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Police Respond to Suspected Explosive in Vehicle Near U.S. Capitol; FAA Proposes $500K in Fines Against Unruly Passengers; Facebook Acts Against "Disinformation Dozen" After White House Pressure; Doctor on TN COVID Task Force: "Fed Up" with Mask Opt-Out Order; Bipartisan Senate Group Urges Biden to Evacuate Afghan Allies. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired August 19, 2021 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[13:31:53]
ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: We are following more breaking news. This is near the U.S. capitol where, right now, two House office buildings and the Supreme Court have been evacuated as police say they are negotiating with a man inside a truck who claims to have an explosive device.
CNN Whitney Wild is on the scene.
Whitney, what more can you share?
WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, this has been going on for around four hours now, a little more than four hours.
What we know from law enforcement is that -- the latest update we had is that the negotiations with this suspect were going slowly because he was communicating via white board.
We've also learned the expect posted a video on Facebook. It's about 30 minutes long, in which he was holding a canister and he saying he was talking about a revolution.
He said he had a bomb. That has elicited a very large law enforcement presence here in Washington D.C.
You can't see it, though, because I'm so many blocks away. I'm on the other side of the capitol because they have locked down this area.
We can't get anywhere close to that scene at the moment because they are so concerned about making sure that everyone is safe here.
To do so, Ana, they've evacuated buildings at the Library of Congress. They've evacuated the Supreme Court, which was already closed due to COVID. But still, an alert to anybody who might have been there, that they
needed to evacuate the premises.
And in addition, there were evacuations at the House office buildings here at the capitol complex.
What we know now is, again, that law enforcement is trying to negotiate with this person. The situation is controlled but it is serious.
Ana, we'll bring you more updates as we get them.
CABRERA: Whitney Wild, thank you.
The FAA wants to hit unruly airline passengers where it hurts, announcing some hefty fines, more than half a million dollars, against 34 people accused of behaving badly on flights.
CNN aviation correspondent, Pete Muntean, joins us now.
What kind of incidents are we talking about here, Pete?
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Ana, the FAA is giving us vivid detail of these 34 cases where it's issuing new fines.
Passengers are accused of punching their fellow fliers, threatening to storm the flight deck. Even threatening to kill another flight attendant.
What's so here is that the FAA is issuing these new fines, the largest announcement since it has put in place its zero-tolerance policy against unruly passengers at the beginning of this year. And $500,000 in new fines across these 34 cases.
The largest fine, $45,000 for a passenger on a New York to Orlando fight. This passenger allegedly threw his bag at another passenger and then laid down in the aisle, grabbed a flight attendant by her ankles and looked up her skirt. That flight ultimately had to land early in Virginia.
The second largest fine, 4$42,000. Flight crews allegedly saw a passenger snorting what appeared to be cocaine and then made stabbing gestures at other certain passengers.
But you know, Ana, this is just the tip of the iceberg. So 3,800 cases of unruly passengers reported by flight crews since the start of the year.
But the FAA has had able to initiate enforcement action in only about 140 cases so far, including these.
CABRERA: It's really outrageous to think what these flight attendants are putting up.
[13:35:01]
Why fines? Why not press criminal charges?
MUNTEAN: The FAA is not a criminal agency, Ana. It's scope is actually pretty limited. So it can really only issue fines.
That's why some in Congress are calling on the FBI and the DOJ to get involved with much larger, heftier fines, and potentially jail time for these passengers.
They think that will really send a message beyond just this.
CABRERA: Pete Muntean, thank you.
Fed up and speaking out. A member of the Tennessee governor's own COVID Task Force is slamming the decision to let parents opt out of school mask mandates. Dr. Sara Cross joins us next.
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[13:40:27]
CABRERA: They're called the "Disinformation Dozen" and now Facebook says it's taking action against the 12 people that the White House says are responsible for the majority of COVID misinformation online.
And CNN's senior media reporter, Oliver Darcy, is following this for us.
Oliver, who are these people and what is Facebook doing?
OLIVER DARCY, CNN SENIOR MEDIA REPORTER: Yes, Ana. About a month after the White House applied some significant pressure onto Facebook to remove the people from their platform, Facebook said yesterday that they have taken action against this group, removing some accounts associated with them and penalizing other pages and accounts.
This "Disinformation Dozen" was identified earlier this year by a watchdog organization, which identified these people, these 12 people, and said they are the ones responsible for a vast majority of online misinformation and disinformation about vaccines.
And so at the time, they encouraged Facebook to shut down the accounts of these people.
Fast forward to the summer, the White House applied some significant pressure on Facebook, also encouraging them to take action.
And Facebook has pushed back to some extent against this narrative. They've said that looking at only these 12 people really misses the forest for the trees. That was in making that announcement yesterday.
And the White House to some extent agrees. I asked them for a comment about Facebook's action. I was told by a White House spokesperson that they need to do more.
The spokesperson said, "In the middle of a pandemic, being honest and transparent about the work that needs to be done to protect public health is absolutely vital, but Facebook still refuses to be straightforward about how much misinformation is circulating and being actively promoted in their platform."
You can see, to some extent, Facebook and the White House agree that more does need to be done -- Ana?
CABRERA: We know you're going to stay on top of it.
Oliver Darcy, thank you.
There's misinformation, then there's just defying the science altogether.
Dr. Sara Cross is on the Tennessee governor's COVID-19 Task Force and says she's fed up after the governor signed an executive order allowing parents to opt out of school mask mandates. She's also an infectious disease expert.
Dr. Cross, thank you for being here.
What pushed you to speak out now?
DR. SARA CROSS, TENNESSEE COVID TASK FORCE MEMBER & INFECTIOUS DISEASE EXPERT: Thank you so much for having me.
You know, since the beginning of the pandemic, the pandemic has been made into a political issue, instead of the public health crisis that it is.
Science has not been followed in the state of Tennessee.
We are seeing so many children becoming ill and even dying. Our pediatric hospital in downtown Memphis currently has at least nine children in the intensive care unit from COVID-19. This is not an adult disease anymore.
And to opt to allow children and parents to opt out of a mask mandate in schools is putting all of our children directly in harm's way. Not only the children but their families, more vulnerable populations.
Our hospitals are full. We have nowhere to treat these patients. And health care workers are also very tired.
CABRERA: And so here you are, raising these alarms.
As I mentioned, you're part of the state COVID Task Force, which was put together in March of last year. When's the last time you all met?
CROSS: I can't exactly remember, but I believe it was either June or July of 2020.
CABRERA: So more than a year ago is the last time you met. Why is that?
CROSS: Well, I don't know what the goal of the Task Force was to begin with. Normally, a Task Force is a various group of diverse people coming
together to develop ideas and solve problems, and that's not really what this Task Force was about. We were never asked for our expertise or advice.
And so the whole purpose of it is unclear to me.
CABRERA: I want you to listen to something your governor said Monday about masks.
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GOV. BILL LEE (R-TN): They're protective. And if parents want their child to be protected in that way, then they should do so.
And if a parent believes that that's not best for their kid because of other reasons, then they should have the ability to make that decision for the health of their children.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[13:45:01]
CABRERA: You're a doctor. You're also a mom whose child is not yet eligible for a vaccine. What's your message to the governor?
CROSS: Well, this is why I'm here. I'm here to represent many parents and many health care workers in the state of Tennessee.
I understand that we all want the right to make decisions for our children. But this is a public health crisis. When one child doesn't wear a mask, it doesn't only affect that child, it affects the entire classroom. It affects the teachers.
We just had a teacher in the Memphis area, a 31-year-old woman, die of COVID in the past few days from acquiring it in the classroom.
So the whole idea of our freedom being taken away because we are asking or mandating the wearing of masks is asinine to me.
Masks are protective. They prevent transmission of infection. They prevent deaths. And there are no down sides to them.
All of the myths on mask wearing, such as carbon dioxide building up, children learning less, complete and utter just false information.
CABRERA: Absolutely. I'm so glad you said that and tried to dispel some of the myths.
What's really shocking is that this is not an isolated situation. This is happening all across the country. Primarily in Republican states.
I think all these are Republican-led states: Florida, Texas, Arizona, Arkansas, Iowa, Oklahoma, Utah, South Carolina.
If these Republican leaders aren't listening to the science and to doctors, where does that take us?
CROSS: Catastrophic consequences. We can't handle what we are seeing.
And there's a -- we are estimating that the number of cases in Tennessee will increase six-fold by the end of September if we don't take measures to mitigate the spread.
This means people won't get treated. They'll come to the emergency room and we will not be able to help them. Not just COVID patients, but patients having chest pain. Patients who maybe have had a stroke.
You know, this is unprecedented. We've never seen this before. And we have to take measures.
I am here to ask our government leaders for an open and effective dialogue. Let us, as health care professionals, utilize our expertise and help in stopping the spread of this infection.
CABRERA: Dr. Sara Cross, thank you so much for your time and for all you do.
CROSS: Thank you so much.
CABRERA: One thing Democrats and Republicans need to agree on right now, they all want answers on Afghanistan. How they plan to get them, next.
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[13:52:58]
CABRERA: First on CNN, more than 50 Senators are now urging President Biden to quickly evacuate Afghan allies and their families.
In this letter sent today, this bipartisan group writes, "American in action would ensure they become refugees or prime targets for Taliban retribution."
CNN congressional correspondent, Lauren Fox, is on Capitol Hill.
What are the main concerns you are hearing from lawmakers?
LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Look, Ana, this letter significant because it was sent not just by Democrats who were arguing these refugees need to have expedited way to get to the United States, but also from Republicans.
Including Senator Joni Ernst, a Republican from the state of Iowa, who was in combat and has talked a lot about the need to ensure these special immigrant visas are sped up.
Congress passed legislation to try to make it easier for the administration to bypass some of the requirements.
They argue that there are still stringent requirements to make sure that people who are coming to the U.S. have been vetted. But they argue that they need to speed this process up, and that's why they passed this legislation. So this letter very significant.
When you talk to lawmakers and aides who have been working behind the scenes for the last several weeks trying to make sure that people who are stuck in Afghanistan and had worked with U.S. forces are able to get to the United States, one of the concerns that they have is that this process is just not moving quickly enough.
Of course, there are all of the security concerns on the ground about getting people who are in Kabul or elsewhere in the country to the airport safely.
That's another piece of the concerns for lawmakers on both the Republican and Democratic side -- Ana?
CABRERA: We are hearing growing calls from people on both sides of the aisles for briefings and hearings on all of the chaos in Afghanistan. What's the latest there?
FOX: Look, there will be a series of briefings, and there have been already, but tomorrow there will be an all-Senators briefing. This will be unclassified because they will have to do it virtually. Lawmakers are not in Washington right now.
Then there will be a briefing for the House Intelligence Committee members on Monday. That will be classified.
And there have been leadership calls to have a briefing of the so- called Gang of Eight, including Pelosi, McCarthy and McConnell, all wanting answers to what happened here.
[13:55:05]
We also expect that the House Foreign Affairs Committee is going to be having a hearing next week, Ana.
But it is really just the beginning as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle want to know what went wrong in Afghanistan -- Ana?
CABRERA: Lauren Fox on Capitol Hill. Thanks, Lauren.
That does it for me today. Thank you so much for being with us. We'll see you back here tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. Eastern. Don't forget you can follow me any time on Twitter, @AnaCabrera.
The news continues next with Alisyn and Victor.
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