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U.S. to Lift Travel Ban for Some Fully Vaccinated Visitors; Misinformation Blamed for Vaccine Hesitancy in Idaho; Taliban Commander Tours Kabul Police District; Crews Fight to Contain 10 Large Blazes in California; Trump Still Trying to Get Results Overturned; "Peril" Details Milley's Assurances to China About Strikes. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired September 21, 2021 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: After more than a year, the U.S. says it will lift tough travel restrictions for many foreign visitors. Starting in November, fully vaccinated travelers from nearly three dozen countries will again be allowed to fly to the United States. CNN's Pete Muntean is Washington with more.

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PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: This announcement is huge for international travel which has remained shuttered for most of the pandemic. The Biden administration is now lifting the ban on foreign national travelers coming into the United States. But they must prove they are fully vaccinated. They must also show a negative coronavirus test.

White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients says this is a strict policy that follows the science. The goal here is to protect Americans because remember travels have been shown as a vector for the virus. The travel industry is celebrating this. Remember, here in the United States it's domestic air travel that's been going up. But International air travel rates remained very, very low. Just one example, travel between the U.S. and the U.K. in the month of August was down about 86 percent compared to August back in 2019 before the pandemic. The timing is so critical here. The holidays are around the corner and a lot of families have been separated for months by these travel bans.

Pete Muntean, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: And for a closer look, we are joined now by CNN's Anna Stewart. She joins us live from London. Good to see you. So, Anna, what has been the reaction in the U.K. to this? And what might this mean for travel and tourism on both sides of the pond?

ANNA STEWART, CNN REPORTER: I think it's a real sigh of relief here in the U.K. and of course also in Europe. Finally, people will be allowed to travel to the States. The devil was always going to be in the details when we look at that announcement and we got much more of that overnight. It looks pretty simple. You take a test three days before you travel to the United States. You also take another test three or five days before you've arrive. But those don't have to be those expensive PCR tests, lateral flow tests will be expected.

And in terms of the vaccination, you need to be fully vaccinated and the U.S. will be accepting vaccinations that are being given out over here. But all being that in the U.S., for instance, AstraZeneca vaccine. Anything the W.H.O. has approved is fine. Other than that, wearing a mask on the plane and throughout the travel process. And you can travel to the States.

And this is really, really for all those people wanting to visit friends and family but also it will go some way to heal what's been a bit of a rift transatlantic-ly. The fact that Americans could travel to Europe now for some months if they were fully vaccinated. Traveling Europe, get back on a plane, get back to the United States, no quarantine there, it felt a little bit unfair and fairly illogical -- Rosemary.

CHURCH: All right, Anna Stewart, thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate it.

Idaho is coping with a rapidly growing COVID crisis. The state's struggle to keep up with the surge in patients is now putting pressure on hospitals in neighboring Washington state. And health officials say vaccine misinformation is largely to blame. CNN's Dan Simon spoke to the brother of a nurse who died of COVID after refusing to get vaccinated.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys want Eggos?

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Yes.

DAN SIMON, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He worked as a truck driver. Today, Daryl Rise is a full-time caregiver in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho to 10-year-old twins Emmett (ph) and Emory (ph) after their mother, Daryl's sister, died last month from COVID-19.

DARYL RISE, LOST SISTER TO COVID: As they were innovating her, and they've given her the sedation and the paralytic which is standard. Her heart just let go.

SIMON (voice over): Natalie Rise was only 46.

SIMON: Tell me what did Natalie do for living?

RISE: Natalie was a registered nurse and she did home health care. And she went around and help people in their homes, elderly.

SIMON (voice over): Which made her firm anti-vaccination stance all the more puzzling.

RISE: She was telling me not to get vaccinated. I think it was her misinformation. I think it was from falling into negative social media and bloggers, YouTubers.

SIMON (voice over): As the Delta variant continues to run rampant, healthcare leaders face a challenge. Nearly 30 percent of their own ranks as of July still had not been vaccinated according to The COVID States Project. And as cases and hospitalizations remain high here in Idaho, one official saying there's really only one word to describe the current situation.

KATHERINE HOYER, PANHANDLE HEALTH DISTRICT: Awful. We're in the worst state that we ever have been in the pandemic.

SIMON (voice over): Things right now so dire that last week, the State authorized hospitals the right to ration treatment. It comes even as the State still has no mask mandate. Protesters staging mask burning rallies like this one in March. Idaho also has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country.

The lack of restrictions causing frustration in neighboring Washington State where there is a mask mandate and where hospitals like this one in Spokane are filling up with patients from Idaho. Doctors warning everyone from cancer patients to people on a transplant list could see delays in treatment.

SIMON: Those patients who are impacted in their families, how do they take that?

DR. DAN GETZ, PROVIDENCE SACRED HEART MEDICAL CENTER: Horribly, and rightly so. We're doing everything that we can to expand capacity, get those folks in the operating room with their surgeons who can cure them, but at the end of the day, we're delaying their care.

RISE: They did CPR for 45 minutes.

SIMON (voice over): As Daryl got the tragic call, his sister had died.

RISE: I was destroyed. I didn't know what's going to happen with these two beautiful children.

SIMON (voice over): He was also grappling with something else, his 71- year-old unvaccinated mother had also gotten COVID and was coming out of a medically induced coma. She had to be told that her daughter just a few rooms away, had died from the same disease.

RISE: I got a phone call from the nurses saying get back up here, we're going to tell your mom. You need to tell your mom. We're all mothers and she deserves to know.

SIMON (voice over): Even now, Daryl says his mother is still on the fence about the vaccine, indicative of the struggle to end the pandemic.

RISE: Do you want chocolate milk? All right.

SIMON (voice over): Now left to raise his niece and nephew, he says the day following his sister's death -- RISE: The next day I went and got my vaccination. It was the hardest decision of my life. I mean, am I doing right by God, am I doing right by Natalie and I got it out of fear.

SIMON: Medical officials on both sides of the border are saying what is happening is so tragic. So, they're asking, why stick with the status quo. Why not enact a mask mandate. But for them what is most frustrating is seeing people die needlessly and they blame it almost entirely on vaccine misinformation on social media.

Dan Simon, CNN, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: A Taliban commander engages in a little public relations. Coming up, how Afghans are responding under the militants' watchful eye.

[04:40:00]

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CHURCH: The U.N.'s humanitarian chief says Taliban leaders are admitting they don't know how to govern Afghanistan. It's yet another troubling sign for the future of the country already mired in a humanitarian crisis. Nic Robertson reports from Kabul.

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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice over): Taliban commander, Mansour Haqqani is on a public relations offensive, winning, he hopes, hearts and minds, in the Kabul police district he now runs. He doesn't carry a weapon, but his backup does. Taliban fighters fresh from the frontlines toting American weapons, wearing U.S. combat gear.

ROBERTSON: This is one of the most important neighborhoods in the center of Kabul, the financial district. Its security is a priority for the Taliban.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): With the Taliban's well justified reputation for brutality, it should be an easy job for the 17-year veteran Haqqani to get control. But it's not.

ROBERTSON: How does it feel to be policing the streets, rather than fighting to take control of the country?

ROBERTSON (voice-over): He says he is happy to serve the nation just as before to bring Sharia religious law to the city. But there are lots of people, a lot of corruption, and a lot of thieving to get rid of, he says.

Haqqani's posting, it used to be the city's plum police job. Lots of money, lots of shakedowns.

ROBERTSON: You get the feeling walking along here that people are still being a little bit cautious about the Taliban. But at the same time, they're out on the streets, they are trading, they are doing business. So, it feels like it's settling down. But it's that kind of uneasy feeling, which way it's going to go.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): We are happy this gold trader tells me, no corruptions so far. I can leave work after dark. It's safer.

ROBERTSON: So, how is the situation here now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Institutions are very good. If you see like one year ago, two years ago, we see thieves and robbery here and no safety here. Now, with Taliban, I hope God willing, life is very good.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): With the Taliban within earshot, it's hard to know for sure how people really feel. But despite their presence, several brave women approaches.

This woman, close to tears, tells me she is a widow with six children. The Taliban fired her from a government job, sent to home without pay. As we talked, another woman comes forward. Also out of work, she says, because the Taliban stop girls she taught from going to school. She's been paid for next month but has no idea what happens after that.

It's up to Haqqani to choose whether he will be firm and respected or forceful and feared like the Taliban before.

[04:45:00]

He says for now, no plans to cut thieves hands off like before, which way he'll tip a bell weather for the country.

Nic Robinson, CNN, Kabul, Afghanistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: The threat of strong winds and low humidity is driving conditions for the spread of wildfires in Northern California. Crews are struggling to contain at least 10 large blazes burning across the state. CNN meteorologist Pedram Javaheri has more on the situation there and in other states more in dealing with the massive fires -- Pedram.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, good morning, Rosemary. This is the season here we typically see September into October where fire activity really picks up in intensity and unfortunately parts of at least 12 states as much as 71 large active fires across the Western United States. At this hour, the concern is the elements are in place yet again for fire activity to ramp up in the next few days.

That's high-pressure parking across the Great Basin. That means we get kind of an offshore component, the down sloping flow and certainly the winds will pick up as a result. And that's the concern. Fires could easily spread over the next several days and even start and be ignited as a result of the excessive heat in place across this region.

But heat advisories a little further towards the South into Southern California. The Santa Ana winds expected to pick up across portions that region as well. And yes, the water year among the driest on record. The water year starts on October 1, 2020 and ends on September 30, next week, 2021. It was the driest on record, 9.9 inches has been observed across the six areas where they keep this area database for the southern Sierra Nevada. And that is the lowest ever observed -- previous record 10.9 inches from the 1970s.

We talked about fire activities picking up. That is a critical risk in place into Northern California. And yes, whether it's Northern California or Southern California, the conditions are going to remain very much dangerous here. But little containment, of course, with the Windy Fire. KNP Complex setting at zero containment at this hour. You see the proximity right there to the national forest. And that's the biggest concern at this hour.

While up towards the north, the Caldor fire only 72 percent containment. Very slow progression in the last couple of days there. While the Dixie fire, 90 percent containment remains in place. And yes, as we get on into this Tuesday, the level four is in place. That means widespread, large fire activities along the Western United States. The natural resource commitment to that is considered very high as well. And of course, this is all in advance of peak fire season, Rosemary, here in the next several weeks. Send it back to you.

CHURCH: Thanks for that Pedram, appreciate it.

Well, Donald Trump was vocal about his refusal to accept his election loss. Coming up a new book details just how far the former president's team went to get lawmakers to back his efforts.

[04:50:00]

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CHURCH: Joe Biden is more than eight months into his presidency and Donald Trump is still trying to get the election results overturned. He sent a letter to Georgia's Secretary of State asking him to decertify the results. Trump claims there were 43,000 absentee ballots that violated the chain of custody rules. Georgia's election officials counted the votes three times and Mr. Biden is still the winner. A criminal investigation into Trump's efforts to overturn Georgia's results is underway.

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BRAD RAFFENSPERGER, GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, he's been leaning into and propagating the big lie and he's been fundraising off this issue. I know he'll be here in Georgia this coming weekend. So, you'd have to ask him what his motivations were.

But at the end of the day, we've looked at every single allegations that's been made and we really wanted to make sure that we have true and accurate results. People said there were thousands of dead people that voted, it was less than a handful. They also told us that over 66,000 under age voters voted. There were zero. They talked about unregistered voters voting. There were none of that. And so, we have really been sure that we've been very thoughtful and thorough in our responses. But President Trump came up short in Georgia.

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CHURCH: More details are emerging on how much pressure Trump puts on his Vice President to stop the certification of the Electoral College votes. A conservative lawyer working with Trump's legal team tried to convince Mike Pence to throw out electors from seven states. Pence would not go along but Trump kept pursuing other tactics. Brian Todd reports.

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RUDY GIULIANI, PERSONAL LAWYER TO FORMER PRESIDENT TRUMP: This is not a singular voter fraud in one state. This pattern repeats itself in a number of states.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): New indications that then- President Trump's Personal Lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Trump's legal team couldn't even convince two of Trump's closest allies that the 2020 election results were fraudulent.

After the election and before January 6th, Giuliani met with Republican Senator and Trump loyalist Lindsey Graham at the White House. Giuliani sent Graham documents which Giuliani believed proved his theories, but the claims were so flimsy even Graham didn't buy them.

That's according to the new book, "Peril" by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa of "The Washington Post." Their reporting about Giuliani and Graham excerpted today in The Post. They write while Graham publicly backed Trump in private, he came to the conclusion that Giuliani's argument were suitable for, quote, third grade.

RACHAEL BADE, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: The interesting thing about Lindsey Graham is that he was one of President Trump's top allies on Capitol Hill, one of the senators he was most close with, daily conversations over the phone, frequent visits, you know, to Mar-a- Lago. And if he couldn't convince him, then there wasn't going to be any convincing anyone.

TODD (voice-over): Woodward and Costa write that Trump's team also tried to convince another Trump loyalist, Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah, that certain slates of electoral votes could be set aside by then Vice President Mike Pence on January 6th but that Lee didn't buy that legal argument.

[04:55:00]

After publicly backing Trump's efforts, Graham and Lee both in the end voted to certify the election results. And on the night of January 6th in the wake of the attack on the Capitol, Graham voiced his frustration with Trump's efforts to counter the results.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): All I can say is count me out. Enough is enough. I've tried to be helpful. TODD (voice-over): Neither Graham's nor Lee's offices responded to our requests for comment on the new reporting by Woodward and Costa. The co-authors meanwhile are defending the actions of Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley, which they report on in the book. That Milley was so concerned about Trump's mental state in the final days of his presidency that the general called his Chinese counterpart twice to assure him that the U.S. would not strike China.

In an interview with Newsmax, Trump leveled a serious accusation at Milley.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT (via phone): That's treason. I've had so many calls today saying that's treason.

TODD (voice-over): But Woodward and Costa tell ABC, they believe General Milley's actions were not treasonous.

BOB WOODWARD, AUTHOR, "PERIL": He talked to the chief, the head of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and said full time watch everything. And then he called the admiral in charge of the region in the Pacific and canceled, asked him to cancel operations that the Chinese might see as somewhat provocative. And so, there's nothing hidden about this.

TODD: Top U.S. defense officials have also come out in recent days saying that Milley's communications with the Chinese general were completely appropriate and aboveboard. Trump in addition to labeling Milley's communications treasonous, has also called the general a dumb ass and a weak and ineffective leader. Milley for his part will get a chance to answer a lot of questions regarding his actions in the final days of Trump's presidency in a hearing next week before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: I am Rosemary Church, "EARLY START" is up next, have yourself a wonderful day.

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