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Migrant Encampment Ignites Fresh Criticism Of Biden Policies; Deadly Consequences Of Vaccine Lag In U.S.; Black Female Officers Sue D.C. Police, Claim Discrimination; Fed Holds Rate Steady As Debt Ceiling Debate & Pandemic Rage. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired September 22, 2021 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[14:30:00]
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: His Homeland Security secretary was in the hot seat.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Congressman, let me share something with you. Quite clearly, I work 18 hours a day. OK? So when I returned from yesterday's hearing, I actually focused on mission.
We will get that data both to the Senator who posed it yesterday, and to you today.
SEN. RON JOHNSON (R-WI): So you don't have any estimation at all of the numbers that I'm asking for at all?
You don't know how many have been returned? You don't know how many have been released into the United States? You don't have any estimation at all of what those numbers are?
MAYORKAS: Congressman, I want to be precise in my communication of data to the United States Congress, and to you specifically, having posed the question. And I will -- in the provision of my data to you.
Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is in Washington.
Priscilla, what is their strategy to deal with this crisis?
PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN REPORTER: First and foremost, it's getting a control of the situation on the ground.
Number one, they are deporting some of these migrants to Haiti and ramping up those flights. We know that they're working toward as many as seven flights a day.
They are also releasing some migrants into the U.S. depending on individual circumstances.
For example, if they are seeking asylum and then while they're in the U.S., they will move through their immigration proceeding.
But as you have seen in these hill hearings and White House statements, they are trying to contain the fallout because Democrats and Republicans are criticizing the administration's response.
During hearings this week, Democrats urging the Homeland Security secretary to treat migrants humanely and not deport them to a country that they're unfamiliar with.
Many of these migrants left after the 2010 earthquake and have been living in south America.
Meanwhile, Republicans are saying that the administration invited this crisis and that they should no longer be placing blame on the Trump administration.
So two fronts here. They're saying they hope to clear out the bridge between nine to 10 days while also containing the political fallout.
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Priscilla Alvarez, thank you.
Right now, CDC advisers are meeting to discuss who should get Pfizer boosters first. We've got the latest, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:37:06]
CAMEROTA: President Biden today promised more help on the global COVID vaccine front, telling the United Nations summit the U.S. will provide another 500 million doses to the international effort.
In the U.S., as of today, just 54 percent of Americans are fully vaccinated.
Nick Watt reports that lag is having deadly consequences.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today, I'm announcing another historic commitment. The United States is buying another half billion doses of Pfizer to donate to low- and middle-income countries around the world.
NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The total commitment now more than 1.1 billion. Vaccinating the world helps us, too. Decreases the chances of more dangerous variants of the virus.
BIDEN: To beat the pandemic here, we need to beat it everywhere.
WATT: Here in the U.S., in the 10 least-vaccinated states, the COVID- 19 death rate was four times higher this past week than in these states, the 10 most vaccinated. In North Dakota, among those 10 least, a school board member is now
facing a recall after winning the push for masks in schools.
She's a pediatrician.
UNIDENTIFIED PEDIATRICIAN: Masks are one way of a layered approach to help us keep kids in school and even if it's unpopular, I'm always going to try to advocate what's best for children.
WAR: The mask war update from Texas. A couple with an immunocompromised kid went out for dinner and --
NATALIE ESTER, MOTHER ASKED TO REMOVE MASK: I just came up and said you're going to need to pull your mask down, take it off, because this is a political situation.
But the owner here doesn't believe in masks. And you know, there's a strict no-mask policy here.
WATT: So they had to leave.
TOM, OWNER, HANG TIME: I spent my money on this business. I've put my blood, sweat, and tears in this business. And I don't want any masks in here.
WATT: In Florida, the mask-wearing governor just announced his new surgeon general.
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): We feel Joe is just the right guy for the job.
WATT: Last week, he wrote that public mask wearing has had, at best, a modest effect on viral transmission.
Not true. Studies show the effect is significant.
Meantime, the nation's average daily death toll just topped 2,000 lives lost a day, hasn't been that high in more than six months.
DR. JORGE RODRIGUEZ, INTERNAL MEDICINE SPECIALIST & VIRAL RESEARCHER: We are going to be living because of some people's hesitancy to take vaccine, at a plateau. Hundreds of people, maybe 1,000, dying on a daily basis for the foreseeable future.
WATT: New case counts are falling. Averaging around 135,000 a day. The lowest in a month. Still far, far away from Fauci's fewer than 10,000 goal.
[14:39:57]
(on camera): Now, CDC vaccine advisers are right now engaged in a meeting. And we've already heard one expert confirm that during this time of the Delta variant, the protection from the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines does wane over time. And for the over 65s, that decline can be significant. Now, remember, FDA advisers did recommend that that age group get
boosters of the Pfizer vaccine, but the FDA itself has not yet signed off on that.
Alisyn and Victor, back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLACKWELL: Nick Watt, for us in Los Angeles, thanks.
Let's take that straight to Dr. Peter Hotez, professor and Dean of Tropical Medicine at Baylor's College of Medicine.
Dr. Hotez, first, on that point of the FDA advisory committee recommending boosters for 65 and older and those at risk to the FDA, would you have expected a decision from the FDA before CDC takes it up?
DR. PETER HOTEZ, PROFESSOR & DEAN, NATIONAL SCHOOL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: Absolutely. I'm a little confused on what the ACIP is actually meeting about because it's not clear whether the FDA is going to accept the committee recommendation or not.
Typically they do, but these, of course, are extraordinary times. And there's a rationale for extending that vaccine protection for third immunizations down the 40 and 50-year-olds.
So the risk I guess is that if FDA does not accept the recommendation and wants to make an alteration, the committee will have to meet again.
CAMEROTA: I want to ask you about the global vaccine effort. As you know, President Biden's administration gave more vaccines to countries.
And the former CDC director says that predictions of a glut of vaccine, which you've heard from time to time, next year, 2022, have been wildly overplayed.
In fact, he believes it's much more likely the world will see a vaccine shortage next year.
Let me play more about what he said.
Oh, OK. We don't have that sound.
Basically, he said that that is the problem. Do you agree that we may be looking at a shortage?
HOTEZ: Here's the problem. And what upsets me is that no G-7 leader, including our president, will articulate this and be frank with the world.
We have one billion people in Sub-Saharan Africa. Another half a billion to a billion people in the smaller low-income Asian countries. That's three billion people.
We're going to need six to nine billion doses of vaccines and no one gets out there and says, OK, this is what we need to do. This is the Excel spread sheet on what we have in terms of inventory right now.
Here's why we're not going to get here with mRNA vaccines. Because you just can't make enough of them in a short period of time. It's a brand-new technology. Here's the plan. And nobody really wants to articulate here's the plan.
What we've recommended to them is we've got a simple, low-cost vaccine that's now being scaled for 100 million doses in India.
Submitted our first developed in our Texas Center for Vaccine Development. Indonesia is making another prototype version of the vaccine.
This is something, there's no limit to the amount you could scale.
We would like the G-7 countries, including the U.S., to take ownership on that and start producing it. It has no patent on it, and we could quickly vaccinate the world.
For some reason, no one wants to articulate the problem and second, everybody's so fixed in their head on mRNA vaccines, which we're just not going to be able to make enough over the next year.
BLACKWELL: Let me ask you about something you tweeted. The start of fall today, and 10,000 Americans died over the summer of COVID.
You tweeted this, "Death by anti-science aggression. Since April, defiance of vaccines, despite their availability has murdered 100,000 Americans. More than global terrorism, cyber attacks, nuclear proliferation. And yet we refuse, as a nation, to implement measures to halt it."
You're calling out, I assume, politics here. And what do you want them to do?
HOTEZ: Here's the problem. As I said, 100,000 Americans have died of COVID since May. Despite the availability of safe and effective vaccines.
This was happening because of vaccine refusal. People bought into the disinformation, which I now call anti-science aggression.
Another 100,000 are going to die by December if current estimates. So we're going to be looking at 200,000 deaths by anti-science.
We've built in a lot of infrastructure to combat terrorism, cyber attacks, nuclear proliferation. Anti-science is killing more Americans than all of those things combined.
We need to really take measures. And it goes beyond just calling on Facebook.
Yes, the social media companies clearly have a hand in this, but we've refused as a nation to go after the sources of the disinformation.
[14:45:02]
But the Center for Digital Aid calls the disinformation dozen nongovernmental organizations, the aggression from the political right. What we're hearing on the conservative news outlets, what we're hearing the anti-science aggression.
What we're hearing from U.S. members of Congress, including not only trying to discredit science, but discrediting scientists, going after me and others and Dr. Fauci, of course. Some of the governors here in the south.
And then lastly, what no one talks about is the Russian government under Putin who's using this as a wedge issue. There's even a name that's been appended to it. It's called weaponized health communication.
Using this to sew discontent in the United States. Increasing anti- science. We need to bring in the State Department. The Justice Department. Homeland Security.
This goes way beyond HHS. And so far, we've not seen measures to combat that.
CAMEROTA: Dr. Peter Hotez, thank you for bringing all of this to our attention. We appreciate talking to you.
HOTEZ: Thank you.
CAMEROTA: D.C. police are being sued by some former officers, black women. Their allegations of racial and sexual discrimination, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:50:39]
BLACKWELL: Ten current and former female police officers are suing the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C. They say they've been subjecting to racial and sexual discrimination, and that they face pervasive retaliation after they raised concerns with the department
CAMEROTA: The plaintiffs include a current assistant police chief, a lieutenant and a sergeant. The lawsuit seeks $100 million in damages and an overhaul of the department.
CNN's Suzanne Malveaux is in Washington.
Suzanne, what sort of incidents are spelled out in this lawsuit?
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon.
I spoke with several police officers involved in the class action lawsuit against their own department. Some are still on the force. They describe feeling afraid, anxious, depressed but very much
resolved to change what they describe as a toxic culture in the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C.
They say it was abusive towards black police officers.
They experience racial and sexual mistreatment, bullying, retaliation. And it offers what they call an unprecedented look inside the MPD's blue wall of silence, which involves civil rights violations, and serious misconduct.
So the class-action lawsuit actually represents more than 700 black female officers who are currently employed or were employed in the department within the last 10 years.
Some of the most egregious allegations in this suit includes a male fellow officer showing a plaintiff a picture of a gun that he said he was going to use to assassinate former first lady, Michelle Obama.
And another male officer urinating in the police van in the presence of a female officer.
Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KIA JONES MITCHELL, PLAINTIFF & SENIOR POLICE OFFICER: It made me feel totally disrespected. I worked so hard to be a strong black woman, and it made me feel like I was nothing. Like I was just nothing to him.
The other young man had enough respect for me to get out of the car and go urinate in the woods.
You had no respect for me. Even though you didn't pull out your penis directly in front of me, you were behind me, directly behind me, and you still did that.
And I just felt like -- I was hurt, disrespected.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Now, the overall common complaint is the alleged pattern and practice of the MPD covering up what these women were saying their complaints and allegedly punishing them for speaking out.
A statement from the department reads:
"The Metropolitan Police Department is committed to treating all members fairly and equitably through our organization. We take these allegations seriously, and we will be reviewing them thoroughly and responding accordingly."
The lawsuit is calling for someone independent to be appointed to overhaul their personnel practices, get the cooperation of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, and TO establish a $100 million fund to address the harm that was done to these women -- Alisyn and Victor? CAMEROTA: Those are specific and vivid examples.
Suzanne Malveaux, thank you.
[14:54:58]
BLACKWELL: President Biden is holding peace talks this afternoon within his own party. The questions is: Will it be enough to end the Democratic in-fighting and pass his agenda?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:59:06]
CAMEROTA: We have some breaking news. The Federal Reserve just announced it will keep interest rates unchanged for now but signaled rate hikes could come next year.
BLACKWELL: CNN business reporter, Matt Egan, is with us now.
Matt, what's happening?
MATT EGAN, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER: They want to give the economy time to heal. That's why they're keeping interest rates at bottom level.
It cuts both ways for consumers. It means it's still going to be cheap to borrow, to take out a mortgage. It also means that money in your savings account is not really going to earn next thing.
The Fed did signal maybe that the economy continues to recover, they could raise interest rates a little bit as early as next year.
Three important things that came out of the Fed meeting. One, they cut their outlook, their economic growth, because of the Delta variant, which has slowed the recovery.
Two, they increased their outlook for inflation. And we know Americans are dealing with sticker shock on everything gasoline and used cars to milk and even eggs.
[15:00:01]
And the Fed says inflation is elevated but they think it will be temporary.
