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Mass Shooting At St. Paul Food Hall Leaves One Dead, 14 Wounded; U.S. COVID Cases, Hospitalizations And Deaths Dropping; Dems Struggle To Overcome Infighting To Pass Biden's Agenda; More Than 80 Runners Rescued From Whiteout Storm In Utah; San Jose Apologizes For Racist Past Against Chinese Community; New York's LaGuardia International Airport Back To Normal After Emergency Landing Event. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired October 10, 2021 - 14:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:00:22]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me this Sunday. I'm Fredericka Whitfield.

We begin with breaking news. Police say they have made several arrests in connection with what they call a hellish situation in St. Paul, Minnesota. A shooting sent people scrambling at a food hall just after midnight. The barrage of bullets hit 15 people, one of them a woman in her 20s died.

CNN correspondent Adrienne Broaddus is following the situation. Adrienne, what do we know about the people just arrested?

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredericka, according to St. Paul police, three men connected to this shooting are in the hospital. They are receiving treatment for their injuries. Police have not told us if those three men were shot or how they were injured.

Police did describe the scene when they showed up this morning shortly after midnight. Listen in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE LINDERS, PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER, ST. PAUL POLICE: Officers rushed to the scene. They got there quickly, and they walked into a hellish situation. There were gunshot wound victims lying in the street, outside the bar there were gunshot wound victims lying on the sidewalk outside the bar, and there were gunshot victims on the floor inside the bar. All told, 15 people were shot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROADDUS: 15 people shot, including a woman who was identified as a person in her 20s. That woman died at the scene. 14 others transported to multiple hospital. At least two hospitals in St. Paul and a hospital in the neighboring city of Minneapolis.

What led to this shooting is still unclear. Investigators are working and trying to determine a motive. So many lives changed last night.

People went out in the city of St. Paul. It was a nice night there, a Saturday night. They we out to have a good time in the heart of downtown St. Paul and this happened. And for some perspective, this all took place about a block away from the Xcel Energy Center.

For those of you familiar with the twin cities, you know the X is where the Minnesota Wild play. There was no game, of course, yesterday, but this is an area where people come to have a good time, hang out, walk and celebrate with friends, Fredericka.

WHITFIELD: Adrienne Broaddus, thank you so much from Chicago on this St. Paul shooting.

CNN law enforcement analyst Anthony Barksdale will hopefully be joining us in a moment. We just lost that signal with him. He served as acting police commissioner of Baltimore. You've probably seen him quite a bit on CNN. His expertise is invaluable.

When we try to re-establish that connection, we'll bring him back.

We've got so much more straight ahead including promising signs in America's fight against the coronavirus, but experts are warning not to call it a victory just yet.

Plus, is there a Christmas tree shortage? Global supply chain issues could possibly put a damper on the upcoming holiday season. Much more on that straight ahead.

All right. Instead of taking that break we'll reconnect now with our CNN law enforcement analyst Anthony Barksdale. It looks like our signal is back. We can see you moving and hopefully I can hear you talking very soon.

All right. There you are. Thanks for hanging with us.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: All right. So this shooting now in St. Paul, you know, we're talking about 15 people shot. Where do investigators begin with trying to figure out what happened, what provoked it and why?

ANTHONY BARKSDALE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, the police have their hands full right now. If you have possible victims that are actually involved with the incident then you have to look at your forensics. Do we have, you know, the gunshot wounds. Do they have guns? Were guns recovered on the scene. Were shell casings recovered?

What about everybody in the bar? What about witnesses? Maybe the victims are witnesses or maybe a bartender is a witness so there's a lot of work to be done to build a prosecutable case against those involved in this tragic incident.

WHITFIELD: Right. And we're talking about midnight Saturday night. A lot of people out having a good time. A food court involved. I mean just an area where a lot of people are going to gather on a Saturday evening.

And we do know police have arrested three, but talk to me about what complications still might come in piecing together a case, particularly because people hear gunshots, they start scrambling, and sometimes it's difficult for investigators to discern, you know, if there's any connection among the people in the crowd, eyewitness accounts to the shooting activity.

[14:05:01]

WHITFIELD: Oh boy, and there we go. We lost that signal. Anthony Barksdale, if we are able to reconnect with you. We'll try it.

Meantime, we've got so much more straight ahead. We'll be right back.

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WHITFIELD: All right. It's beginning to look like the latest surge of the coronavirus could be easing. Hospitalizations, new cases and deaths all continue to fall nationwide. And for the first time in two months, new COVID infections have dipped below 100,000 per day, but concerns remain.

Just 66 percent of all eligible Americans are fully vaccinated and Dr. Anthony Fauci warns of celebrating too soon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[14:09:48]

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We have to just be careful that we don't prematurely declare victory in many respects. We still have around 68 million people who are eligible to be vaccinated that have not yet gotten vaccinated.

And even those who have been vaccinated, I mean, you want to look forward to holiday seasons and spending time with your family and doing those sorts of things, but don't just throw your hands up and say it's all over.

If you look at the history of the surges and the diminutions in cases over a period of time, they can bounce back so we don't want to always, you know, be on our edge that it's going to happen because it won't. If we do what we should be doing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. Let's bring in Dr. Esther Choo, she's a professor of emergency medicine at Oregon Health and Science University. Always good to see you, Dr. Choo. So do you, too, worry about people claiming victory too soon?

DR. ESTHER CHOO, PROFESSOR OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE, OREGON HEALTH AND SCIENCE UNIVERSITY: Yes. I really do, Fred. I mean, I think delta was really humbling to us in this sense the last time we felt like we were really coming out and started to relax unmasked, we got this next surge that we are just starting to come out of.

And I agree, you know, overall nationally it looks like we're doing well, particularly in places where vaccination rates are extremely high and other public health measures are really adhered to, places like the northeast.

But there are plenty of states that are seeing a surge right now. Minnesota right now has an increase in cases, you know, Montana, Idaho still increased hospitalizations and deaths. Alaska right now is in crisis standards of care so plenty of places where, you know, there are still entire states really struggling to get through this surge.

WHITFIELD: Yes, still can't let their guard down. So earlier Dr. Anthony Fauci was also asked here on CNN about mandating vaccines on flights ahead of the holiday travel season, and this is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. FAUCI: I don't want to say support or not. I think it's a decision that's made by input from a number of parts of the government including public health. I mean obviously from a public health stand point, the more protection you get the better it is.

But I don't want to be weighing in because we wind up then having people taking things out of context.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Do we need a more direct answer on that?

DR. CHOO: Well, it may be trickier for Dr. Fauci to say that he supports one measure or the over. I think he probably needs to be very nuanced and careful but I don't need to be.

I mean I think we've reached a point where we should layer on as many tools as we can to prevent the next surge. And I think in the case of holiday travel in particular holidays in cold weather where people travel from everywhere and tend to gather indoors in, you know, close proximity to each other.

I think this is where we really need to work to try to keep people safe, particularly because we're also headed into flu season. And so this could be really devastating again, and really burdensome to health systems.

So I think now is the time for mandates for airlines, you know. That could come from individual airlines that want to set an example and really be safe for their consumers like Delta, American Airlines, United could do this now and it should happen quickly because people are making plans right now for our fall and winter holidays.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: Right. They need to know.

DR. CHOO: Right. So they need to know. WHITFIELD: Right, they need to know so that they can get those

vaccines in time for that window if indeed that does end up being the case.

All right. You've also said that you've gotten a lot of questions from patients who still have concerns about the vaccine. Do you think after all this time, the messaging isn't clear or does that just demonstrate that the people will continue to ask the questions that are likely the ones who were just not going to get the vaccine anyway?

DR. CHOO: Well, I think that group that is not vaccinated remains a very mixed group. I mean, there are people who are dead set against vaccines, but I think there's a lot of people still willing to have conversations and that's why we continue to have them.

It's just that those conversations often need to happen on an individual basis.

WILLIAMS: Is there a common thread of what they are asking you?

DR. CHOO: You know, I think people still have a lot of fears and I think we need to remember that the misinformation machine, you know, that someone said on CNN last hour that, you know, misinformation mixed with anger travels a lot faster than facts and good information, so I think we need to remember how quickly misinformation has outpaced good information, and we need to be steady and consistent and really assertive in putting out the good information just to try to keep up and counterbalance a little bit.

So I think the common theme is that fears have been played on much more than reassuring information so we constantly have this work to do.

And still, you know, we're getting a lot of shots in arms every day, about a million every day, so I think as frustrating as it can be, we're still managing to move forward with the vaccination effort and we should not give up.

WHITFIELD: So before the November and the December holidays, there's Halloween and that's only a few weeks away so where are you on whether it's good for kid, particularly under 12, to go trick-or-treating?

DR. CHOO: Well, I have one child that has had a birthday on Halloween and this is a big deal in our household and we've been waiting to get out there and I feel pretty good about having kids have a fairly normal trick-or-treating night. [14:14:55]

DR. CHOO: I mean it's largely outdoors, they can wear masks if they are in groups. I think this is actually a great holiday to celebrate and let kids have a little fun.

WHITFIELD: Oh, good. That's going to be good news to my kids because they cannot wait. All right. Now I have your endorsement.

DR. CHOO: You do. You have it. WHITFIELD: All right. Dr. Esther Choo thank you so much. Good to see you. Stay well.

DR. CHOO: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Bye.

All right. We're also monitoring a major travel situation. Southwest Airlines cancelling

More than 1,000 flights today for a total of 1,800 cancellations this weekend. Southwest says it's in response to disruptive weather and air traffic control issues. The FAA responded telling CNN that air traffic control issues are not causing the Southwest cancellations as there have been no staffing shortages since Friday.

All right. Coming up, global supply chain issues are driving up costs of everything from gas to groceries. Even Christmas trees may be hard to get this year. So why is Mr. Biden insisting the U.S. economy is on the road to recovery?

[14:16:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. If you have filled up your gas tank lately or spent any time in the grocery store then you probably noticed the prices are on the rise and supplies are low. A bottleneck in the global supply chain continues to impact everything from diapers to food to cars, and get this, the executive director of the American Christmas Tree Association says you need to find and buy your Christmas trees early. That's artificial and real.

Adding to the concern is complete gridlock on Capitol Hill and a dismal new jobs report, but despite the bad headlines, President Biden believes the U.S. is on the road to recovery.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Jobs up, wages up, unemployment down. That's progress. Right now things in Washington as you all know are awfully noisy. Turn on the news and every conversation is a confrontation. Every disagreement is a crisis.

But when you take a step back and look at what's happening we're actually making real progress.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Julian Zelizer is a CNN political analyst, historian and professor at Prince University. So good to see you.

And you also just wrote an op-ed for CNN.com on the economic troubles now facing the country. And this piece is titled "Democrats are fighting for their political lives". So Julian, how precarious is this moment right now for Democrats in the country? You actually write it's really important that they successfully govern, especially while Democrats have the majority.

JULIAN ZELIZER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. So you have the short- term problems that we've been talking about, the supply chain crisis and energy prices are now going up all over the globe. And you also have just the continued uncertainty of the pandemic economy.

And there the president's path forward is just to continue with an aggressive policy on requiring vaccines which seems to be having some effect.

But finally there's a governing crisis and the inability to get legislation on key issues like child care which matters to working class Americans and uncertainty over the debt ceiling makes it hard for the economy to reach what it's capable of reaching.

And that's an area the president has to really double down right now.

WHITFIELD: And we talk about organizations who say, for example, there's going to be a shortage of Christmas trees get them early, we're talking about you know, truckers. There is a shortage of being able to transport things across the country which is why a lot of merchandise is not getting, you know, to your store shelves or they're not going to get to the parking lots to sell those Christmas trees.

So is there something that the president or Democrats can really do about addressing the supply chain problems?

ZELIZER: Some of this has been related globally and nationally to the pandemic and confusion over vaccines, you know, inability to access them, transportation of workers. And many parts of the world want to be prioritized in obtaining these vaccines.

So dealing with a pandemic can help with the supply chain and then of the programs in this reconciliation package we hear about would address issues that would help workers get back to work including issues like child care.

So those are just two governing issues that won't solve everything but they would certainly be a step forward --

WHITFIELD: Sure.

ZELIZER: -- in terms of (INAUDIBLE).

WHITFIELD: Yes. Because also at issue on some of the worker shortage, a lot of people are afraid to go back to work in work places because they are afraid of COVID. And, you know, whether it's a requirement to get a vaccine, whether they're reticent about the vaccine, COVID is at the core.

ZELIZER: Yes. This is -- it's the era of COVID. And the president was elected in the middle of this. He's made a lot of progress in moving things forward but these kinds of uncertainties and problems directly affect the questions such as whether someone who is a trucker is going to get back to work.

So you have to deal with problem one to solve problem two.

WHITFIELD: All right. Capitol Hill now. Democrats, you know, still at a stalemate as they negotiate how to navigate the president's $3.5 billion social spending bill. Polls are showing that this bill is popular with most Americans.

But does that mean Democrats are missing an opportunity perhaps by not better communicating what specifically should be cut, whether it's programs or whether it's shaving money. I mean, what's the issue here?

[14:24:51]

ZELIZER: Well, I do think the president has a role here in talking more about what the legislation would do rather than what it costs.

It's been an entire conversation revolving around $3.5 trillion or a lower number as opposed to issues such as free, you know, community college education or child care.

And I think the time has come for the president and Democrats to put that forward. He'll also have to explain that even a compromise is still a pretty big, you know, success in terms of legislating.

And the more that he can do that I think the more that he can try to move this to some kind of successful outcome among Democrats. I don't think Republicans will support him, but I do think he can unite Democrats that way.

WHITFIELD: How do you envision that the president should be selling it? I mean, if we all remember during the Obama years he was out almost like on the campaign trail, you know, pushing for his health care plan.

But we're in the middle of a pandemic and perhaps it doesn't make as much sense for President Biden, you know, and his entourage to be crisscrossing the country but is there a more creative way in which this White House needs to be selling, explaining more fully what his agenda is as it pertains to this social spending bill?

ZELIZER: Yes. If there's limits on travel, social media, television, other forms of communication now offer possibilities that didn't even exist with President Obama. And he's just going have to use those tools.

He just has to remember Lyndon Johnson didn't sell Medicare by talking about how much it costs. He talked about what it would do for elderly Americans and whatever the platform -- in person, virtual -- that's the message he has to focus on.

WHITFIELD: All right. Julian Zelizer, always good to see you. Be well. Thanks so much.

ZELIZER: Thank you. Thanks. WHITFIELD: All right. Coming up, unexpected whiteout conditions cut an

ultra marathon short in the mountains of Utah. More than 80 runners had to be rescued.

I'll talk to one of the runners and an organizer of the race straight ahead.

And this quick programming note. Tonight the new "CNN ORIGINAL SERIES: DIANA" introduces viewers to the person behind the princess and reveals a life more complicated and fascinating than the world knew.

"DIANA" premieres tonight at 9:00 Eastern and Pacific right here on CNN. Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DIANA SPENCER, PRINCESS OF WALES: I was always different. I've always (INAUDIBLE) something inside of me that I was going somewhere different.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was going to marry her dashing prince like all the stories she had read.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was iconic. She was box office.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Going to dance with the princess tonight?

JOHN TRAVOLTA, ACTOR: If she'd like me to.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pre-Diana there was zilch interest in the royal family.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think anybody has grown up in public like Diana has.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Diana provided a very public model for defiance and truthfulness.

DIANA: Isn't it normal to feel angry and want to change a situation?

I was able to recognize an inner determination to survive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The new "CNN ORIGINAL SERIES: DIANA" premieres tonight at 9:00 on CNN.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[14:28:16]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:32:54]

WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back.

A search and rescue team braved whiteout conditions this weekend to rescue dozens of runners stranded in the mountains in northern Utah. Crews worked for several hours with more than a foot of snow on the ground to get more than 80 people safely off the mountain. They were running a 50-mile ultra-marathon north of Salt Lake City.

Let's bring in Jake Kilgore who helped organize that race and Annie McDonald, one of the runners who was rescued off the mountains.

So good to see both of you. And Annie, you're smiling. So, I mean, I know this was scary, but you seem to be OK. Tell me what you went through.

ANNIE MACDONALD, RUNNER, DC PEAKS ULTRA MARATHON: It was scary definitely, it was really, really cold but the race directors did a wonderful job of calling the race and getting us safely off the mountain which I'm so grateful for them and the volunteers, but, yes, it was quite the experience.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my gosh. So, Annie, tell me about this race. I mean, I understand it starts at an elevation of 4,888 feet in the first place. I mean, this is a marathon not just, you know, for the faint at heart but I mean, you all are die hard, you ultra-marathoners, so what were you prepared for? What did you expect this race encounter to be like?

MACDONALD: So I was expecting, I knew it was going to be raining because it was pouring rain when we started and we knew it would be cold and we thought we'd have a light dusting of snow and we knew we were going to be climbing 11,000 feet in the mountains total, and so you expect it's going to be a long day and you're going to be out there all day and you're prepared.

You have, you know, changes of clothes in your drop bags and you have all your gear with you. We just had no idea that we were going to have this much snow, and that it was going to be wind blowing 30 to 40 miles an hour and ice, and, it was -- you know, we weren't prepared for that.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my gosh. And so, Jake, I mean, how did you know that your runners were in trouble? I mean, that this weather would just kind of sweep through? And I mean, that's not too unusual. I ski out in Park City and sometimes the weather can change on a dime, but then something indicated to you all that these changes were not only abrupt but dangerous and you needed to, you know, kick into action. So what happened?

[14:35:08]

JAKE KILGORE, ORGANIZERS, DC PEAKS ULTRA MARATHON: So, you know, part of our plan with this race is we've been putting it together for just over two years was knowing that the elements can change at any time, and the first thing that we did was we constructed our aid stations. We had six of them across the course and they were designed and hand chosen and we selected very experienced ultra-marathoners who could run those aid stations.

And that was a big part of our strategy and a part of, you know, us being able to pull this off successfully, but we also really committed to technology and being able to live track and communicate with our runners at any time, and as well as our aid station captains, so between 7:30 and 8:00 a.m. just a couple of hours into the race as our aid station captain was getting very established and set up at that first spot, we were getting live feed from her phone where we had set that up to be able to receive live feed so we could see the weather turn very quickly to a whiteout, strong winds, and at that moment we dropped all plans to, you know, for the final 30, 40 miles.

I ran home, changed all my clothes, threw on ski goggles, gloves.

WHITFIELD: My gosh.

KILGORE: And I personally was shuttled up as high as I could possibly go.

WHITFIELD: Shuttled up in what way? I mean, how did you swoop in? What kind of equipment, you know, and vehicles? How did you swoop in and grab people and help them?

KILGORE: We have a tremendous amount of support and just volunteers and unsung heroes. There's a whole list of them where we have volunteers with four-wheel drive vehicles that were taking us up the canyon as high as possible and at that point getting out and running, you know, backwards on the course to track down as many runners as possible and personally getting them to the first aid station so that we knew they were secure and accounted for.

And at that point from getting them from the first aid station down the canyon another five, six miles, that's where we had search and rescue and all these volunteers from other aid stations come together as the Ultra Marathon community does very, very well is we band together and we get through very tough things together.

WHITFIELD: Wow. Well, you had a plan and then you had a plan just in case those plans didn't go according to plan. I see. So I wonder, Jake, are you all going to reschedule this? Or is it just next year or next season?

KILGORE: Yes, we are. The response that we have from the 87 runners and thousands of other people inside the running community has been phenomenal and very, very positive. Every runner was asking, even yesterday, and a bunch more today, can we sign up for next year?

Are you guys going to do it next year? When can we sign up? So, yes, we're -- you know, we're going to open it up to the first -- you know, those 87 runners. We're going to -- just because of what we all went through together, we have a special -- we've created a special beautiful bond there.

We're going to move them and allow them to race next year. We're just going to automatically put them in for free and let them run because of what we've been through because this race -- it's going to sell out very fast and we want to make sure that they are in it and, you know, a couple hundred more runners will be glad to take them through the course. It's an incredibly beautiful course and everybody wants to see the course in its finest without a foot and a half of snow coming down.

WHITFIELD: So, Annie, are you there? Are you ready for the next run?

MACDONALD: Absolutely. I'm excited to get out there and do the full course and be able to complete it, so for sure.

WHITFIELD: Well, I'm glad that no one was injured, right, Jake? No one was injured?

KILGORE: Correct.

WHITFIELD: OK.

KILGORE: Yes. We had one runner who took a minor fall, you know, had a little -- but nothing -- he was -- he was up and walking to his car.

WHITFIELD: Wow.

KILGORE: And then he's well. I checked on him and a couple of the runners that were in unfair conditions, and they're both doing well today, and we're just incredibly grateful that everybody is off the mountain, including the volunteers, first responders, all the runners, you know. Most race directors consider a successful race based off of the number of entrants, right, or the number of people.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

KILGORE: For us, when we flip that switch early in the morning between, you know, around 8:00 a.m., it's about getting people home and back to their families, and we'll worry about the finish line next year.

WHITFIELD: Right.

KILGORE: We consider it a very successful first year race.

WHITFIELD: Well, yes. Bummer that the weather stood in the way of anyone crossing the finish line but hey, I mean, like you said, I mean, the end result is great.

[14:40:03]

Everyone is OK. You rescued everyone and Annie's got a smile on her face still, and you know, raring to go, so I admire you all for being able to do this and plan again for the next one. All the best.

Jake Kilgore and Annie MacDonald, thank you so much. And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: More than a century after arson decimated its thriving Chinatown, the city of San Jose is finally formally apologized for its past racism and injustice.

CNN's Natasha Chen reveals how city leadership set the tone for anti- Chinese attacks in the 1880s.

[14:45:10]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This ceremony late last month in San Jose, California, marked a moment more than 130 years in the making.

MAYOR SAM LICCARDO, SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA: The city of San Jose apologizes to all Chinese immigrants and their descendants who came to San Jose and were victims of systemic and institutional racism.

CHEN: As part of the city's attempts to combat rising anti-Asian hate during the pandemic, this formal apology acknowledges San Jose's role in passing anti-Chinese policy in the late 1800s including a declaration of Chinatown as a public nuisance, issuing orders for its residents to leave leading to an arson in May of 1887 that destroyed the thriving community of 1400 people.

CONNIE YOUNG YU, LOCAL HISTORIAN: We are walking on the site of market street Chinatown.

CHEN: Connie Young Yu's grandfather was a teenager at the time who immigrated from China to San Jose.

YOUNG YU: And there's this feeling already that the Chinatown was -- that they would have to leave, but I don't think they expected a fire.

CHEN: The "San Francisco Daily Examiner" reported on the fire calling it, quote, "San Jose's Joy." Young Yu says her grandfather was working in the fields that day.

YOUNG YU: He could see smoke. This was really a sense of doom because after the fire then what? Are they going to come after the individuals?

CHEN: She described how her grandfather used to be chased, had rocks thrown at him, echoing some of the anti-Asian attacks seen during the pandemic.

RAUL PERALEZ, SAN JOSE COUNCILMEMBER: We were hearing rhetoric coming down from our federal government, as we know our past president, that was really I think encouraging a lot of this hate and these hate crimes that were occurring.

CHEN: Council member Raul Peralez says similar leadership in the 1880s set the tone for anti-Chinese attacks then. All with the backdrop of the U.S.-Chinese Exclusion Act passed to prevent Chinese immigrants from becoming citizens.

PERALEZ: I was not aware of really how bad it got and through this process we've been able to expose that.

CHEN: The city even denied permits for rebuilding after the fire, though subsequent Chinatowns eventually emerged. (On-camera): About 100 years later during the construction of this

hotel, the Fairmount, people discovered artifacts that had survived the fire, a painful reminder of the city's past.

GERRYE WONG, FOUNDER, CHINESE HISTORICAL CULTURAL PROJECT IN SAN JOSE: They found out what life was like. They obviously had toothbrushes. They had kitchen utensils. They even had whiskey bottles.

CHEN (voice-over): When these pieces were found the Chinese historical and cultural project formed with Gerrye Wong at the helm.

WONG: Finding pieces like this, it was just like opening a horizon of what was life like for those people.

CHEN: The museum shows a timeline of San Jose's five China towns. After the arson the Chinese rebounded into a new community called Heinlenville. This museum building is a replica of the last standing structure from that final Chinatown. Only this altar is original.

That neighborhood today is full of construction prints. The new development will include a new park named after Heinlenville at a time when anti-Asian hate has surfaced again, that gesture along with the city's resolution and apology mean more to the community than a piece of paper.

(On-camera): This is a record of the city's role in promoting a real climate of hate around -- against the Chinese immigrants.

YOUNG YU: And also a record of resistance.

CHEN (voice-over): A story of rebuilding and repairing.

YOUNG YU: It's a sense of overcoming

CHEN: Natasha Chen, CNN, San Jose, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: I want to bring in now Lisa Ling, host of "THIS IS LIFE WITH LISA LING." The new season premieres tonight.

So good to see you again, Lisa. So your first episode actually looks at the recent rise in anti-Asian hate crimes around the country and how it's rooted in a long history of discrimination against Asian Americans. Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LISA LING: In 1882, the U.S. government responded to those fears with racist legislation, the Chinese Exclusion Act, and for the first time in American history the doors closed on a population because of where they were from. Chinese immigrants who were already in the U.S. became the target of vicious attacks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People show up on a Chinese settlement en masse with pitch forks and guns. They forced people out into the dead of night and literally thousands of folks are massacred because of this violence.

LING: Why don't we ever hear about this in American history books?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not something that is part of this great mythology of settling the frontier.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And a great nation was built.

[14:50:02]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not something that makes us look good, but we created this powerful prosperous country on the backs of a lot of people.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Lisa, the premiere episode is very personal for you. Tell us a little bit more about what inspired you to explore this.

LING: Well, Fred, thanks for having me on. Then tire season of this -- of "THIS IS LIFE" we're doing something a little different which is we are exploring moment and stories in American history that didn't make it into the books, and I -- I became emotional just listening to Natasha Chen's piece that you just aired because there are so many aspects of Asian-American history, which is really all of our history that have never made it into the books.

I, when I was growing up, never read anything about the contribution of Asian Americans and the things that Asian Americans have had to endure and even the triumphs, and so when that happens, when there's just complete erasure of one's history, it becomes easier for a country, a community to overlook or even dehumanize people which I think has resulted in what has been happening over the last year and a half which is this massive increase in attacks on Asian people because they have been scapegoated because of COVID, because of the virus.

And so this first episode is an exploration of Asian American history through the story of Vincent Chen who was a Chinese-American man in Detroit in the early '80s when Detroit and the rest of the country was experiencing economic woes. Detroit was the automobile capital of the world, and people started losing jobs. Thousands of people when oil and gas prices started to soar, and the -- and the first people that the community started to blame was Japanese automobile-makers because they were producing these very fuel-efficient cars.

So Vincent Chen is out at a bar celebrating bachelor party and two autoworkers get into an altercation with him. They chased him out of the bar and beat him to death with a baseball bat and those men didn't serve a single day or jail or prison, were made to pay like $3,000 fine and served some months on probation. But Vincent Chen's case became the first ever rights case involving an Asian American in American history.

WHITFIELD: So much history, so many Americans need to -- need to know, need to brush up on, and need to listen to in your show tonight.

Lisa Ling, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Glad you're able to delve into these pages of history that people really need to know.

Be sure to tune into an all-new season of "THIS IS LIFE" with Lisa Ling premiering tonight at 10:00 Eastern and Pacific only on CNN.

All right, coming up, Facebook is still scrambling to respond to damning allegations that it knowingly harms users in exchange for profits. I'll ask one of Facebook's early investors about what he thinks needs to be done now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:57:39]

WHITFIELD: Operations at LaGuardia International Airport are back to normal after a plane was forced to make an emergency landing due to a passenger disturbance yesterday afternoon. Officials say that passenger has been taken into custody.

CNN correspondent Polo Sandoval has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that plane was wheels down safely yesterday afternoon at about its scheduled arrival time but the landing itself was anything but routine. All you have to do is look at some of these dramatic images that were captured by passengers after American Flight 4817 landed safely at New York LaGuardia yesterday afternoon.

It was flying from Indianapolis here to New York City when towards the tail end of the flight according to investigators there were several people aboard that flight. They reported one of their fellow passengers was acting strangely, erratic is the way they described it. At one point even suddenly reached for their luggage. Well, the crew aboard that plane then relayed that information down to first responders on the ground that scrambled into action waiting for that safe landing of that airplane.

It was long -- it was not long after it landed that the pilots then moved the aircraft from the active runway on to the taxiway, and that's when that emergency evacuation took place. The goal there was for first responders to board the aircraft and make sure that there was no immediate threat. Now as we see some of these pretty dramatic images, it's important to remember that it's still unclear as to whether or not that person that is seen in that video being held down by authorities is in fact that passenger in question.

We also haven't been told if there have been any criminal charges that have been filed in connection to this. What we do know is that 76 passengers and six crew members are safe this morning as this investigation gets under way. It's important to point out that this is also happening just days after the Federal Aviation Administration released brand-new numbers of incidents involving unruly passengers.

Now over 4600 this year to date, and that is, according to authorities, the highest weekly increase in two and a half months. The issue of unruly passengers has been something that's certainly been heavy on the mind of U.S. authorities that have been trying to obviously cut down on that. But in terms of this latest incident that took place on Saturday afternoon, we can tell you the investigation is just getting started.

Polo Sandoval, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

All right, five days after the damning testimony from a Facebook whistleblower the company is still scrambling to respond to the growing fallout and revelations she exposed in her testimony to Congress.