obtained by CNN they write, quote, "To prevent any further loss of civilian life and to prevent further escalation of conflict in Israel and the Palestinian territories, we urge an immediate ceasefire." CNN's Lauren Fox is on Capitol Hill with more. Lauren, what's interesting here is that -- is you have Democrats criticizing the Biden administration for not pushing hard enough for a ceasefire, not putting more pressure it seems on the Israeli government.

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well that's right. Concerns up here on Capitol Hill are really growing as this intensifies in the Middle East. And I think what you're seeing here is some Democrats being willing to come out against the administration or at least push the administration on what actions they should be taking.

And specifically they are arguing here that a ceasefire needs to happen immediately to prevent any further loss of life. You also had a group of House Democrats sending out another statement.

[09:05:05]

You had Senator Bob Menendez the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, someone who is very pro-Israel releasing a statement that echoed that sentiment, that a ceasefire was needed here and there are concerns, basically, that the Biden administration is not doing enough.

I want to play this clip here form Adam Schiff the Chairman of the Intelligence Committee in the House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D), CALIFORNIA: And I think we need to do everything possible to bring about a ceasefire. I think the administration needs to push harder on Israel and the Palestinian authority to stop the violence, bring about a ceasefire, end these hostilities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOX: And what you're hearing here is the Democrats want the Biden administration to be more involved in these negotiations. They're essentially asking that something needs to happen and this is an issue that could divide the Democratic Party.

You do see some divisions between younger generations of Democrats and older generations of Democrats over the issue of Israel, so something to keep an eye on the upcoming days as the party really grapples with what the best way forward is for the Biden administration.

Poppy?

HARLOW: You're so right Lauren, it's a real notable shift given the number of younger, more progressive Democrats in that chamber and in the House as well. We'll see what the Biden administration does with it. Thank you very much.

So let's go to the White House. Jeremy Diamond joins us this morning. How is Biden responding to some of that criticism within his own party, that he is not doing enough to put pressure on Israel?

I mean, I though Blinken's comments just in the last few hours were notable, right? About yes, Israel has a right to defend itself, but they need to do everything in their power to prevent civilian casualties.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And that is the line that this White House and this administration is threading. You heard Secretary Blinken talk about Israel's responsibility, in particular, because it is a democracy, to do its utmost to preserve civilian life while at the same time we've heard the Biden administration make very clear that they believe that Israel has a right to defend itself from these rocket attacks carried out by the militant group Hamas.

Now, there are few signs though from the Biden administration that they are caving to that pressure that they are facing from within the own -- the Democratic Party to call out Israel more strongly and we have yet to hear directly from President Biden in several days about this conflict directly and certainly not so far him calling for a ceasefire in the strongest possible terms.

What we are seeing instead is the comments from the Secretary of State Tony Blinken as well as the efforts by President Biden's Envoy to the region right now Hady Amr who is in the region meeting with participants and they're really relying on some of these efforts by the Egyptians, by the Qatari's to try and broke some kind of ceasefire here.

We did hear from President Biden in prerecorded remarks at a celebration of the Muslim holiday Eid. Listen to what he said in these remarks that were posted over the weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We also believe Palestinians and Israeli's equally deserve to live in safety and security. And enjoy equal measure of freedom, prosperity and democracy. And my administration is going to continue engage Palestinians and Israelis and other regional partners to work towards sustained calm.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIAMOND: And now the only time that we've heard from President Biden directly on this topic other than that prerecorded video was when he was doing remarks on other topics.

And today we may see the very same thing. He's set to deliver remarks on the coronavirus vaccination effort this afternoon, and this is often when shouted questions about this conflict are shouted at him and perhaps he will chose to respond and offer his latest take --

SCIUTTO: Yes.

DIAMOND: -- on the situation. SCIUTTO: And some Democrats have criticized what sparked this

initially, the evictions of Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem --

HARLOW: Right (ph).

SCIUTTO: -- and the Biden administration position on that. Jeremy Diamond good to have you at the White House. Certainly keeping things busy there.

Well retailers, workplaces, local officials, they're now struggling with how best to implement the CDC's new mask guidance for people who have vaccinated while also enforcing mask rules that now different from state to state and also, I'm sure you've noticed, from business to business.

HARLOW: Yes, but with just 37 percent of the country fully vaccinated there are experts who are worried about the unintended consequences of this decisions, when the U.S. is really nowhere near herd immunity, at least not yet. Also emerging variants still causing concern globally.

Dr. Jonathan Reiner, he's with us, Professor of Medicine and Surgery at George Washington University. Dr. Reiner, good morning.

My weekend didn't feel that different, given the CDC guidance, although I took my mask off more liberally when I was outside. But a lot of people were still masked and there were a lot -- even families of members of mine hadn't heard the CDC guidance. What is your take this morning? Did it come to too soon? Is it too laxed now?

DR. JONATHAN REINER, PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: No, I don't think it's too laxed Poppy. The CDC was going to have to make this decision at some point.

[09:10:00]

This is what we know. Our vaccines work fabulously well. If you are vaccinated and you're a couple of weeks out from your last shot or your only shot if it's the J&J vaccine, you're really well protected. You're not going to get sick and you're not going to die from this virus and that was really the message the CDC was trying to give to people.

To the people who are unvaccinated, they are still at risk. And the good news is that they can change that today. There are shots available in every city on a walk-in basis today and they should that.

The real -- the big concern though is for the group that can't be vaccinated now, or really the kids. You know, kids under 12 years of age. And how do we protect our kids until they can be vaccinated in the fall?

And how we can protect the most vulnerable who have been vaccinated but maybe are immunocompromised, folks getting cancer chemotherapy, solid organ donor transplant recipients, these folks who will remain at risk as long as there's a lot of virus in the community are concerned about being in the presence of folks who don't masks on. And we don't have a way to identify who has been vaccinated and who hasn't.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

REINER: We're going to have to work through this. But the news is really good right now. Cases are plummeting in the United States.

SCIUTTO: Yes, no question. And we should focus on that. I mean, listen, it's good news, right?

HARLOW: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Cases are plummeting, vaccinations are going up. I mean, the essential difficulty here, right, Dr. Reiner is that it's an honor system, right? I mean, the CDC is saying from a health perspective, I mean they're not the police, right? From a health perspective if you're vaccinated it's now safe to take your mask off in most circumstances.

REINER: Right

SCIUTTO: The thing is, we don't have little I.D.s that say you have been vaccinated, you haven't, it's up to people. I mean, I don't know what else you could do, right? Short of a law, you know, and those kinds of enforcement standards the best you can do, right, is say listen still follow the health advice.

REINER: Well, I think we can also follow some common courtesy.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

REINER: So, you know, when I get in an elevator I make sure I have a mask on.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

REINER: I don't know, you know, who the person is with me. I don't know if they're going to be concerned if I'm not wearing a mask. I know I'm safe. I want them to feel safe.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

REINER: If you go into a store and there are a lot of people around and people are, you know, crowded around keep a mask on. It's really not a big -- not a big deal to do that. Look, we had an opportunity at the outset of our vaccination program to put in place a vaccine passport so that businesses could know who has been vaccinated. It -- that was going to be a huge political fight that this administration did not want to take on.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HARLOW: For parents, I've sort of hesitated to sign my kids up for summer camp yet, because I just -- I don't know and do I want them to be running with masks on all day. Is it going to be inside, outside, et cetera. It sounds like from Dr. Walensky's interview with Danny yesterday we're going to know quickly what the updated guidance is from the CDC on summer camps right?

REINER: Yes. And I think the guidance is probably going to include some sort of hybrid guidance, where if the kids are running around on the soccer field they probably don't need masks on. If they're indoors doing activities they probably do. That's my guess --

HARLOW: OK.

REINER: -- on -- as to what that guidance will be.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HARLOW: OK. Dr. Reiner thank you on all of it this morning.

REINER: My pleasure.

HARLOW: Well still to come, a lot this hour. And ally to Congressman Matt Gaetz set to plead guilty today and to cooperate with investigators in a federal sex trafficking case. What could this mean for the sitting Congressmen, Congressman Gaetz? We'll talk about that ahead.

SCIUTTO: It's a big development. Plus the Chair of the Homeland Security Committee says that former President Trump should testify before the January 6 Commission. Will it happen?

And new details surrounding the divorce of Bill and Melinda Gates. A report says the Microsoft board investigated Gates over an alleged affair with an employee. We'll have the latest ahead.

[09:13:55]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:18:15]

HARLOW: In the next hour a former Florida tax collector with very close ties to sitting U.S. Congressman Matt Gaetz is expected to plead guilty to sex trafficking and other charges. As a part of this plea agreement Joel Greenberg has agreed to cooperate in a sex crimes investigation and that could potentially spell trouble for Congressman Gaetz.

SCIUTTO: Four months authorities have been looking into whether the Florida Republican Congressman broke himself, federal sex trafficking laws. In particular whether he had sex with a minor as well.

CNN's Paula Reid live in Orlando.

Paula, so we're going to see Greenberg at this hearing. He's going to have to cop to this, right? He's going to have to say out loud I did these things. What do we expect to hear from him?

PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right. And this will be first time that we've seen Greenberg since it was revealed that his indeed in this formal cooperation agreement with the Justice Department.

During this hearing he is expected to plead guilty to six counts, including sex trafficking of a minor. Now a lot of folks though asking, what does all of this mean for Congressman Matt Gaetz, his one time very close associate?

Well we have to note, Gaetz is not mentioned at all in the plea agreement that was revealed on Friday. He's, of course, not been formally charged. But there is one part of this agreement that is significant. This is what we're going to be watching.

Greenberg will admit that not only did he have sex with a minor at least seven times, he will also tell the court that he introduced that minor to other men who then paid that minor for sex. The question is, who are those men.

Now the Congressman has denied any wrongdoing, but over the weekend he tried out a new rather unusual defense. Let's take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MATT GAETZ (R), FLORIDA: And just -- just imagine the irony here. I'm being falsely accused of exchanging money for naughty favors. Yet Congress has reinstituted a process that legalizes the corrupt act of exchanging money for favors through earmarks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[09:20:15]

REID: Well the Justice Department is not in the business of investigating quite, "naughty favors," they investigate crimes. And we know from our sources the congressman is under investigations for allegations of sex trafficking, sex with a minor, prostitution and possible public corruption.

So while comparing sex with an underage girl to earmarks may be something the congressman wants to try out in the court of public opinion when it comes to swaying the hearts and minds of the prosecutors who are accessing all the evidence that they have collected against him and deciding whether they can charge him. That defense is not going to work.

SCIUTTO: Yes, what works at Republican Party event not the same as what works in a court of law. Paula Reid thanks so much for covering this.

Joining me now is Elie Honig, he's a former U.S. -- Assistant U.S. Attorney for the southern district of New York and a CNN Senior Analyst. Elie, let's break this down. First of all Gaetz's lawyer saying, hey Gaetz isn't mentioned at all in this plea agreement therefore we're free and clear. What's the truth? ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Completely insignificant Jim. That means absolutely nothing. I've written more of these cooperation agreements than I can count. I've done more of the cooperation pleas, which we're about to see in a few hours, than I can count.

You never specify the name of somebody you're investigating as a prosecutor. You never specify the name of a target. A lot of good reasons for that.

Number one is, you don't want to tip the person off. Number two is, the person has not been formally charged yet. They have rights until and unless they are charges. So, they are trying to make something out of absolutely nothing there.

What is significant, as Paula said, is that the documents do several times mention other men, other people who were involved. The big question is, who are those other people.

SCIUTTO: Elie, you know how plea agreements like this are made and what kind of cooperation prosecutors demand to make such a plea agreement, which involves typically a reduced sentence. So knowing that, what kind of cooperation from Greenberg would you expect them to want as regards Matt Gaetz and his involvement?

HONIG: Yes Jim, prosecutors do not hand out cooperation agreements like candy. In fact, prosecutors are very sparing and careful in who they chose to give that opportunity to cooperate and get a much reduced a sentence.

Which if Joel Greenberg cooperates truthfully and successfully he will be in position to do. If you're going to cooperate someone like Joel Greenberg and his criminal conduct is heinous, you have to think twice, and a third time and a fourth time. You have to be assure of two things.

One, you better be able to back him up because his record is atrocious. Nobody is going to take Joel Greenberg at his word. You have to have hard proof for everything he says.

And two, you better be darn ready to make other cases off of Joel Greenberg's information. You've giving up too much by giving him a break to not make other cases. So, if you're going to cooperate someone like Joel Greenberg there are other cases in the works.

SCIUTTO: So tell us about the timing now. Greenberg's going to be in court today. He's already made his agreement and he would have had to do what's called a proffer, in other words he would had to make clear exactly what he's going to offer to get this in exchange including possibly what he knows about Gaetz's involvement. So, how quickly do we learn something about whether prosecutors may have the goods on Gaetz?

HONIG: My read from looking at that 86-page plea documents Jim, is that prosecutors are far along in this investigation. You don't sign someone up as a cooperator first of all until you've done full debriefings. Those can take days or weeks. But if you look at the cooperation papers there is all sorts of detail

in those papers. Prosecutors talk about texts that they've picked up, financial documents that they've picked up, all sorts of what we call corroboration.

So it looks to me like they have this case wrapped up tight as with respect to Joel Greenberg and presumably with respect to others. So, we're fairly close to the time when prosecutors are going to have decide who else are we charging and with what.

SCIUTTO: Now there's another target it appears of prosecutors here for cooperation and that's actually Gaetz's ex-girlfriend. How crucial could her testimony or involvement or corporation be?

HONIG: Yes, she could be crucial. Different kind of cooperation it appears than Joel Greenberg, because Joel Greenberg's doing the kind --

SCIUTTO: Right.

HONIG: -- where you have to plea to very serious offenses.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HONIG: It appears this ex-girlfriend will just be testifying voluntarily, not to criminal conduct but crucial, Jim. Because one of the most important forms of corroboration is what are other witnesses saying, especially other witnesses like this ex-girlfriend who don't have --

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HONIG: -- any crimes that they're facing. So, I -- if I'm prosecuting this case I'm looking at everything Joel Greenberg says. I'm matching it up with what the ex-girlfriend says and I'm asking whether they conflict or whether they're consistent. And given the prosecutors are about to go ahead with this I think the reasonable assumption is they are consistent.

SCIUTTO: Yes, all right. Well, lots to watch here Elie Honig. Thanks so much for breaking it down.

HONIG: Thanks Jim.

SCIUTTO: Well we are now just moments away from the opening bell on Wall Street. Stock Futures start the week edging downward, signaling muted losses from major indexes following a week of concerns over inflation.

[09:25:00]

Investors however remain focused on a whether a recent jump in inflation will blow over and -- or become entrenched. A spike in COVID-19 cases in parts of the world also contributing to a slip in Stock Futures. We're here to bring you all the latest.

[09:25:25]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:30:05]

HARLOW: This week a big vote on a bipartisan breakthrough.