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U.S. Capitol Police Set to Speak Ahead of Far-Right Rally; Now, FDA Advisers Debate Need for COVID Vaccine Boosters; Milley Says, Calls to China Near End of Trump Administration Routine. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired September 17, 2021 - 13:00   ET

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

JOHN KING, CNN INSIDE POLITICS: Is set to begin a new term.

[13:00:01]

I appreciate your time today on Inside Politics. Have a great weekend. Ana Cabrera picks up right now.

ANA CABRERA, CNN NEWSROOM: Hello and thanks for being with us on this Friday. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York.

We are following two major events this hour. On the left side of your screen, a critical meeting underway of vaccine advisers to the FDA. They are debating whether Americans need COVID-19 booster shots right now.

Now, on the other side or coming up next, you'll see Capitol Hill Police about to speak as they prepare for tomorrow's far right rally in support of those charged in the Capitol riot. An unclassified briefing from the Department of Homeland Security warns of potential violence, possibly even today.

CNN Crime and Justice Correspondent Shimon Prokupecz is on Capitol Hill. Shimon, set the scene for us ahead of this law enforcement briefing that we're expecting to happen at any moment now.

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So, we're going to hear from the chief of the Capitol Police, I'm sure there will be other law enforcement officials there, as they talk about preparations for tomorrow, what they're hearing, the concerns. We already have some idea from that memo we obtained from DHS, which says that the threat still continues. There's this online chatter that's continuing, people wanting to storm the Capitol, people wanting to kidnap Congress members. That is a major concern that folks want to storm the Capitol.

And that's why we see the fencing, the continued fencing. You can see here is a sign here where it says this area is closed. The Capitol Police putting up this sign. They have not closed this area off yet. There are still tourists here.

But I want to show you something, Ana, where the rally is going to be and how close actually the proximity to the Capitol. It's just across the water here. And where those metal barricades are that you see up ahead, I hope you can see, Ana, that's where the rally is going to take place.

So, you can see how close with all these concerns, how close they are to the Capitol. And that is why obviously we're seeing all of the fencing. I just want to get out of the way as the police drive by. We're seeing all the fencing, there's some extra police already here that I did not see yesterday.

So, certainly, there is an elevated level of security here. The fencing is obviously one thing. But there's more police officers coming in. They're going to be using officers from even outside jurisdictions, like Virginia and Baltimore, and then, of course, the National Guard and what role they're going to play. Are they just going to be on standby or are we actually going to see them, like we did in the days after January 6th on the streets here in Washington D.C.?

But a lot to hear still from the chief of police here at the Capitol. We're going to hear about street closures. That is supposed to take effect starting tonight. Some street closures have already started. But the majority of them are going to take place tonight and tomorrow morning as they prepare for this rally.

But I just -- I have not been over this area yet until today, Ana, and can I tell you it's really striking to see just how close the people who are going to be attending this rally are going to be to the Capitol. All they have to do if they wanted to, they have to just get across those metal fences and then they would be close here to the Capitol, Ana.

CABRERA: And so we have been told that law enforcement is taking a -- prepare for the worst, take extra precautions, better safe than sorry- type approach going into this rally tomorrow. Shimon, thank you for laying that out for us.

We're also keeping a close eye on this critical meeting of FDA vaccine advisers. By this afternoon, they could recommend whether it's time to approve boosters and who should be eligible to get them.

Now, one big headline already emerging from this meeting is Israel's top health official has presented some modeling data and it shows Israeli booster shots may have kept thousands of people out of the hospital. Also significant, the boosters carried no more medical risk than the first two vaccine doses.

CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us with more. Sanjay, we're already seeing hospitals here in the U.S. and some regions at full capacity. Does that underscore the urgency of this meeting?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, I'm seeing that even at the hospital where I work as well. It is real. I think that is in part underscoring the urgency of this meeting, but I think when you think about these hospitals, this is an important point. We know that the vast majority of COVID patients in the hospitals are just unvaccinated, completely unvaccinated.

In fact, let me show you this graph, Ana. I think it kind of tells the important story if you look at hospitalizations overall. What you find is the unvaccinated are about 17 times more likely than the vaccinated to end up being hospitalized. The graph basically shows a line of the unvaccinated quite high and the unvaccinated makes up a much smaller percentage. So, it's that smaller percentage that we're really going to be focusing on with this discussion today.

Will it make a difference? Sure. Who are the vaccinated that end up in the hospital? Probably elderly people, probably people who are more vulnerable. And I think they make a case that they would benefit from a boost.

[13:05:02]

But the big problem causing the urgency is still the unvaccinated, Ana.

CABRERA: And there's that graphic that you were referencing there. On the other side of the spectrum here though is one of the advisers on this panel, Dr. Paul Offit, who is saying the Biden administration has rushed this process, approving boosters. Is there sufficient information at this point, Sanjay, for a recommendation to be made at today's meeting?

GUPTA: I don't think so, to be honest, in terms of hard data, at least not what I've seen. Maybe they're going to present more data there. I think a lot of this is, first of all, based on Israel data. And, again, they do make the case that for certain age groups, people older than the age of 60 or 65, they are the people who are most likely to have a severe breakthrough infection.

But I don't know that you can make the case for people under that age. We'll see. Again, most of these FDA meetings, Ana, I've had a pretty good of how they were going to go ahead of time. This one, no. There's a lot of contention here.

And I will also point out that the FDA may say, hey, look, we're going to authorize boosters and leave it up to the CDC to recommend who specifically should receive those boosters. So, this may involve over the next few days what the recommendation is.

CABRERA: Sanjay, forgive me for cutting this short. We have to go to Washington at this briefing by Capitol Police. Listen.

CHIEF TOM MANGER, U.S. CAPITOL POLICE: But there have been some threats of violence associated with this -- the events for tomorrow. And we have a strong plan in place to ensure that it remains peaceful, and that if violence does occur, that we can stop it as quickly as possible. We're not going to tolerate violence, and we will not tolerate criminal behavior of any kind.

The American public and the members of Congress have an expectation that we protect the Capitol. And I'm confident with the plan we have in place that we're going to be able to meet that expectation. I'm going to turn it over to the Chief Yogananda Pittman to talk about the intelligence, and after that, Chief Gallagher will talk about some our operational planning.

Chief Pittman?

YOGANANDA PITMAN, USCP ASSISTANT CHIEF FOR PROTECTIVE AND INTELLIGENCE OPERATIONS: Thank you, Chief.

Right after January 6th, this department made several challenging yet critical changes on the way we go about our business. One of those substantial changes that we've made is the way we gather, analyze, and disseminate intelligence in order to better understand threats and to mitigate those threats.

Historically, this department has relied primarily on outside agencies for intelligence information. We are predominantly consumers of intelligence, rather than producers. Well, that is no longer. That was prior to January 6th. We have now grown and expanded our intelligence operations and we have dramatically changed the way that we process and share intelligence with our law enforcement partners at every level.

This change involves improved internal communications as well as including intelligence briefings to our rank and file officers. We do feel that these improvements coupled with the other existing efforts will help transform our department operationally as well as from an intelligence-driven perspective agency.

And with that, I'll turn it over to Chief Gallagher.

SEAN GALLAGHER, USCP ACTING ASSISTANT CHIEF FOR UNIFORMED OPERATIONS: Thanks, Chief. Good afternoon, everyone. As Chief Manger has stated, we have been working for several weeks extensively on the planning leading up to this weekend. The internal planning that we've done has included multiple training exercises for our civil disturbance units, scenario exercises for our command staff, as well as detailed briefings for all of our officers.

Our officers are ready. We have already transitioned into an enhanced security posture on Capitol grounds as you can see by the security fence and various other security measures that are in place. Externally, we have been working with over 25 of our partnering agencies on a seamless, integrated plan for this weekend. The United States Capitol Police will have on-site support from a number of our local, state and federal partners. We have also conducted a large multiagency table top exercise in order to test and validate our integrated operational plan for this weekend.

In addition to the on-site support that we'll have on Capitol grounds, we will also have contingency plans in place for additional law enforcement as well as support from our partners at the D.C. National Guard, if needed.

[13:10:03] We have extremely strong partnerships with all of our local, state and federal law enforcement partners, and we are appreciative for their assistance and their collaboration going into this weekend. We are hoping and expecting a peaceful event this weekend. But our operational plan is scalable, so that we will be ready to handle anything that occurs. Thank you.

Chief Contee?

CHIEF ROBERT CONTEE III, D.C. METROPOLITAN POLICE: I'm Robert J. Contee III, Chief of Police on the Metropolitan Police Department. As chief of police of the department, I want to ensure you that our agency and coordination with our local and federal partners have carefully planned for the upcoming First Amendment activities taking place tomorrow on Saturday, September 18th.

In addition, to the scheduled demonstrations, our city will also hold the popular H Street Festival, a number of sporting events and concerts. Residents and visitors attending anyone of these events should expect MPD officers to provide great police service and be present and visible throughout our city.

While we have multiple high-profile events, MPD will handle these while continuing to provide routine police service throughout communities all throughout our nation's Capitol. Our department has increased staffing today and is fully activated for tomorrow. So, you will notice an increased police presence around the city, and this is to ensure everyone's safety and security throughout the district.

The Metropolitan Police Department handles hundreds of demonstrations each year. The First Amendment assemblies planned for this weekend are no different and we are prepared. We haven't had an opportunity to speak with the organizers of this weekend's demonstrations and have planned accordingly. We are also aware of various counter-groups planning to exercise their First Amendment rights.

As a reminder, the district's gun laws will be enforced in the event we observe individuals in possession of firearm, we will take police action .D.C. code expressly prohibits anyone from carrying a firearm within 1,000 feet of any First Amendment assembly, to include members of the public who have been issued a concealed carry permit in the District of Columbia.

Earlier this week, we posted no gun zone signage around the demonstration area. We're also asking the public to be patient and be prepared for disruptions to roads, parking and getting around the city as a number of road closures will be in effect. There are a number of road closures around the Capitol and Constitution avenue that all residents and visitors should be aware of on this day. And the possibility that additional intermittent closures go into effect to safely facilitate all activities.

To see a complete list of these closures and to stay up to date while the events occur, please check our two Twitter accounts, @dcpolicedepartment and @dcpolicetraffic. And, as always, if you see something, please say something. Please report any suspicious activity to law enforcement immediately by dialing 911.

Thank you and have a safe weekend. Chris Rodriguez, Dr. Chris Rodriguez, D.C.'s Director of Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency, will now provide brief remarks.

Thank you, Chief Contee, and thank you, Chief Manger, for having public safety representatives from the city here today.

CHRISTOPHER RODRIGUEZ, DIRECTOR, D.C. HOMELAND SECURITY AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY: Good afternoon. My name is Chris Rodriguez. I am the director of D.C.'s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency.

As the host of our federal government, the District of Columbia plays an important role in the security posture of the United States Capitol, and we stand ready to assist our federal partners. Our mayor, Muriel Bowser, is activating the District of Columbia's Emergency Operation Center, or EOC, tomorrow on Saturday, September 18th. This activation will allow district government led by the Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency to establish clear coordination and communication with our local, regional and federal partners to ensure interagency coordination, to monitor the various planned First Amendment events and to provide a situational awareness and resource management, if needed.

CABRERA: Okay. We're going to continue to monitor this press briefing with obviously the law enforcement that is there in D.C. preparing for this upcoming rally. It's expected to take place tomorrow. And it's supposed to be in support of the insurrectionists from January 6th.

I want to bring in our CNN Legal and National Security Analyst and former FBI Special Agent Asha Rangappa, and also joining us is CNN Senior Law Enforcement Analyst Charles Ramsey, he's a former D.C. Metro Police Chief, also the former commissioner of Philadelphia.

[13:15:07]

Commissioner, let me start with you. Based on what we've heard, based on what we've learned in Shimon's reporting, do you feel like law enforcement is prepared?

CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes, they're ready. They're ready for this one. The fencing will give them the standoff distance they need. They have ample resources available from surrounding jurisdictions, standby by the National Guard. You know, I think they're ready, about as ready as they can be.

Now, one of the threats, of course, is independent lone wolves doing something else in other parts of the city but they've got a lot of coverage because MPD is fully activated, canceled days off. So they'll not all be at the Capitol, they're going to be really flooding the city as well.

CABRERA: Asha, Anything stand out to you based on what we just heard?

ASHA RANGAPPA, CNN LEGAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes. I mean, I agree with Chief Ramsey, that they seem ready. And, Ana, this provides for us a good reference point for what could have been possible before January 6th.

I mean, we heard some things that have changed since January 6th. The Capitol Police said that they used to be consumers of intelligence and now they are more proactive about gathering intelligence themselves and being intelligence-driven. But a lot of these are about lining up all of their responsive agencies, making sure there's coordination, having the infrastructure in place for security. And so I think this actually providing a good baseline for the committee investigating January 6th to say, here's what we know could have and should have been done. Why wasn't it done on January 6th?

CABRERA: Commissioner, officials aren't taking any chances. We heard them say we will be ready. They talk about threats of violence that they have seen out there. We know they've put up the fences. There's going to be increased airport security. There's the National Guard on standby. Remember, it took them hours to respond when the National Guard was brought in on January 6th previously. Do you see them putting out all of this information out front? Do you see that deterring people from actually coming all together?

RAMSEY: Well, hopefully, it does. I mean, I think it serves a couple purposes. One is to deter people who are coming with a mindset that they want to repeat January 6th. And the other is to reassure the public that people who actually live in D.C., who work in D.C., that there's going to be sufficient coverage to keep them safe. So I think it really serves both purposes. And I don't know what else they can do. We'll have to see how things unfold tomorrow. But I think they're about as prepared as they can be right now.

CABRERA: And, Asha, former President Trump in a statement just today is defending the Capitol rioters. He's showing solidarity with them ahead of this rally. How does that impact events this weekend?

RANGAPPA: Well, it continues to provide these people with a sense of moral justification in their cause. Remember, what they are protesting is the people who have been arrested from January 6th who they consider to be political prisoners.

Now, Ana, I've studied countries that actually take political prisoners, dictatorships in Latin America, current authoritarian regimes. The people that were arrested on January 6th broke the law. They've been given due process. They have counsel. Many of them have been released on bail. They're not political prisoners. But when Trump continues to characterize them as such, he is essentially turning a rule of law on its head and making people believe that they are the ones that should be empowered to reestablish law and order, and I think it encourages potential violence, to be honest.

CABRERA: Asha Rangappa and Charles Ramsey, I appreciate both of you. Thanks so much for joining us.

RAMSEY: Thank you.

CABRERA: Former President Trump called it treason but General Mark Milley is now speaking out, defending his backchannel calls to China during the final days of the Trump administration. Details on what he's saying, just ahead.

Plus a crisis growing and the pictures breathtaking. Roughly 12,000 migrants are now living under this bridge in a Texas border town. What's the Biden administration doing about it?

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CABRERA: The nation's top military officer is defending calls he made to China in the final months of the Trump administration. Now critics say the calls in which Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley assured his Chinese counterpart the U.S. was not going to suddenly attack China undercut civilian control of the military.

CNN's Alex Marquardt joins us from the pentagon. Alex, what is General Milley saying?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Of course, Ana, General Milley's supporters and allies and his own office are saying the exact opposite, that what he did here with China and others is very much standard practice. This is, however, the first time that we've heard from General Milley himself. He has spoken to reporters while he's been traveling in Europe. And what he said echoed what we've heard from his supporters and his office.

I want to read you a bit of what he said. He told these reporters these are routine calls in order to discuss issues of the day to reassure both allies and adversaries in this case, in order to ensure strategic stability. And these are perfectly within the duties and responsibilities of the chairman.

This is all in response, Ana, to this explosive reporting in this book by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. And some of the more explosive parts of that book that we've seen so far do have to do with Milley, who, according to this reporting, felt that Donald Trump was in serious mental decline.

[13:25:04]

And as a result, and as a result of what China was seeing and was concerned about here in the U.S. and the lead-up to the election, Milley reached out to Chinese counterpart, General Li, at least twice. There were phone calls on October 30th, so right before the election, and then again on January 8th, so just after the insurrection.

And in those calls, he was reassuring General Li that not only would there not be a U.S. attack on China, but if there were, that he would give him a heads up. That is really what has gotten him in some hot water, especially with Republicans.

We should note, there has been defense of General Milley from this building. His office has said that on those calls, it was not just him speaking with General Li, that there were 15 others. There was a member of the State Department, and that this was then -- these notes were then read out to other agencies and departments.

Milley really did not say all that much, did not go all that much farther, Ana. He said that he was going to keep his comments on the record at least for Congress. He will be facing a real grilling in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee later this month on September 28th. Ana?

CABRERA: And amid calls for his resignation among by people like Marco Rubio. We've heard President Biden and the White House reiterate multiple times now they have full confidence in General Milley. Alex Marquardt, thank you for that from the Pentagon.

Well, the big lie continues to ripple through the Republican Party, impacting who stays and how goes. Ohio Congressman Anthony Gonzalez, a Republican who voted to impeach former President Trump and who also voted in support of a January 6th commission, says he won't seek re- election in 2022. In an interview with The New York Times he calls Trump a cancer for the country. And he says the current GOP environment is toxic.

Today, Trump pounced, essentially saying in a statement that Gonzalez decided to quit because he was no longer popular. The former president added, one down, nine to go.

CNN Congressional Correspondent Jessica Dean is on Capitol Hill. Jessica, what else is the congressman saying about his decision and the current political environment?

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, a lot, Ana. We actually heard directly from the congressman in a statement that he released. I'll read you a quick part of it. He said, while my desire to build a fuller family life is at the heart of my decision, it is also true that the current state of our politics, especially many of the toxic dynamics inside our own party is a significant factor in my decision.

He also told The New York Times in an interview that he is concerned about the security, that when he was coming home, he had to be concerned about security, his family, he has young children, that all of this, as he said in his statement, is going into his decision not to seek reelection. Again, of course, he voted for impeaching former President Donald Trump.

And it's worth noting that someone like Congressman Anthony Gonzalez would be quite a rising star, in fact, was a big rising star in the Republican Party when they recruited him in to run. He had been a former NFL football player, gotten his MBA from Stanford. This is somebody that the GOP would have been very excited to have as young, dynamic candidate.

And instead, we're simply seeing, Ana, more and more that if you are not on board with former President Trump, then you are being pushed to the margins of this party. And that is also what we're seeing here, that it's simply not something that he sees as something that is worth doing in terms of the time that he could be spending with his family and what kind of effect he can have within his own party. Ana? CABRERA: I mentioned Trump's statement, one down, nine to go. That's referring to the nine other House Republicans who voted with Gonzalez to impeach Trump after the Capitol riot. What kind of challenges are they facing?

DEAN: Well, of course, the biggest one that almost everyone will point to is Congresswoman Liz Cheney, who was booted from her position in House leadership after taking that vote, and, of course, is now serving on the select committee looking into January 6th. And we've seen former President Trump backing her challenger and her upcoming race in Wyoming.

But that also goes for someone like Congressman John Katko, who tried to negotiate a bipartisan agreement on a January 6th commission, which was the original plan, and just did not get the backing of House leadership, that he went out and tried to negotiate this and leadership would simply not back him.

These are things that we are seeing across these ten that have been -- that voted to impeach former President Donald Trump. And we're seeing him backing a lot of their primary challengers, Ana. That's something we're tracking as we head into 2022.

CABRERA: Jessica Dean on Capitol Hill, thanks.

The pictures are stunning, a bridge under the Texas border now providing shelter to more than 12,000 migrants. What is next for these desperate people, and how is the administration responding?

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