Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Biden Meets With Ukrainian President Zelensky At White House; McCarthy Threatens Companies That Comply With Records Requests; Pentagon Officials Praise Afghanistan Evacuation Efforts; CDC Begs Unvaccinated Not To Travel Over Labor Day As Hospitals Reach Breaking Point. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired September 01, 2021 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:30:20]
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's an honor and a pleasure to welcome President Zelensky to the White House, to the Oval Office.
INTERPRETER: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BIDEN: As we celebrate 30 years of Ukrainian independence, a partnership between our nations grows stronger and will even become stronger than it has been.
INTERPRETER: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BIDEN: Ukraine and the United States have a similar value system, and the strong commitment to the fulfillment of a promise that we hope all will come forward, and that is that you're at peace that is that you're at peace.
INTERPRETER: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BIDEN: And the United States remains firmly committed to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of Russian aggression and, and our support for Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic aspirations.
INTERPRETER: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BIDEN: Today, we're going to discuss how the U.S. can continue to support Ukraine as it advances its democratic reforms, agenda and movement toward completely integrated in Europe integrated in Europe.
INTERPRETER: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BIDEN: We're revitalizing the Strategic Partnership Commission between our nations, And we're also creating a new strategic defense framework and a new $60 million security assistance package.
INTERPRETER: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE) BIDEN: As well as a new energy and climate dialogue to help Ukraine diversify its energy supplies while supporting our climate goals relating to global warming.
INTERPRETER: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BIDEN: And of course, we'll talk about our ongoing fight against COVID-19. And the United States has donated 2.2 million vaccines to Ukraine through COVAX. And we're going to continue to work to provide more as well.
INTERPRETER: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BIDEN: We have much to talk about. And I still remember the opportunity I had to speak years ago and look forward to being able to come back someday and see you.
INTERPRETER: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
BIDEN: Mr. President?
INTERPRETER: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Mr. President.
(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
(through translation): First of all, I would like to greet you, ladies and gentlemen, as representatives of the journalist community.
And I would like to thank President Biden for his invitation and the difficult times for the world and for the United States, for Ukraine.
[14:35:04]
Still, you found time for us and we are very grateful for this, indeed.
ZELENSKY: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
(through translation): Of course, the United States, our strategic partner and supporter of our sovereignty and our territorial integrity. And I would like to use this --
CAMEROTA: OK, you've been watching the meeting between President Biden and Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky. This is the first time Zelensky is visiting. As you know, it was long awaited.
You'll remember him from, obviously, the first impeachment trial of President Trump.
And so there were no questions taken from reporters. But the president, President Biden, was talking about the shared interests between Ukraine and the United States in terms of democratic principles, in terms of climate goals and in terms of COVID, fighting COVID, and the donation of the U.S. Of the COVID vaccine.
We'll bring you more as we get more information from that meeting.
Turning now to Capitol Hill, House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, issued a veiled threat, it wasn't that veiled actually, to phone and social media companies that provide any information to the committee that's investigating the January 6th capitol riot.
McCarthy tweeted, quote, "If these companies comply with the Democrat order to turn over private information, they are in violation of federal law and subject to losing their ability to operate in the United States. If companies still choose to violate federal law, a Republican majority will not forget and will stand with Americans to hold them fully accountable under the law."
CNN's Ryan Nobles is on Capitol Hill.
Ryan, what is the committee's response to this?
RYAN NOBLES, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the committee is not backing down, Alisyn.
McCarthy's threat comes in the wake of CNN's exclusive reporting on the fact that the committee is asking for the phone records of a number of members of -- Republican members of Congress to be preserved in the event that their investigation gets to that point that they want to see exactly who these members were talking to in the lead-up to the January 6 insurrection.
The committee said, after Kevin McCarthy sent out that threat via tweet that they're not going to be deterred to whitewash the events of January 6th. And they're going to continue to move forward and ask for this information and work with social media and tech companies to get whatever they need to complete this investigation.
But the question is, does something like this just interrupt the flow of information over the course of the investigation? Does it slow the process down?
It's already expected that there could be a lengthy legal battle to obtain this information, that some of the individuals who could be -- whose records could be asked for could say that this was a violation of their personal rights and abilities and they may try to step in the way of this.
So this could be a long process to begin with, Alisyn.
If you have the House minority leader putting out a threat, which is basically what he did last night, telling these companies that if they comply with a duly impaneled congressional committee, that could make them nervous to be involved in this process.
Now, the tech companies, the social media companies, they haven't responded to McCarthy's claims.
The question, though, is will Democrats on Capitol Hill take the next step of accusing Kevin McCarthy of obstructing this process?
One Democratic member of Congress, Eric Swalwell, has said this is something that the Department of Justice should look into. The DOJ not commenting on that right now.
Could Democratic members ask the House Ethics Committee to look into this and offer up some reprimand of Kevin McCarthy's conduct in all of this.
We should also point out that Kevin McCarthy said obtusely that there's some sort of federal law that these companies could be in violation of, but he has yet to say exactly what that statute is.
He just threw it out there as something that could be very bad and he said could force these companies to cease their operations in the United States if Republicans come to power.
Again, Alisyn, he won't even say what that law is.
CAMEROTA: Ryan Nobles, luckily, we have an expert who will tell us all about this.
Thank you very much.
Joining us now, CNN senior legal analyst and former state and federal prosecutor, Elie Honig.
Elie, so what federal law prevents phone records from being subpoenaed?
ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Spoiler, none. He's making this up. In fact --
CAMEROTA: There's no federal law?
HONIG: No. Here's the way it works. It's really quite the opposite. It is the most normal thing on the planet for these phone providers, Verizon, AT&T, they get subpoenas all day long.
[14:40:03]
They have entire divisions of their companies, all they do is turn around these subpoenas for phone records all day long unless a judge steps in and says that's an inappropriate subpoena. That's very rare. That's their job. The law says they have to comply.
There's nothing extraordinary here. McCarthy is basically talking smack, trying to throw a monkey wrench into this procedure.
CAMEROTA: Do we know what the committee is looking for in these phone records and why would Kevin McCarthy be trying to block justice or block potential criminals from being prosecuted?
HONIG: That's the question, right? These phone records are going to be really valuable information for the committee because they're going to give a road map to this investigation. They're going to show you, me, investigators, who exactly spoke with
who at exactly what minute of what day. That is where you start an investigation, as a prosecutor, as an investigator.
Once you know who had what conversations with who at the critical times, then you go talk to those people. Maybe you subpoena them. Maybe it's Kevin McCarthy, maybe it's Jim Jordan, maybe it's Mark Meadows.
That results in subpoenas. And that's going to get potentially really ugly for Kevin McCarthy and others around him.
CAMEROTA: Just so I understand, the committee thinks that some lawmakers spoke to some of the capitol rioters?
HONIG: There's two possibilities here. That could be. You would see that in those phone records.
The other possibility, and I think this is clear, they want to know who was in contact with the White House when, how many times.
And then, for each of those contacts, you would naturally ask the person, you called the White House three times on January 5th and January 6th. Who did you speak with? What did you speak about?
I think that's what's got Kevin McCarthy worried.
CAMEROTA: We do need to know why the president's response and White House response was so belated and so delayed when it became a deadly riot.
HONIG: What could be more down the middle of this investigation. This is one of the core questions here. There's nothing political about it.
Let's remember, Jim Jordan, for one, has said I've got nothing to hide. Let's see if they're good for that.
If they have nothing to hide, they should be behind this effort to get the real facts.
CAMEROTA: So Kevin McCarthy put this statement out on Twitter. Are there any possible legal ramifications for him? Is he obstructing justice?
HONIG: What it means to obstruct justice or in this case a Congressional proceeding is to make an inappropriate threat, an improper threat. I think we agree it's not much of a veiled threat.
CAMEROTA: It was a direct threat.
HONIG: He said when we take over, assuming the Republicans take over, we may shut you down, Verizon, phone companies. That sounds to me like a threat.
If the intent is to get in the way of an investigation, it could be obstruction. I'm sure McCarthy is going to say, I'm just going to go to court and exercise my legal laws.
But there's no law. You can't make something up and use that as a threat and then go to court.
DOJ should take a look at this. I don't have any faith they will.
CAMEROTA: Why?
HONIG: Merrick Garland has shown little appetite for anything that might be controversial, politically explosive. I don't think he will jump into this wholeheartedly.
Also, as Ryan said, the Ethics Committee on the House could take a look at it but that's just "tsk, tsk" reprimands.
CAMEROTA: All right, Elie, great to see you.
HONIG: Thanks, Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: Thanks so much.
OK, so the top Pentagon officials just spoke out on the end of the Afghanistan war. What's next for the U.S. citizens and the allies who were left behind?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:45:17]
CAMEROTA: A short time ago, top Pentagon officials briefed the nation on the conclusion of the Afghanistan war.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEN. LLOYD AUSTIN, DEFENSE SECRETARY: We have concluded our historic evacuation operation and ended the last mission of the U.S. war in Afghanistan. America's longest war has come to a close.
Our commanders never flinched. Our allies and partners were extraordinary.
The United States evacuated some 6,000 American citizens and a total of more than 124,000 civilians. We did it all in the midst of a pandemic and in the face of grave and growing threats.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: Now, this is interesting. A senior State Department official just tells CNN that the majority of Afghans who worked for the U.S. during the war and applied for those visas were likely left behind.
Joining us now is Matt Zeller, the co-founder of No One Left Behind, a group helping Afghan interpreters and their families get to the U.S.
Matt, thank you so much for being here. Just help me with the math. I don't understand the discrepancy here. If the U.S. evacuated 124,000 people in the past month, most of them civilians, most of them Afghans, how can a majority of the SIV applicants have been left behind?
MATT ZELLER, CO-FOUNDER, NO ONE LEFT BEHIND: Well, it's a combination of things. First off, half of the SIV population wasn't in Kabul at the time this evacuation began.
As we've been noting for weeks now, some 44,000 people were in the outlying cities with no means to get to Kabul.
[14:50:02]
So right off the bat, we would probably be only to get half of the population, assuming they would be able to get on a plane.
As many of us experience, myself included, it was seemingly impossible to get our SIVs through the Taliban checkpoints or many cases through our own government checkpoint.
I can't tell you the number of times myself and other veterans were able to get onto the airport only to have them kick back off into the crowd by some internal State Department checkpoint that was triaging people and at this point only prioritizing U.S. citizens or green card holders.
The association of wartime allies have been warning for a couple of days that our great fear is that some 90 percent of the eligible special immigrant visa recipient and applicants did not get on these evacuation flights have been left behind.
And the Taliban may have the list who identify who these people are and hunting them down seeking retribution.
CAMEROTA: What's the number that you're working with? It's very hard to get a number from the State Department in terms of exact SIV applicants. Do you have a number?
ZELLER: We're tracking some 175,000 people that have been left behind. That includes eligible P-1 and P-2 applicants. That's a best guest because those programs didn't exist as a month ago.
With the SIVs it's a lot easier. We know that as of the 15th of August, there were 88,000 SIV applicants for the program. That's the 20,000 principal applicants and their eligible family members.
Historically speaking, each applicant has brought 4.4 people with them, a spouse and children. If you do the math, 20,000 applicants trying a historical average of 4.4 people is 88,000 people.
(CROSSTALK)
ZELLER: That's how many people were tracking the day the evacuation began.
What's terrifying is the Defense Department says they can only account for 7,000 of those 88,000 people as having been evacuated.
CAMEROTA: Matt, we have also heard there are 100-plus Americans who were still there after the planes took off.
What is -- what's next? What happens? How will the U.S.-- we heard they will get them out through diplomatic means? What does that mean to you?
ZELLER: It continues this fantasy belief we can trust the Taliban. We trusted them for our security and we got 13 dead servicemembers because we trusted them to prevent suicide bombers from getting through to us.
It will be three means to get them out. If we can get the Taliban to air and ground humanitarian corridors, that will be the most efficient means of getting people out but that will require the Taliban to agree to terms and honor those terms. And I just don't see that happening.
For most of these people, their best bet will be some type of clandestine or covert means. That will take years.
What we fear is that if our in your opinions -- numbers are correct, there's some 175,000 people, the SIVs, family members and the P-1 and P-2.
We estimate this could take the better part of 10 years. That's even if we can get them out alive.
CAMEROTA: Matt Zeller, we always appreciate having you on. Thank you very much.
Now to this. The CDC is begging unvaccinated Americans not to travel over Labor Day weekend because hospitals are reaching their breaking points.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:56:48]
CAMEROTA: Now an update on coronavirus. The U.S. is surpassing its average of 160,000 new COVID-19 cases per day. Hospitals still struggling under the burden of unvaccinated patients. Some states even seeing an oxygen shortage.
CNN's Athena Jones has the latest
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This Labor Day weekend, the message from federal health officials is clear.
DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: First, if you're unvaccinated, we would recommend not traveling.
JONES: And given the surge in COVID-19 infections, the U.S. now averaging more than 160,000 new cases a day. The CDC says, even people fully vaccinated should wear masks and take COVID risks into consideration.
More than 101,000 people now hospitalized nationwide. Hospitalizations in Georgia up tenfold since the beginning of July.
Idaho's governor warning his state has only a handle of intensive care unit beds left.
GOV. BRAD LITTLE (R-ID): Hospitals have converted other spaces to be used as contingency ICU beds. Those are filling up, too. Hospitals are beyond constrained.
JONES: The toll already steep and rising. Average daily COVID deaths topping 1,300. More than doubling since mid-august.
Social Security and Medicare trustees now projecting mortality rates for those age 15 and up will be 15 percent higher than before the pandemic.
There are growing concerns about rising cases among children who are already being hospitalized with COVID at the highest rate in more than a year, according to CDC data.
DR. NANCY TOFIL, DIVISION OF PANDEMIC CRITICAL CARE, UAB & CHILDREN'S AT ALABAMA: Most are unvaccinated or under the age of 12 and not able to get vaccinated. Numbers have been three or four times what we're seeing last winter at its peak.
JONES: New York Governor Kathy Hochul announcing measures to help protect children.
GOV. KATHY HOCHUL (D-NY): Our school staff, anybody who enters that building will have to be vaccinated or undergo mandatory testing.
JONES: More than 3,000 students in one Ft. Worth, Texas, school district now quarantined after two weeks of school. The district announced a mask mandate last month in defiance to have governor.
In Florida, where the governor has banned school mask mandates --
(SHOUTING)
JONES: -- Volusia County school board, over fiery objections, voting to join a dozen other counties meaning they could lose state funding.
NIKKI FRIED, (D), FLORIDA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: This governor, time and time again, has shown a complete depraved indifference for human life, especially for our children. We're seeing cases, the largest section of cases in our state last week where those under 12 years old.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JONES: Two school districts in northern Florida are shutting down for the next several days, citing a spike in COVID cases or quarantine related staffing shortages or both. Neither district mandates masks.
[14:59:56]
CAMEROTA: That's the problem. If you don't have masks, your kids have to go home, which one would you prefer.
JONES: Exactly. If you want to keep the kids in school, you have to take precautions.
CAMEROTA: Athena, thank you very much for the reporting.
