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Republicans Block Investigation Into Attack On Their Own Workplace; Ex-FDA Commissioner: It's "Plausible" COVID Escaped From Chinese Lab; Concern As In-Flight Fights And Violence Surge; Memorial Day To Mark First Maskless Holiday For Many In Over A Year; Voters In Rep. Greene's District React To Her Holocaust Remarks; Earthquakes Raise Fears Of Another Volcanic Eruption In Congo; Microsoft: Russian Hackers Strike Again, Target U.S. Government Agencies. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired May 29, 2021 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[16:00:31]
JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.
History books won't tell of a bipartisan investigation into the January 6th Capitol attack because most Republican senators have blocked its existence. Now, Democrats are hobbling toward plan B, which could an investigation by House Democrats. But the real losers here are the American people who watched those images unfold in real- time and won't get to witness a bipartisan 9/11-style investigation or feel assurance that this won't happen again.
Supporters of the January 6th Commission were pleading this week with GOP lawmakers to back the plan. There was some hope senators might relent after taking meetings with the mother of fallen Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick. But in the end, most of them did not budge.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GLADYS SICKNICK, MOTHER OF FALLEN OFFICER BRIAN SICKNICK: They went through the motions, but you can tell that, you know, underneath they were being nice to us.
SANDRA GARZA, GIRLFRIEND OF FALLEN U.S. CAPITOL POLICE OFFICER BRIAN SICKNICK: I think it's all talk and no action. Clearly they're not backing the blue. I mean, the -- it's just unbelievable to me that they could do nothing about this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Let's go again to CNN national correspondent Suzanne Malveaux up on Capitol Hill. He's tracking it for us.
Suzanne, Democrats don't have many options other than going it alone here.
SUZANNE MALVEUAX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Jim, it is going to be an informal and formal approach that Democrats take. It is multi- pronged. On the one hand, you have on the Senate side, the rules committee, as well as Homeland Security Government Affairs Committee. They have been investigating whether or not the Capitol was actually prepared for such an attack.
That report is expected to come out the week of June 7th. It is limited in scope. It does not explore what happened before and after that.
That is where the House comes in. And that's where Democrats will get heavily involved, who already have House Speaker Nancy Pelosi vowing there will be a select committee to look at this, to investigate what led up to it, what Trump's role is in the event on January 6th.
That this is something that is going to be controlled by the Democrats, that is going to be run by them. They will have subpoena power. They will hold hearings. They will be untethered and not restricted by any kind of deadline that would have been imposed on them if it was a bipartisan independent commission.
The other thing that is happening is informally. I mean, you already have just moments ago, Senator Amy Klobuchar tweeting, and that is going to be relevant here, a PR campaign. She tweeted saying: why are Senate Republicans afraid of the truth?
And that is something that they will be doing. They will be speaking out, they will be criticizing, and they will try to hold Republicans accountable for not moving forward on this independent commission.
And, furthermore, they believe that they are still trying to get to the bottom of this to really get to the truth -- Jim.
ACOSTA: That's what we're after, the truth in all of this.
All right. Suzanne Malveaux, thanks so much. We appreciate that.
We are following an astonishing statement from the former FDA commissioner under President Trump. Scott Gottlieb revealing he does think COVID-19 escaped from a Chinese lab, not as part of something nefarious but in a much more innocent way. Let's listen.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
DR. SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER: I think that that political narrative is conflicting with a more plausible narrative, which is that this is a strain that was found in nature that was brought to the lap for further evaluation, and in the course of evaluating it, and maybe doing research on how to develop counter measures against it, that were well-intentioned, it became more humanized, more human adapted, and accidentally was walked out of the lab, probably by people infecting themselves.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
ACOSTA: And joining me now to talk about this, the former director of national intelligence under President Trump, Ric Grenell.
Ric, great to see you. We appreciate you coming on. You were acting DNI when this pandemic emerged. Did you see any intelligence at the time that led you in the direction of a lab leak, and what do you see now?
RIC GRENELL, FORMER ACTING DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE, TRUMP ADMINISTRATION: Thanks for having me, Jim.
Look, I think it's really important to go back. There is a statement on the DNI website still to this day. It's a statement from April of 2020.
And it's a very rare occasion when all of the intelligence community can come together and sign off on a statement.
[16:05:01]
We, I can tell you thought about every verb, every comma, every word in that statement. And you've got to get all of the intelligence agencies to sign off in order to deliver an intelligence community- wide statement. But we did that in April 2020.
That statement was very clear. And that said that COVID-19 started in China and that it was in two places, the intelligence community of the United States of America believed -- the entire intelligence community believed that it was either an animal-to-human transmission or the Wuhan lab.
Now, again, I want to point out it's April of 2020. But the entire D.C. political establishment and media newsrooms all focused on this as a racist comment towards China. I thought it was really --
(CROSSTALK)
ACOSTA: We reported on it at the time, that possibility at the time. Just no interject, rick. We reported on that statement at the time.
GRENELL: I have give you that, maybe that you did. But in terms of the daily headlines and the leads in the stories of the newsrooms in Washington, it was not clear.
Now, some news outlets are going to say we reported this once on our website or something, so be it. I'm not going to argue with that. But I can tell you that the narrative was more of a racist tone towards China.
We were troubled within the intelligence community because we thought that by showing that the entire community believed that it started in China in one of these two places that that was a really important moment.
Now, fast forward what we have now, Jim, is a whole bunch of people saying, well, maybe it's the lab. I have to be clear, there has been no intelligence released that contradicts or adds to the last statement from 2020. As a matter of fact, the DNI spokeswoman under Avril Haines, the Biden administration, this week actually issued another statement which reiterated the 2020 April statement. Nothing has changed except for the media newsrooms suddenly are now
charged up about something they should have been charged up in April 2020.
ACOSTA: I want to go back to something you were saying a few moments ago. You said the media was pursuing this racist narrative. What do you mean, Ric, when you say that? I can't let that go by without asking what you mean by that.
GRENELL: Sure. Look, I was U.S. ambassador to Germany. And we have a thing called the German measles. Nobody says, hey, if you say the German measles, it's somehow racist. What we mean is it started in Germany.
So, whether it's the African flu or German measles or saying COVID-19 started in China, that's a very accurate statement.
Let me add one more thing here. There are open periodicals, not classified information, open periodicals from Russian virologists complaining about the Wuhan lab years before we ever heard of the Wuhan lab here in America. The complaints were that the processes at the lab were very sloppy. They didn't follow the international protocols.
Now, they were called out by the Russians years before in medical journals but yet somehow our media didn't jump up on that immediately and say, hey, maybe the Wuhan lab is sloppy.
And I will also add this, I can tell you that the intelligence community that I was in charge of were backgrounding reporters to say, hey, this is not political. This started in China and it's in one of two places. We have narrowed it down to one or two places. And again --
ACOSTA: Do you think President Trump --
(CROSSTALK)
GRENELL: Sorry?
ACOSTA: Let me ask you, though, Ric, did President Trump get in the way of that, did the president get in the way of that by constantly talking about it as the China virus? And, you know, Ric, you say we have unfairly accused the president of being racist at the time. He did also use the term kung flu.
You brought this up. I think that needs to be answered to. Why was -- if this wasn't -- he wasn't being racist in saying these things, why was he saying things like the kung flu?
GRENELL: Look, I leave it to you all to critique the president wherever and however you want, whoever the president is. If you look at the 20th statement, it was clear the intelligence community said that this was China. Yet, it was wildly dismissed by our media in Washington and the political establishment.
(CROSSTALK)
ACOSTA: We reported on it. I did a live shot out at the White House. .
GRENELL: Here let me just finish this point.
(CROSSTALK)
[16:10:00]
ACOSTA: Let me ask you about something substantive here. Let me ask you something substantive. Instead of -- I know you have misgivings about the media and so on. You had to deal with China as the acting DNI.
Do you have any sense that they're going to be cooperative at all when it comes to getting to the bottom of this?
GRENELL: Well, I spent eight years at the U.N. dealing with the communist party of China, and I can tell you that they have a very aggressive takeover of U.N. agencies. They started taking over agencies during the Bush administration.
And what I mean by taking over is getting people that were sympathetic to their cause elected to a whole bunch of different U.N. organizations, including the WHO. Everybody knows that the WHO is completely under the Chinese rules. Anyone who says anything different than that does not understand how the U.N. is working today.
And so I have zero faith that the WHO is ever going to do anything but what the Communist Party of China wants it to do.
ACOSTA: Let me ask you about this. I wanted to ask you about politics. You meet with former President Trump from time to time. The January 6th siege at the Capitol. As you know, the FBI is investigating a number of far right groups that have been involved in the attack -- appear to have been involved in the attack.
Were those groups on your radar screen when you were at DNI? Obviously, DNI looks at all threats, both foreign and domestic. Were some of these groups on your radar screen at the time when you were there?
GRENELL: Look, the intelligence community watches every single thing. You can be very proud of the Americans that serve in the intelligence community. I made fundamental changes to the counterterrorism structure because the career officials had spent years asking for these changes.
This was not a political change even though it was characterized as that. It was what the career intelligence officials wanted. I appointed the first female career intelligence official to run counterterrorism.
I can tell you she was doing her job. Her team was doing her job. The intelligence community is very much on top of all of this. Now, the problem is always do we communicate amongst the agencies? Do the agencies all know when you find a little tidbit, can you weave it through? This was the problem of 9/11 and the structural problem we have today.
It's one of the reasons I think many conservatives believe having a structure at DNI that is a competitive body rather than a coordinating body of the intelligence agencies takes us back to dis -- you know, information and a lack of coordination and slowness. And so --
ACOSTA: Do you think it would help if Congress got to the bottom of it?
(CROSSTALK)
GRENELL: The long answer is to say we were very much on top of it.
ACOSTA: Do you think Congress needs to get to the bottom of this? Should there be a January 6th commission, as someone who has been in the intelligence community, wouldn't you like to get into what happened and the intelligence breakdowns?
GRENELL: Well, of course we should get to the bottom of it. What happened at the Capitol was a bad riot. But anyone who has not seen --
ACOSTA: Whoa, Ric, Ric. A bad riot? Come on. They were there to try to overturn the election results.
GRENELL: Let me finish.
ACOSTA: Sure.
GRENELL: Let me finish my point. It was a bad riot. And we had a whole bunch of attacks on federal courts, churches, government buildings, private businesses, small businesses.
I don't understand why we're going to look at extremism and the attacks on America and our institutions, why are the Democrats afraid to make it a truly bipartisan holistic look at the extremism that happened last summer? Why are they afraid of including all the Antifa and BLM riots that turned into attacks on federal buildings?
ACOSTA: I think their argument is it would get bogged down in a lot of different investigations and we need to get to the bottom of what happened January 6th.
GRENELL: Well, I would push back on that and saying well, they are not looking holistically at it. They only want to look at one part of it.
Look, we had a shooting on the baseball field in Washington, D.C. from a Democratic candidate's political team, people who supported a Democratic candidate. That hasn't been looked at.
ACOSTA: That was years ago.
GRENELL: If we are looking at extremism and violence, let's include everything.
ACOSTA: Do you think President Trump bears responsibility -- former President Trump bears responsibility for the insurrection?
GRENELL: No, I don't.
ACOSTA: At all?
GRENELL: He was very clear in his statements to be peaceful. Very clear. And if you play the full tape and if you look at what he said, which people are not willing to do, you look at everything he said and it was quite clear he said peaceful.
[16:15:07]
ACOSTA: He said a lot of other things, though. He was saying fight like hell.
GRENELL: Well, now you are changing the argument. All I'm saying is I don't think that he is responsible for that. I think this is what Washington does.
Look, I will finish by saying this: I don't think we have a fight between Republicans and Democrats anymore. I think that the fight is between Washington, the ways of Washington, and the rest of America.
People on the outside of Washington, they don't understand why this place is just ballooning with growth. It's supposed to be just the Capitol. And it's become this behemoth place, controlling our lives. And again, it's not a Republican versus Democratic fight. It's Washington versus the rest of America, sadly.
ACOSTA: All right. Ric, we'll leave it there. Hope you have you back again in the future. Appreciate that.
And we'll check back with you on the progress in the investigation into the la be in Wuhan, China. We know you are working on that when you were at DNI. Thanks for coming on. Good talking to you.
GRENELL: Any time. Thanks, Jim.
ACOSTA: All right. An air travel just hit a new pandemic era high. And apparently, some have tempers. More on this disturbing sky high trend, next.
Plus, we're looking at live pictures from San Antonio where multiple people are stuck on a roller coaster. Much more when we return.
You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:20:32]
ACOSTA: Breaking news into CNN. You're looking at live pictures in San Antonio, Texas, where multiple people are trapped right now on the poltergeist rollercoaster at Six Flags Fiesta, Texas. Fire and rescue crews are now on the scene and are rescuing from that ride. No injuries have been reported yet.
No injuries have been reported yet. A spokesperson from the park said that about 20 people are currently in an upright position with water available. We'll continue to monitor this and bring you the very latest. Obviously, a scary situation, unsettling situation for the people on that ride on San Antonio. We'll stay on top of it.
It is not up for debate. If you're flying this Memorial Day weekend. Remember, masks of still mandatory at airports and on board commercial flights, even if you're vaccinated. Just yesterday, the TSA reported a pandemic-era record, nearly 2 million American traveled through American airports.
But as more people return to the sky, we're also seeing an uptick in unruly passengers.
CNN's Pete Muntean has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The newest problem facing pent-up demand for travel is pent-up frustrations in the sky, with federal agencies citing a serious surge of in-flight fights.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you serious?
MUNTEAN: In a new letter, Southwest Airlines flight attendants say it's becoming intolerable and more aggressive. These images are from a Southwest flight on Sunday, when a flight attendant had two teeth knocked out by a passenger, according to their union.
LYN MONTGOMERY, PRESIDENT, SOUTHWEST AIRLINES FLIGHT ATTENDANTS UNION: They seemed to be almost angry before they step on board the aircraft. And they are verbally attacking flight attendants, calling them names, pulling on their lanyards, getting aggressive. We'd have to deal with almost riot-like incidences.
MUNTEAN: Even if you are fully vaccinated, masks are still required on all public forms of transportation and in terminals by the TSA. It is now investigating 1,300 cases of people violating that mandate. The federal aviation administration says it 2,500 reports have been received just this year, 1,900 of them about mask compliance.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Started antagonizing other passengers.
MUNTEAN: A crew member says an unruly passengers cut this coast to coast trip short causing it to land in Minneapolis.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gesture, stabbing motion towards the other passengers. It was also observed erratic behavior and snorting a white substance.
DARBY LAJOYE, ACTING TSA ADMINISTRATOR: We want to be clear, that anyone causing a disturbance onboard an aircraft or within the airport environment will be punished with fines and possible criminal charges.
MUNTEAN: Even still, health official are telling fully vaccinated Americans to enjoy Memorial Day. AAA says the rush to travel is on, with 37 million headed out this holiday weekend, only a 13 percent drop compared to 2019.
Airports that were a ghost town last year are now filling up. TSA figures show air travel has already hit 90 percent of pre-pandemic levels, compared to 13 percent a years ago.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's been a stressful year. I'm going by myself and have some fun in the Bahamas.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It can be a little crowded, but I feel pretty safe. I got my vaccine, I have might mask, hand sanitizer. So, it should be good to go.
MUNTEAN: The latest forecast from the U.S. travel association says 77 percent of Americans will take at least one trip this summer, up from 29 percent last year. But flight crews hope with people rushing to return to normal, this does not become the new normal.
SARA NELSON, INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENT, ASSOCIATION OF FLIGHT ATTENDANTS: These actions on board the aircraft, what may start out as little actions can become big problems really big action -- problems really quickly. And we're stuck in the middle too, where we can't call for help and people cannot walk away. So, we've all got to treat each other with respect.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MUNTEAN (on camera): Southwest Airlines is permanently banning the woman accused of assault on their flight attendant. Also, the airline says it is not resuming alcohol service like it planned to do starting in June.
Pete Muntean, CNN, Reagan National Airport.
ACOSTA: Travel is increasing as coronavirus cases continue to plummet here in the U.S. as more Americans get vaccinated. For many, this will be the first maskless holiday in over a year.
CNN's Paul Vercammen is in Santa Monica for us.
I have live shot envy right now, Paul.
But let's begin with Natasha Chen in Miami Beach, also live shot envy.
[16:25:04]
Natasha, some cities like what you are, are warning too many people are coming. What are you hearing from officials because I know both of those places where you guys are both at, very popular. Natasha, let me go to you first.
NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Jim, Miami Beach, of course, is no stranger to having visitors come before COVID any holiday weekend. But for the mayor of Miami Beach to say the volume of people coming is unprecedented, you know that's a big deal. We saw some of those unprecedented crowds last night, people out partying.
We were trying to just drive a few blocks one street over from where we are. There was such gridlock that it took us an hour to go just a few blocks. There are just people coming from out of state. We met some folks today saying this is the first trip they have taken before the pandemic. So, a lot of that kind of energy, people very desperate to enjoy themselves without some of the COVID restrictions. But, of course, that creates some problems for local officials.
Here's the mayor talking about that challenge.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR DAN GELBER, MIAMI BEACH, FL: The one thing that we have seen the last few months has been an increase in both volume and disorder. And what I mean by that is we're getting more people than we have -- that have ever come here, even on weekday nights. And if you get 25,000 or 50,000 in a small little area, which you are talking about and just a small percentage feel like they're acting out, it's very hard to control that without a huge presence of policing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHEN: They do have hundreds of Miami Beach police officers, all hands on deck, as well as help from other jurisdictions right now just to make sure that nothing gets on it of control here. The air and sea show is back. So that has drawn a lot of people here.
Of course, the businesses are happy to see the dollars come in after suffering through the pandemic. Hotel occupancy in this county is now this week about the same level as it was this week in 2019. And dining, according to the Convention and Visitors Bureau, is actually a third higher than it was at this point in 2019, Jim.
ACOSTA: OK, Natasha.
And, Paul, let me go to you. The weather in Santa Monica looking pretty good right now.
What kind of holiday weekend are people getting out there? And what can people expect?
PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, here's what we are seeing, as California starts to move close to the date where it will be maskless and completely open, people are now walking onto the Santa Monica pier. This is a tell-tale sign that business is back in this small city that relies so much on tourism.
They have had their tax revenue absolutely decimated in Santa Monica. The hotels were unable to have any visitors and there went that tax base. And all of these small businesses were suffering greatly. Right now, today, this memorial weekend, a sense of jubilation. There was one seafood stand owner who practically want fold jump off
the pier into the Pacific when I asked him about all of these crowds, these people during Memorial Day.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GREG ALBRIGHT, RESTAURANT OWNER: I mean, life has returned, right? We're back. Thank god we have returned safely. You know, it's been a challenge. This last year has been really difficult.
Keeping people employed, advocating for what we think is the right way to do it. But it's been a real challenge, a real tough year.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VERCAMMEN: And if you look right here, Jim, we want to show you the beach.
You're a brave soul if you're out there right now. I know California has all of this legendary great weather. But it's a little murky this Memorial Day. It is, ready, 61 degrees in the water.
But despite that, the people are coming back to the peach here in Santa Monica after a long, long, lockdown during the pandemic.
Back to you, Jim.
ACOSTA: Yeah. You better have your wet suits for that.
All right, Paul, Natasha, thanks so much. Great to see both of you. Happy Memorial Day weekend.
And after comparing mask mandates to the atrocities of the Holocaust, Marjorie Taylor Greene is now comparing her Democratic colleagues to Nazis. What is up with her constant references to Nazis? That's next.
You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:33:48]
ACOSTA: Controversial Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene continues to ramp up her absurd rhetoric about Democrats and COVID restrictions. And it is absurd.
First, the Georgia Republican compared mask mandates to the Holocaust. Now she's accusing Democrats of being Nazis.
Her comments have drawn outrage and condemnation from both sides of the aisle. And now voters in her home district are reacting to her reprehensible comments.
CNN's Martin Savidge went to talk to them.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) (MUSIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Marjorie Taylor Greene!
(MUSIC)
(CHEERING)
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Back home and not backing down.
GREENE: You know, Nazis were the National Socialist Party, just like the Democrats are now a national socialist party.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): Following her comparison of mask mandates to the Holocaust, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene on Thursday night turned against what she called a little group in the Democratic Party.
Singling out Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ilhan Abdullahi Omar of Minnesota.
GREENE: So we have actual United States members of Congress, the Jihad Squad. And there's a big group of them, by the way.
SAVIDGE: Until now, Marjorie Taylor Greene has been brushing off criticism from her fellow Republicans. But can she ignore her own voters?
[16:35:04]
Those we talked to wonder what was she thinking?
STEVE KARAKOS, ROME RESIDENT: The Holocaust was terrible, terrible. And why she said that, compared to that, I really don't know.
SAVIDGE: At a diner in Rome, Georgia, Wayne White says he voted for Greene but that the congresswoman's comments have gone way too far.
SAVIDGE (on camera): What do you think?
WAYNE WHITE, ROME RESIDENT: I don't think anybody should be comparing anything to the Nazis and the Holocaust. That's a different world. Just not appropriate.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): White says Greene has essentially become all talk and little action when it comes to representing the 14th District.
(on camera): Would you vote for her again?
WHITE: No. No.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): Nancy Jones said she's Republican but didn't vote for Greene. She calls the congresswoman's Holocaust comparison reprehensible. NANCY JONES, ROME RESIDENT: And I'm ashamed that that lady is
representing my district in Congress.
SAVIDGE (on camera): Why do you think she did it?
JONES: I think she's ignorant. She has no clue.
(CHEERING)
SAVIDGE (voice-over): Before you start thinking Greene may be in trouble at home, you need to remember how she got to Washington, earning close to 75 percent of the vote in the 14th District, one of the reddest in the state.
Former President Trump calling her a rising Republican star. And she has ridden outrage all the way to the bank, raising $3.2 million in just the first quarter of the year.
Steve Karakos doesn't like her Holocaust talk, but he still likes Greene.
SAVIDGE (on camera): This wouldn't change your vote?
KARAKOS: Probably not because of what's going on with the left. I would probably vote for her again.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): Robin Deal also voted for Greene and said the congresswoman has been taken out of context.
We came prepared.
SAVIDGE (on camera): I can show you the tweet. And it's not just the tweet. There's been interviews. And maybe you've seen them.
That first line right there: "Vaccinated employees get a vaccination logo just like the Nazi's forced Jewish people to wear a gold star."
It's actually a yellow star, but that's immaterial.
ROBIN DEAL, ROME RESIDENT: Right.
SAVIDGE: She makes a direct contrast --
DEAL: She does.
SAVIDGE: -- to a horrific murderous event in history.
DEAL: Well, I don't necessarily agree with that statement. But I do agree with her right to say it.
(CHEERING)
GREENE: Thank you, Georgia.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): Like many other Greene supporters, Deal was concerned I would twist her words. (on camera): To compare safety measures for the coronavirus against
Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, that is wrong.
DEAL: Again, I'm not saying I agree with what she said, but I understand the emotion of what she said it with. How about that?
SAVIDGE: Would you vote for her again?
DEAL: Absolutely.
(CROSSTALK)
SAVIDGE: She still represents to you --
DEAL: I absolutely would. I absolutely would vote for her again. Yes, sir.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): Martin Savidge, CNN, Rome, Georgia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: I'll say what I said last week, I think her brain is broke.
Anyway, in the meantime, we first told you about this volcanic eruption last weekend. Next, we have the aftermath in Congo where the threat of yet another volcano eruption looms.
You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:42:16]
ACOSTA: More than 60 earthquakes have been reported in just a 24-hour period in the Democratic Republic of Congo. That's sparking fears that the massive and powerful volcano could erupt again at any moment.
Here is CNN's Larry Madowo.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LARRY MADOWO, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What you see behind me is people's homes. Right next to where we're standing used to be a family of seven, a mother and her six children. And there's nothing left of it. What is smoldering there used to be a home.
Her business, her livelihood, everything that she owns has been covered by this lava.
She has been back here and she is overcome with emotion. She doesn't know what to do or where to start.
But she -- her neighbor next door was luckier. That the lava took down her wall, but not the home itself. The house is intact. And it's made of wood, so it would have not offered any resistance. And we're hearing so many stories about people and they don't know how to restart. And 80,000 people have been displaced from this, 80,000 households, 400,000 people, according to the local military government here.
And the people we're speaking to, some of them tell us they don't think they will get compensation, and they just don't know where to start.
And then, on top of that, they are now being told that there is a possibility of a new eruption from under the ground of under the lake that could come with little to no warning. So they just can catch a break.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: That's CNN's Larry Madowo. Thank you so much for that reporting.
[16:43:37]
Coming up next, an update on that roller coaster that's stuck at a San Antonio Six Flags. That's live, next, in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:48:28]
ACOSTA: We have an update on a story we brought you earlier. Great news. All 20 people on the stuck roller coaster at Six Flags, Fiesta, Texas, have been safely rescued off of the ride.
A spokesman for the park said they were all sitting secured in an upright position while they were stuck and had access to drinking water. There are no injuries reported at this time.
The park says the ride will remain closed for the time being while it undergoes an inspection.
New developments in a nearly two-decade old murder case. California prosecutors say they will not seek to restore the death penalty against Scott Peterson.
You may remember Peterson was convicted of killing his wife, Laci, and their unborn child back in 2002. He was found guilty and sentenced to death, but the California Supreme Court reversed the death sentence for him last year.
The D.A.'s office now says they decided not to retry the penalty phase of the trial after consulting with Laci Peterson's family.
And here we go again. Another security breach from the Russian hackers behind one of the worst data breaches to ever hit the U.S. government.
Microsoft believes the hackers are part of the same group involved in the SolarWinds hack last year. This time, though, they hit 150 government agencies, think tanks and other organizations, most of which are here in the U.S.
And CNN's Matthew Chance is in Moscow for us.
Matthew, what is the difference this time around?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I guess it's the timing of this alleged cyberattack that's the most striking, just a few weeks before the U.S. and Russian president are set to meet in Switzerland for a much-anticipated face-to-face summit.
[16:50:03]
That's already filled with a long list of disagreements between the two countries and the two presidents.
Russia's support for Belarus amid the crisis in its ordering down of an airliner to arrest passengers on board, the treatment of Alexei Navalny, Russia's opposition leader, the Russian military buildup near Ukraine.
And now these fresh hacking allegations to add to the historical ones that already there.
To make matters worse, it's only been a few weeks really since President Biden imposed tough sanctions on Russia for precisely this kind of cyberattack, the SolarWinds hack.
Which was focused on U.S. government agencies, and was blamed by Washington on the SVR, Russia's foreign intelligence service.
Microsoft, which detected the latest incident of hacking of USAID agencies, think tanks and humanitarian groups, mainly in the U.S., says that the same group of Russian hackers were responsible this time around.
The Kremlin, for it's part, has denied any knowledge, as it always does, of espionage, saying that it has questions about why Russia is again being blamed.
Matthew Chance, CNN, Moscow.
ACOSTA: And disturbing new details emerging today about the man who shot to death nine co-workers at a light railyard in San Jose, California.
Here's CNN's Dan Simon now with details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The shooter here in San Jose had three semiautomatic handguns in his possession when he carried out the mass shooting. He also had 32 high-capacity magazines.
The guns were purchased legally. The magazines are illegal in California.
But in addition to those weapons, we're learning that he also had an incredible amount of weaponry stashed at his home.
The Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office releasing some stunning photos showing the items that were collected at the home.
They include multiple cans of gasoline, suspected Molotov cocktails, at least 12 more guns, and 22,000 rounds of ammunition, 22,000 rounds.
And it is believed that the shooter took some of that ammo, put it in a pot, put it on the stove, surrounded that pot with some accelerants, and then started the stove. That's ultimately what caused the home to set on fire.
Now at this point, there's no definitive motive in terms of what led the shooter to carry out this shooting.
But one thing that we're learning, one theme that has emerged is that this was somebody who was highly disgruntled, very upset with his workplace.
You take all of that uncontrollable rage, you mix it with easy access to weapons, and then, unfortunately, you have the recipe for the kind of mass shooting that we saw unfold on Wednesday.
Dan Simon, CNN, San Jose, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: And 100 years ago, almost to the day, the thriving Greenwood, Oklahoma, a corner of north Tulsa, also known as Black Wall Street, where black business, art and culture flourished, became the center of one of the deadliest and most destructive race massacres in American history.
Now the new CNN film, "DREAMLAND, THE BURNING OF BLACK WALL STREET," takes a revealing look at what really happened in Greenwood on that tragic day a century ago.
Here's a preview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "The Tulsa Tribune" published a series of inflammatory articles that really fomented against the black community.
Tulsa was a powder keg or a tinderbox, needing only something to set the community alight.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Be sure to tune in. The new CNN film, "DREAMLAND, THE BURNING OF BLACK WALL STREET," premieres Monday at 9:00 p.m. Eastern, only on CNN.
And you won't find paved roads or resorts on the Georgia's coast's largest barrier island, but you will find a paradise preserved in time in this off the beaten path.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JILL HAMILTON ANDERSON, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE: Cumberland Island's national seashore is only accessible by boat. It's an island that has not succumbed to development. So it's a great place to come and find the isolation you are seeking as a family or as an individual.
CHILDREN: Welcome to Cumberland Island.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We get to relax and let the kids play without having to worry about crowds or social distancing.
HAMILTON ANDERSON: The beaches of Cumberland Island are -- the word we like to use is pristine.
There are eighteen miles of beach. And there are no buildings. Just the dunes, the beach, the water.
The maritime forest of Cumberland Island is unique. We have quite a number of trees you look at today, think back at least 100 years. We burro horses. There's about 100 to 150 at any given time on the island. And people absolutely love that.
MICHAEL SELBERT, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE: The ruins behind me were donated to National Park Service. Here you can see what the remains are of the Carnegie-era estates. They encapsulate a moment in time. They preserve that heritage, that kind of Gilded Age lifestyle.
[16:55:04]
The mansion is a starting point to the 50 miles of trail at Cumberland Island's natural seashore. There's so much room for solitude. We have over 36,000 acres. You can find your spot.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: And that's the news. Reporting from Washington, I'm Jim Acosta. I'll see you back here tomorrow.
Pamela Brown takes over from here. Good night.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
