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CDC Director Breaks with Vaccine Advisors on Boosters for People in High-Risk Workplaces; January 6th Committee Issues First Subpoenas to Trump Allies; U.S. Deports 1,400+ Haitians as Backlash Grows; Mexican Police Change Tack on Haitian Migrants; FBI Issues Arrest Warrant for Gabby Petito's Fiancee. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired September 24, 2021 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead, the manhunt for Brian Laundrie takes a turn with the FBI announcing an arrest warrant for Gabby Petito's fiancee.

Then a looming showdown over executive privilege as the Biden White House works to give January 6 Select Committee information on what Trump and his aides were doing during the insurrection.

And the school mask debate rages in parts of the U.S. hear from parents and students standing up against the medical move.

Hello, everyone. I'm Michael Holmes and welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States and around the world. Appreciate your company. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

Those stories in a moment, but first after debate and disagreement among vaccine experts, Pfizer booster shots can now be officially administered to millions of adults in the U.S. The director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control Rochelle Walensky is breaking with the recommendation of the CDC's independent vaccine advisers. Instead, she's siding with the FDA, which on Wednesday recommended Emergency Use Authorization for a booster dose of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine in people 65 and older.

She's also giving the green light to those aged 18 and over with underlying health conditions that put them at high risk of severe disease, and those at high risk because of their occupation, which, of course, would include health care workers and the like.

Now, CDC advisers had voted against giving boosters to people age 18 to 64 who faced those greater risks. Now, the disparity in recommendations has been creating a lot of confusion among Americans. Former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb spoke with CNN's Chris Cuomo on Thursday and addressed how it could have been handled.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER: Well, I think one of the challenges is that people have lost confidence in public health officials.

And coming out of this, we're going to have to reinvigorate public health, and create stronger public health institutions. And it's going to be a lot of people, who don't want to empower public health officials, because the guidance has been shifting.

I mean, this is a perfect example where, in this setting of a pandemic, if we did adequate pandemic planning -- and this is what I talk a lot about, in the book -- we might create a different kind of process, with CDC and FDA are working together, in sync, from the outset. The Israelis did that with their vaccine boosters. They brought 50 people together, their best experts. They aligned their regulatory agencies, and had one seamless process came out, with a recommendation, implemented it.

We went through the same stage process that we go through with the pediatric vaccination schedule. That process is meant to have checks and balances. And it works very well, in ordinary times, when we have time to implement these things, to deliberate them carefully. But in the setting of a pandemic, when you need to move quickly, and you also need to align public health officials, around a unified message, in order to inspire public confidence, you might want to have a different process. And this should have been thought out from the outset.

And I think, as we go forward, and plan differently, for a pandemic, we might think differently, about how we deploy a vaccine, in the setting of a public health emergency, like this.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Now to the surprise of absolutely no one, Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in Arizona's Maricopa County in 2020. That undisputed fact reconfirmed one more time as inexperienced pro-Trump auditors hired by State Senate Republicans finally bring their futile hunt for phantom votes to an end. A final report is expected later today. In the end, the effort actually back fired. Trump lost 261 votes in that partisan recount, while Joe Biden picked up 99.

Now, four close aides and allies of former Donald Trump had been hit with the first subpoenas from the bipartisan panel investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. capitol. The committee is trying to drill down on what led to the insurrection and what Trump and members of his inner circle were doing when it all went down. CNN's Ryan Nobles explains who has been summoned and how likely they are to cooperate.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is a significant move by the January 6 Select Committee. The first round of subpoenas and interview requests that they have made, and it comes to four men that are very loyal to and served the former President Donald Trump. Now his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, his former deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino.

[04:05:00] Cash Patel who served as the chief of staff to the then acting secretary of defense, and Steve Bannon, a former White House counsellor, somebody that played an active role in the Trump campaign and also someone that was involved in the planning and encouragement of people to attend that "Stop the Steal Rally" that served as the prelude to the January 6 Capitol insurrection.

And when you read these letters that were sent to all four men, it seems pretty clear what the committee is looking for and why they are asking these men to come forward.

The letter to Dan Scavino, for instance, reads: The select committee has reason to believe that you have information relevant to understanding important activities that led to and inform the events at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and relevant to former President Trump's activities and communications in the period leading up to and on January 6.

And the committee isn't wasting any time. They'd like this information as soon as October 7. They've requested the interviews take place on October 14 and 15. It likely won't be that easy, though. It's very likely that these men will attempt to use executive privilege as a way to fight the committee subpoena power and prevent them from coming forward. So even though they'd like this to happen relatively soon, there is a very good chance that we're going to see a legal battle before we see any interviews actually take place.

Ryan Nobles, CNN on Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: So, these Trump loyalists may well try to stonewall the committee when Trump was in power. White House officials were fending off subpoenas left and right. But now they might no longer be protected. CNN's senior law enforcement analyst lays out what the panel wants to know.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Sounds to me like they are taking the first steps at conducting what will prove to be a very thorough inquiry. They are starting with trying to develop a specific understanding of all of the events and the people involved in them leading up to January 6. So, who said what to whom, who met with who, and what place, at what time, and specifically getting to this question of what did the president know, what was his involvement or awareness of those preparations leading up to January 6th?

And then, of course, on the day of the events. You know, some of these folks like Cash Patel specifically has been rumored to have been on the phone with the president many, many times that day. So, there's a lot of ground that the committee could cover here to really peel back the onion on what exactly was the president thinking, what did he know was happening, what did he want to happen, and what did he do to try to effect that result.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Well, so far more than 600 rioters have been charged in connection with the insurrection. Now, on Thursday, a man who took a beer from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor offense. An online post shows him pouring a bottle of Corona Light from her mini fridge. Andrew Ericson could get up to six months in jail, but he's more likely to see far less when he's sentenced in December.

You're watching CNN NEWSROOM with me Michael Holmes. Coming up here on the program, the U.S. clears out part of a migrant camp along the border with Mexico. What it's doing with the hundreds of Haitians who were staying there.

[04:10:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Welcome back. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is planning to increase the number of daily flights sending Haitian migrants back to Haiti. And it's demolishing squalid camps along the border with Mexico where thousands of migrants have been living. CNN's Rosa Flores with details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Biden administration strategy on the Del Rio migrant crisis drawing criticism. As to what the administration says --

ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: In order to ensure that migrants are swiftly taken into custody, processed, and removed from the United States consistent with our laws and policies.

FLORES (voice-over): Doesn't tell the whole story on the ground. The Department of Homeland Security says about 1,400 Haitians have been sent back to Haiti since September 19th. The move creating chaos on the tarmac in Port-au-Prince.

The U.S.'s special envoy to Haiti submitted his resignation citing the inhumane decision to deport thousands of Haitian refugees calling U.S. policy deeply flawed. This after Border Patrol agents on horseback used aggressive tactics against migrants. DHS now announcing the temporary suspension of horse patrol in Del Rio.

Thirty-two hundred migrants were transported out of Del Rio and are in Customs and Border Protection custody, DHS says. And since Monday, more than 1,300 migrants have been released by Border Patrol in Del Rio alone, according to a local nonprofit.

FLORES: So, you're six days under the bridge.

FLORES (voice-over): That's where we met Nerlaine Plaisance, a Haitian woman who said that migrants are given a number on a ticket under the bridge. She had a yellow ticket.

FLORES: Did they tell you why it was yellow?

FLORES (voice-over): When her number was called, she says she was processed and allowed to stay in the United States.

FLORES: She is thankful that she's allowed to stay she says because in Haiti she wouldn't have a place to live.

FLORES (voice-over): But CNN has learned up to 30,000 Haitians in Colombia could be heading to the U.S. southern border. CNN cameras capturing migrants flowing into Texas near the Del Rio International Bridge. From the air, the camp clearly shrinking. From the ground --

FLORES: You'll see behind me that the law enforcement presence is still very heavy. Take a close look under the bridge and you'll see that the number of migrants has dwindled. But if you look around, you'll see that the number of resources has increased.

FLORES (voice-over): CNN getting an exclusive look inside a field hospital that just went up.

FLORES: This is the emergency care center.

FLORES (voice-over): The chief medical officer says 70 patients were treated in the first 24 hours.

DR. DAVID TARANTINO, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION: Some environmental injuries, some heat injuries, some occasional nausea, diarrhea, some respiratory illness from the dust and the environment.

[04:15:00]

FLORES (voice-over): Months before this camp went up, the local border patrol union says agents asked the federal government for additional resources because of an increase in border crossings. But the resources didn't arrive until recent days.

FLORES: A dramatic change here in Del Rio, Texas, are drone cameras captured video of heavy machinery bulldozing some of the vacant areas where the migrant camp once was. Officials say that now there are just over 3,000 migrants under the bridge waiting to be processed by U.S. immigration authorities. A drastic decrease from the more than 14,000 just days ago.

Rosa Flores, CNN, Del Rio, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: U.S. Democrat Henry Cuella represents Texas's 28th Congressional district which covers a long stretch of that border with Mexico. He says this crisis shows no sign of letting up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. HENRY CUELLAR (D-TX): This surge of Haitians is not going to stop any time soon. Now, are they coming directly from Haiti? No. Are they flying in from Chile in Brazil and other countries? Yes. And, again, it's a very difficult situation. I've been telling the administration since the transition team since December 11 of last year that there are folks that are getting the impression that this border is going to be opened and they feel that they have an opportunity to come into the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Mexico is starting to get tough on the migrants on its side of the border. CNN's Matt Rivers saw it firsthand. He filed this report from Ciudad Acuna which is just across the border from Del Rio.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here on the Mexican side of the U.S./Mexico border just across the border from Del Rio, Texas here in Ciudad Acuna. This is the point where dozens and dozens of people were basically freely traveling back ask forth between the United States and Mexico. People, most of whom were staying in that encampment in the U.S. where we've seen thousands of Haitian migrants gather over the past week or so, just up the river from where we are.

But because of the conditions there, many people would come here to the Mexican side, cross over freely allowed to do so by law enforcement, to come here to do everything from charge a cell phone to get food, water, even diapers for their kids, and then put them in garbage bags and bring them back across the river. That had been happening for a while. That is no longer happening at this point.

Basically, what happened at some point during the day, at midafternoon, more or less on Thursday here, were about six or seven immigration officials here in Mexico kind of formed a mini human chain and started preventing Haitian migrants who wanted to go back to the United States from doing so.

That created a very volatile situation for about half an hour here. Word quickly spread about that and several dozen Haitian migrants who were on this side of the border basically pushed past those immigration officials, overwhelmed them and made their way across to the United States, bringing what limited things they could with them.

As a result of that, Mexico stepped up its response, bringing in more heavily armed police, creating kind of a mini wall with four or five maybe a half dozen vehicles put just behind the camera where it is now, preventing Haitian migrants from coming in. And that's basically where we stand at this point.

If you are a Haitian migrant right now in Mexico, you're more or less stuck in that country even if you want to cross to the United States. It is a long border. You could probably figure out some way to do it, but going through this point, the point that's been more established over the past several days, as a more traffic point to get across, that's not happening any more.

And as a result, it's actually separated some families. We met one man who said he came from the U.S. camp here for a few hours to Mexico to try and charge his cell phone. When he tried to go back across, immigration officials here in Mexico wouldn't let him. Here's what he told us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): They won't let me cross the water right now. But if they don't let me cross, if my son has a problem, they're going to be responsible for my son? If my son dies over there, whose fault is it? Not mine.

RIVERS: And so, it's heartbreaking when you think about that man not being able to go across and see his family. And unfortunately, that is something that is being repeated many times over right now between Mexico and the United States.

Matt Rivers, CNN, Ciudad Acuna, Mexico.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Now, hundreds of Haitians who have crossed into the U.S. will have to give up on the American dream, at least for now. More than 1,400 Haitians have already been sent back home. Deportations reportedly ramping up in recent days. And they're being sent to the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, which is struggling, of course, to recover from natural disasters and a presidential assassination. 60 percent live in poverty -- that's according to a World Bank estimate last year. Haiti was ranked near the bottom of the U.N.'s human development index. It its per capita GDP is about $1,100.

[04:20:03]

The country is in the grips of widespread gang violence as well and grappling with the fallout from the assassination of its president while a deadly earthquake has left tens of thousands homeless.

Now, the Haitian Ambassador to the United States says the situation calls for a different approach. Here's what he says President Biden should do.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOCCHIT EDMOND, HAITIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE U.S.: Look at Haiti differently. Stop looking at Haiti on a humanitarian lens. I believe that there's no nation that can be developed without humanitarian assistance. Let us reassess our bilateral cooperation. Let us make it something dynamic by helping us resolve the security situation, by strengthening our national police and make sure that we have a stable condition where we can actually have foreign and direct investment, we can create more jobs, and people will get jobs and they will stay in their own country. But as long as there isn't any opportunity, people will always want to leave their own country and to seek a better life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: The search for Gabby Petito's fiancee is intensifying. When we come back, we'll tell you about an arrest warrant issued for Brian Laundrie for his alleged activity after her death. The latest on the investigation next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: A federal arrest warrant has now been issued for Brian Laundrie, the fiancee of Gabby Petito. The FBI says the warrant is related to his activities after her death.

[04:25:00]

It's been more than a week since Laundrie's family says they last saw him, while authorities report their search at a Florida nature reserve is coming up empty. CNN's Leyla Santiago has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A federal warrant has been issued for the arrest of Brian Laundrie. And of note here, this is for the use of unauthorized devices, specifically, a debit card and access to bank accounts. There is no mention of homicide. And remember, on Tuesday, a coroner's initial determination of Gabby Petito's death was homicide. The FBI is still asking for the public's help, asking for any sort of tips for anyone who may have seen the couple. And they are also digging through quite a bit of evidence. The car that was towed away when the FBI was at the Laundrie's home where the couple lived, on Monday did return to the driveway on Thursday.

In the meantime, the search continues at the Carlton Reserve, that 25,000-acre wildlife reserve, where teams have been trying to see if they can find any sort of clue that might lead them to Brian Laundrie. Because police say the parents claim that is where he was headed the last time they saw him. Back to you in the studio.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Leyla Santiago there.

Now, as the search for Laundrie intensifies, CNN's Amara Walker has a time line for us about what we know about Gabby Petito's disappearance.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMARA WALKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): A smiling Gabby Petito at Arches National Park, the photo posted on her Instagram page on August 12th. The same day Petito appears distraught on body camera footage from police in Moab, Utah responding to a reported domestic dispute between the 22-year-old and her 23-year-old fiancee, Brian Laundrie.

GABBY PETITO: We've just been fighting this morning Some personal issues.

BRIAN LAUNDRIE: It's a long day, we were camping yesterday.

WALKER (voice over): Petito telling police she and Laundrie were just under a lot of stress.

PETITO: And I just quit my job to travel across the country and I'm trying to start a blog.

WALKER (voice over): The couple was living a self-described nomadic lifestyle out of this white Ford Transit van traveling across the country, documenting their journey along the way.

PETITO: It is really nice and sunny today.

WALKER (voice over): This YouTube video was posted one week after the run-in with Moab. On August 25th, this last post was made on Petito's Instagram account. It was the next day on, August 26th, that a woman tells the "San Francisco Chronicle" she saw Laundrie in his van in Spread Creek, a camping ground near where Petito's body was later discovered.

JESSICA SCHULTZ, WITNESS: I'm a hundred percent certain that I did see him parking his van. It was just him. There was no Gabby.

WALKER (voice over): A day later the Petito family received what they believe to be the last text message from her, "Can you help Stan, I just keep getting his voicemails and missed calls." Petito's mother found the text odd telling police she never called her grandfather by that name. That same day, a Louisiana couple says they saw Petito in tears and Laundrie visibly upset during an incident at a Jackson Wyoming restaurant.

NINA CELIE, WITNESS: She was standing on the sidewalk crying and he walked back in and was like screaming at the hostess.

WALKER (voice over): On August 29th, this woman says she and her boyfriend picked up Laundrie hitchhiking in an area near where Petito's remains were later discovered.

MIRANDA BAKER, WITNESS: He then told us he's been camping for multiple days without his fiancee.

WALKER (voice over): The next day, the Petito family received the last text message from Petito's phone, but they're skeptical it came from her, quote, No service in Yosemite.

According to police, Laundrie suddenly returned to the North Port, Florida home he shared with Petito and his parents but without Petito.

A neighbor says she last saw Brian Laundrie outside the family home the weekend of September 10th.

KARYN ABERTS, LAUNDRIE FAMILY NEIGHBOR: I thought it was just, again, a normal -- you now, they were going for a walk kind of, you know, thing, so I never thought anything about it.

WALKER (voice over): It's the same weekend Petito's family report her as missing on September 11th. The Laundries refused to cooperate with authorities.

JOSEPH PETITO, GABBY PETITO'S FATHER: Whatever you can do to make sure my daughter comes home, I'm asking for that help.

WALKER (voice over): Days later, Laundrie disappears. His parents tell authorities their son left for the Carlton Reserve on September 14th.

That evening, authorities execute a search warrant in the couple's van and recover an external hard drive. But it wasn't until four days later September 18th that authorities begin a massive search of the Carlton Reserve for Laundrie. The next day, human remains are found in a remote location near Grand Teton National Park. Autopsy results confirmed the remains found are those of Gabby Petito. The cause of death ruled a homicide.

WALKER: Brian Laundrie has not been named a suspect nor has he been charged in the death of Gabby Petito. In fact, the FBI continues to ask the public for help for any information regarding his whereabouts or any role he may have played in her death. In the meantime, the search will resume for Brian Laundrie here at the Carlton Reserve on Friday.

In Venice, Florida, Amara Walker, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Now, CNN spoke earlier with a former.